AAEE - Noel Meyers
 | Dr Noel MeyersSenior Lecturer |
Hi I'm Noel Meyers. I obtained a PhD in the area of rainforest ecology in 1998 not bad for someone who left school in grade 10 vowing never to return. After my PhD, I undertook two post- docs with the CSIRO. It became a standard joke around the lab, that when we wanted to get students to come and do honours work with us, that I should go across the road to the University of Queensland and teach: ".. and they will come!" Realising I could positively influence students' interest in learning, I decided that I wanted to help students learn as much as I wanted to do my research. I felt the need, in an evangelistic kind of way, to make a contribution to the learning of the next generation of scientists.
In September 1999, I became an Associate Lecturer in the QUT School of Natural Resource Sciences. In 2000 I began training for my second career - education. I enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, followed this with a Masters of Education and am now working towards my Education Doctorate. Peer and student recognition made me believe I was on the right track. For example, the QUT student guild awarded me the Lecturer of the year prize in 2001 and Campus Lecturer of the year in 2001 and 2002. In 2002 I won the Pearson Uniserve award for making outstanding contributions to student learning. In 2003 the QUT Vice Chancellor awarded me the VC's Distinguished Teaching Award. 2004 was my best year yet. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer, won an Australian Award for University Teaching and most importantly married the woman of my dreams.
1. Why did you become an academic in the first place?
Profound, life-changing moments often occur at unusual times and in the most remarkable places. Mine was no different. In the fading alpine glow, I stood alone on New Zealand's highest mountain. Transfixed, I watched the rising crescent moon illuminate the glacier nearly two kilometres below. I recalled when as a child I had stared at a similar rising moon. Recognising my fascination with that distant world, my parents taught themselves lunar geography to make the moon come alive for me. On that mountaintop I came to understand my parents' legacy; instilling in me a fascination with the universe combined with a desire to share and enthral others through science and learning. I had ascended the mountain as a scientist but descended with aspirations of becoming an educator.
My journey to that realisation had been non-traditional. Twenty years ago, there was no thought in my mind to be a scientist, never mind a University Lecturerhow preposterous! At 20, while recovering from surgery, I became fascinated with Antarctic Beech trees (Nothofagus moorei) that spoke to us about Australia's Gondwanan heritage. I enrolled in night school to begin grade eleven for the first time. Two years later, I began my study of BotanyI was impatient to begin my Nothofagus studies, but the trees themselves, already several thousands of years old, would have to wait a few years more. Finally, in my Honours year, I examined the reproductive ecology of Antarctic Beech forests. A PhD at the University of Queensland allowed me to pursue my interests in rainforest ecology and plant reproductive biology. Recognition of peers and receipt of national awards for science reinforced that I was conducting respected work and emphasised the validity of my chosen career.
During post-doctoral work at the CSIRO, I left for my mountaineering holiday in New Zealand, which changed my life. Soon after returning to Australia, I applied for and secured a position as an Associate Lecturer at QUT. Within a year, I earned promotion to Lecturer. Pursuing my dream of becoming an educator, I committed myself to extensive professional teaching development that I mentioned above. Combining my experience of the disciplines of Science and Education, I design units that feature student-centred, authentic learning environments, where all class participants (especially me) interact as cognitive partners.
2. Is it still the same?
Yes and no. Yes, because I still work towards helping my students learn as effectively and efficiently as they can. No because I have developed a suite of skills that allow me to better help students to achieve the learning outcomes I design. Now I find it easier and less time consuming to elicit from students superior learning outcomes. A recent graduate sent me the following note of thanks illustrating some of my practises towards helping him learn:
"You make whatever you teach more 'accessible' to the student encouraging interaction and participation. I don't know how many times I would put my hand up in class with a haphazard answer to one of your questions only to have you make sense of it. You definitely made me feel more confident of the topic and my ability to think critically about a problem. Without that positive feedback to my input, I think I would have lost motivation and interest long ago. Of course, you also taught me much of what I know about ecology."
I have come to realise that I invest my life aiming to make a difference to both science and education: at a personal level through mentoring my students and colleagues, and at a national and international level through professional development and committed actions.
3. Biggest mistake you've made in your career?
Leaving School in year 10 and staying away from starting year 11 for seven years. My decision took from me the capacity to work with students over that time.
4. The big thing you got right?
Always thinking about how I could apply what I learned or saw in any area of my life to help my students learn more effectively. For example, at conferences, an unrelated comment from a presenter may set me to thinking about a task or formative item that would help clarify a point for my students.
Becoming very reflective about my teaching and constantly seeking feedback from my students as I worked towards becoming a better teacher. Then and now, although I care very much about the quality of their learning, I seem able to take onboard their feedback without taking it too personally and then do something with that feedback to improve.
Undertaking my educational studies allowed me to develop a better understanding of and consequent capacity to implement, learning environments. Students tell me they associate these curricula with a sense of challenge, interest, engagement and fun while they feel a sense of satisfaction at the end result of their learning.
5. PowerPoint or OHP?
PowerPoint and OHT's represent communication technologies. They do not represent learning tools many mistake them for that, particularly students if we let them. I use one, both, or neither depending on the situation and the message that I am encouraging my students to engage with.
So, can I take the each way bet? It does not matter, but if you choose to, it depends. It depends on the knowledge you wish your students to master and apply. Let's take a trivial example, you can run PowerPoint in conjunction with OHT. This works well, particularly when you are navigating some difficult concepts using PowerPoint and want to keep students on track against your lesson plan which you display with the OHT.
Increasingly though, I am using these presentation tools less and aiming for more student engagement in the classroom. Tom Angelo's book on Classroom assessment is a wonderful source of ideas in this area to engage students with active learning.
Classroom assessment and research: an update on uses, approaches and research findings / Thomas Angelo, editor. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
6. Best advice you ever received?
"To give more of yourself than anyone else has any right to expect from you" from my long time friend, mountaineering buddy and best man at my wedding Steve Archer. I'm not sure where he heard it!
7. Worst advice you ever received?
The bad advice I received in various forms echoed that given to Shirley Alexander early in her career. I too rejected similar advice. Anyway, she told her story at a recent conference:
When Shirley had just started work as a lecturer a senior academic told her that she should only do the things that would help her to address the criteria for promotion. That was what this staff member was doing. Shirley rejected the advice, preferring to invest her energies in the things she enjoyed and thought made a worthwhile contribution to students, her discipline and the university. I suspect Shirley enjoyed the fact that 8 years later, when she was a full professor, the Associate Professor had not been promoted.
8. Biggest challenge you've overcome?
Hmmm, this is a really difficult question. I have been lucky with so many things in my work and life. Maybe overcoming other's expectations that an Associate Lecturer (at the time) could not develop a Faculty spanning learning and teaching grant application. Persistence and not taking "no" for an answer also helped.
9. What advice would you give to new academics?
Learn to say no more often while not accepting no for an answer on something you know has to be done to benefit student learning or your research.
Don't have student's focus on content; encourage your co- learners to concentrate on learning. You can do this through the way you teach, use assessment strategies and design your curricula.
Adopt a mentor to assist you in leap frogging the mistakes we commonly make as early career academics. Ideally, this person should be someone who you do not report directly to, but someone who can understand the context of your work and make valuable suggestions as to how you can improve. For example, a lecturer in my school mentored and peer reviewed my early teaching and then our Assistant Dean helped me learn much of what I know because he gave me the canvas on which to experiment with teaching through a learning and teaching grant.
Plan your work with an outcomes-based focus. The same way you would design a curriculum. Firstly, you figure out what objectives you want to achieve. Secondly, you think about what techniques you might employ to determine whether your learners had achieved those outcomes. Thirdly, you would decide on to help your students learn the skills and knowledge necessary to be able to complete the assessment tasks.
Try to ensure you have some work and life balance. While work in our early career's can consume us, we must not look to work alone to provide us with intellectual, physical and emotional nourishment. Failure to recognize this aspect of our personal and professional lives has seen many academics not achieve their potential and burn out when their careers held such promise to make a difference.
10. What quote inspires you as an academic?
"Some people see and thing and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?"
My best wishes on each of your journeys towards understanding and helping your students to forge the future they will inherit. I hope we can all continue to work for a future that will be environmentally sustainable, culturally sensitive and economically viable. Good luck to each of you in your own travels.
Cheers
Noel