MICHAEL WERNER

Dr. Werner believes in interactive teaching that facilitates student discussion. The recent shift in pedological theory towards active learning promotes engagement with the material in the classroom, which can be facilitated by ‘flipped classrooms’ where reading and viewing lectures are done at home. Based on his experience, he supports this philosophy, but with a subtle variation: Dr. Werner prefers to incorporate back-and-forth ‘Socratic’ lectures during class sessions. This method, revitalized by Richard Reis at Stanford University, encourages a dialectical style of questioning between the professor and the students. The intent of this method is to compel students to understand concepts by drawing them into discourse. When they are motivated, prodded - or if necessary, called upon - to ask questions as part of a discussion, it forces students to engage with the material at a higher cognitive level, and reveal to themselves (and the professor) what they do, and do not, understand. An important component of this method is comfort in silence, and that the students and professor know each other’s names and develop a rapport. The conversations should be intellectual and rigorous, but also supportive. 

   Dr. Werner has taught several courses while at the U., but his main course is a 5000-level class called "Gene Expression" which is targeted towards juniors and seniors, and is meant to prepare students for professions in healthcare, biotechnology and/or research. The course goes into molecular and biochemical detail of the 'Central Dogma' in Biology - how DNA is transcribed into RNA and translated into protein - and how this process is regulated at each step in the process.