I was trained in teaching during my undergraduate studies in
a college which specialized at training high
school teachers. After I obtained my B.S. degree, I taught
at a normal school in China for one year. After I obtained
my M.S. degree, I also taught calculus for two years at a university in China.
As a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota,
I taught recitation classes of
various undergraduate mathematics courses for several years.
As an instructor at the Department of Mathematics,
University of California at Los Angeles,
I have so far taught three different undergraduate courses and will
teach a graduate seminar course in Spring, 1998.
   
In 1996, I was awarded a Citation for Excellence in
Teaching by the School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota.
   
I believe that a good teacher should
understand well the subject matter as well as know how to explain
clearly the material. I also believe that a good lecture often
comes from a careful preparation.
   
In my opinion, an efficient teaching program should in general
consist of the following four components.
   
1. Deliberate design of a course. This includes a careful
selection of material to be covered, a concrete schedule
for teaching and learning, and a detailed plan of teaching activities.
The material should be chosen to cover the fundamentals of the
underlying subject, and care should be taken in order not to
lose the students in the course.
A certain flexibility should be kept in the schedule and the plan
of teaching so that small changes can be made in the middle of the course.
   
2. Effective classroom teaching skills. These skills include
logical and clear explanation of the material, active interaction with
students, organization of discussions, and the
efficient use of teaching tools
such as a blackboard, a projector, and computers.
It is important for teachers
to always encourage students and keep them highly motivated.
   
3. Active after-class communications among instructors, teaching
assistants, and students. Through regular office hours and timely
updated course Web pages, such
communications can provide extra help that students need to better
understand course material as well
as feedback information that instructors and teaching assistants
need to improve their teaching.
   
4. Careful make-up of homework and test problems. For
introductory undergraduate courses the homework problems should generally be
close to those covered in class or in the textbook,
while for honors classes, advanced undergraduate courses,
and graduate courses the
homework problems should put more emphasis on
the training of the students' creativity.
    My current teaching interests are to develop various course Web pages to assist teaching in general, to develop interdisciplinary courses in applied and computational mathematics, and to develop computerized teaching programs aimed at the use of symbolic, interactive mathematical software such as Mathematica and Matlab to teach mathematics.