Prof. Délice Williams teaches "English 110 —Seminar in Composition," which is often taken by first-year students and is the only course required for all students to graduate.

How I Teach

December 23, 2022

A curated collection of stories in which UD professors explain how they teach introductory classes

First-year students, prospective students (and some of their parents) wonder and worry how they will handle the academic transition from high school to college. In a series of stories, UDaily speaks with University of Delaware professors who teach courses commonly taken by students during their first year on campus. The subjects include biology, calculus, writing, political science and sociology.

Biology

Oyenike (Nike) Olabisi, associate professor of biology, consistently gets excellent feedback from students on what she calls her “Why Should I Care” slides, a lecture explaining to all students — including the music and fashion design majors — why biology matters in their lives.

Read: How I Teach — Biology

Writing

Délice Williams is the associate director of composition and assistant professor of English at the University of Delaware. She tries to help students, including many in their first year, to learn to love, or at least enjoy, writing.

Read: How I Teach — Writing

Business

Julia Belyavsky Bayuk is one of the faculty members who teaches the Basics of Business, a course designed to help first-year students get started at UD and introduce them to the many options in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.

Read: How I Teach — Business

Calculus

Dawn Berk says of her approach to teaching calculus, “I’m not trying to train robots. We already have computers that can crank out a procedure. But the human element? The conceptual understanding? That is going to serve you in whatever major you choose.”

Read: How I Teach — Calculus

American Politics

Kassra Oskooii teaches with a diversity of educational activities and material, but also his continual awareness of the diversity of the students themselves. He said he thinks about their diversity of race, gender, ethnicity, personalities, political views and academic backgrounds.

READ: HOW I TEACH — AMERICAN POLITICS

Sociology

Victor Perez says most students arrive at UD without having taken a sociology class, and “I often hear from my students — whether they go on to take more sociology courses or not — that the intro class really opened their eyes to a lot of aspects of society and how people act within it.”

read: hOW I TEACH — SOCIOLOGY

Engineering

Prof. Haritha Malladi says a willingness to learn ‘is the only mindset you need’ to begin to learn engineering. She directs the College of Engineering's First-Year Engineering program and teaches Introduction to Engineering.

READ: HOW I TEACH — ENGINEERING

Psychology

“Science tells us how we learn,” said Agnes Ly, associate professor and director of undergraduate advising in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Ly uses that idea to develop multiple strategies to help students find the study methods most effective for them in all their classes.

READ: HOW I TEACH — Psychology

Agriculture

Delaware has an $8 billion farm economy, but few incoming students have agriculture experience. Mark Isaacs, associated professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, introduces students to the diverse career choices in agriculture and related fields.

Read: how I Teach — Agriculture

Darryl Flaherty, an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History

World History

Darryl Flaherty tries to make sure his introductory-level world history class is interesting and accessible to students of all majors, allowing them to explore and develop something that they're interested in or concerned about, and then connect that to the broader history of humanity.”

read: How I Teach — world history

Spanish

Basia Moltchanov wants students to experiment with new words and everyday phrases in Spanish, to laugh and make mistakes because, with practice, that is how human beings learn and use new languages to better engage with the rest of the world.

READ: HOW I TEACH — SPANISH

Philosophy

Seth Shabo, associate professor of philosophy, encourages students to open their minds and use abilities that they were never prompted to use before and maybe that they didn't really know they had. Such skills transfer to many other fields.

READ: HOW I TEACH — PHILOSOPHY

Support for Academic Success

UD’s Office of Academic Enrichment (OAE) provides numerous skill-building resources, most of which are free of charge. Students may also utilize the Blue Hen SUCCESS platform to connect with their academic adviser or access additional resources on Advising Central.

Read about academic support at UD