Teaching Insights

Jeanette Norden, Professor of Cell Biology and Professor of Teaching Excellence, Vanderbilt University

Note: The following article briefly describes Professor Norden's teaching philosophy. 

The core course in neurobiology for medical students at Vanderbilt University used to be one of the least popular courses in the school. In fact, the unpopularity of neurobiology courses is not an uncommon phenomenon in medical schools across the country. Three years after Jeanette Norden, Professor of Cell Biology at Vanderbilt, took over the directorship of the course, she was awarded the "Shovel," an award presented by the graduating class to the faculty member regarded as having the most positive influence on them in their four years of medicine. She continues to teach this and other courses, maintains a highly successful research program, and has received numerous other teaching awards. She was the "Best Lecturer in the Medical School" in 1985, and received from the classes of '93 and '95 the "Jack Davies Award" for basic science professors who uphold the highest standards of teaching excellence. In 1993 and 1994, Norden was named "Teacher of the Year" at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Most recently, Norden was awarded Vanderbilt's first University Chair of Teaching Excellence.

"Transmission of a factual knowledge base in clear and concise terms even with enthusiasm does not guarantee that future physicians will be able to diagnose disorders of the nervous system."

How does Norden achieve success in her teaching? Part of her success undoubtedly stems from her extraordinary skills as a lecturer, but she draws on other talents, as well. We can see some of the reasons for her success in a recent statement she authored on teaching. She argues that the "foremost goal of teaching . . . students should be to promote their development and growth on both intellectual and personal levels."

While emphasizing the importance of assuring that each student acquires a broad knowledge base, Norden also insists that they learn to reason using the factual information. "Students readily appreciate that they must acquire a certain body of knowledge in order to reason," she writes. But "covering" the facts in lecture is not sufficient for teaching. Norden explains that, "Clinical reasoning, however, is not just about collecting data or knowing facts, but it is about the ongoing formulation of clinical hypotheses. Collecting facts is not as important as how physicians use them to modify this ongoing cognitive process of hypothesis formation. A physician who is limited in such higher order reasoning skills will fail to see all of the possibilities inherent, for example, when a patient says 'I have a headache'."

Certainly, what Norden is achieving in her courses, teaching students factual material as well as how to reason and think critically using that material, is a goal that many of us would like to achieve in our own courses.

Norden has developed a number of innovative ways to help her students to learn and achieve the goals of her teaching philosophy.