Teaching philosophy
During my PhD at the Georg-August University Göttingen, I had taught 'Wildlife Management' for four consecutive winter terms. The course was embedded in the international courses SUFONAMA and TIF and was hence designed for a very international and diverse set of students.
Since Fall 2011, I'm teaching 'Techniques for Wildlife Management' at the School For Field Studies in Karatu, Tanzania.
I usually break down the learning process into three parts. First, I teach patterns and concepts in animal ecology, conservation and management. Secondly, and being equally important, I teach the background and practical aspects of quantitative field research methods. This component includes spending substantial amounts of time in the field with students. For example, current students in my class conduct landscape-scale surveys of large mammals in protected areas, perform behavioural studies on selected herbivore species, and study aspects of co-existence between livestock and wildlife in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem of Tanzania. Third, I teach quantitiative methods by analysing the acquired data with state-of-the-art analytical methods (e.g. Distance sampling, occupancy, capture-mark-recapture models, desriptive and correlation analyses) during computer labs.
I prefer interactive teaching and promote critical thinking among my students. I like teaching and sharing knowledge with students and provide a hands-on, active teaching model that draws upon relevant examples from the literature and my own research projects. I incorporate relevant evidence of the topics being discussed and teach outside the classroom as much as possible. Finally, I strive to provide a forum that allows discussing the results in class so that the learning experience can be seen in a wider context. I often incorporate undergraduate and graduate students in the dissemnination of my research and frequently publish papers jointly with students.
Since Fall 2011, I'm teaching 'Techniques for Wildlife Management' at the School For Field Studies in Karatu, Tanzania.
I usually break down the learning process into three parts. First, I teach patterns and concepts in animal ecology, conservation and management. Secondly, and being equally important, I teach the background and practical aspects of quantitative field research methods. This component includes spending substantial amounts of time in the field with students. For example, current students in my class conduct landscape-scale surveys of large mammals in protected areas, perform behavioural studies on selected herbivore species, and study aspects of co-existence between livestock and wildlife in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem of Tanzania. Third, I teach quantitiative methods by analysing the acquired data with state-of-the-art analytical methods (e.g. Distance sampling, occupancy, capture-mark-recapture models, desriptive and correlation analyses) during computer labs.
I prefer interactive teaching and promote critical thinking among my students. I like teaching and sharing knowledge with students and provide a hands-on, active teaching model that draws upon relevant examples from the literature and my own research projects. I incorporate relevant evidence of the topics being discussed and teach outside the classroom as much as possible. Finally, I strive to provide a forum that allows discussing the results in class so that the learning experience can be seen in a wider context. I often incorporate undergraduate and graduate students in the dissemnination of my research and frequently publish papers jointly with students.
