Adopting Principled Education

Abstract

In this page, we describe easy ways to adopt principled teaching and mentoring practices. That is, (a) integrating open and reproducible science tenets into your teaching workflow; (b) striving to teach science (or scholarship) as a process of knowledge acquisition rather than a collection of scientific evidence, as doing so does not yield scientific literacy; (c) share publicly your teaching and mentoring (and Lab) materials so that other educators can make use of your excellent work, which also foster social justice through the democratization of scientific educational resources and pedagogies; (d) recognize that Higher Education is a profoundly unequal, non-inclusive and non-diverse environment due to a plethora of societal constraints, which also shapes academia itself, and which we as educators should try to address in class (whatever the subject taught) by integrating course content with topics of representation, diversity, equity, and inclusion. See below for 8 FORRT tips.

1. Evaluate your current teaching and mentorship practices regarding open science principles.
2. Add literature or assignments to your syllabus that teach open science concepts.
3. Create, re-use and share open teaching materials.
4. Help students and mentees learn more about open science practices.
5. Create opportunities for students and mentees to engage in open science projects.
6. Make your research more open, such as by openly sharing your research process and/or materials.
7. Embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in your teaching and mentorship practices.
8. Become an advocate for principled education at your own institution/professional society.