Teacher: Dr Richard Garner is an Associate Professor at the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Groundwork: Richard holds an undergraduate MA and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He has also held postdoctoral fellowships in the UK, Sweden, and Australia.
Gold stars: Richard is a recipient of the 2023 Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Student-nominated Award. He also received The Australian Mathematical Society Medal in 2017 for distinguished research in the mathematical sciences.
How Richard’s students describe him: Energetic, excited and engaged. One student said: “Richard was able to make me think about how the world of maths interacts with the real world and about problem-solving as a tool.” Another added: “His explanations are short yet extremely clear, which makes difficult and complex concepts a lot easier to learn.”
What Richard says:
I like to make maths more fun and interesting by making it relevant. So rather than just saying "we are going to learn about logic today," I will start with a problem students might come across in everyday life or in their coursework. For example, with computing students, I talk about computing problems and how we might solve them. Then we introduce the maths that will help them solve that. Then they’re not just coming into this and asking why they should care about this? I tell them, "you already know why you care about it; you have seen a real life problem." Then by the end of the unit we've written down an algorithm which will let them do that. My attitude is "here's a fun puzzle, see if you can solve it." That's much more reflective of the real experience of what maths is about and I try to convey that in my lectures.
What I love most about teaching is thinking about the best way of communicating something. I also really enjoy talking to students. In the first-year unit I am teaching, the students are a really good crowd. They're very chatty and it's just fun learning about them, what they're doing here and why they're doing it. For first-year students, you have to put in those extra hours to help them get to that stage where they can schedule and work out what they need to do for themselves. It’s important to follow up and check if they are okay and on top of their coursework.
Teachers need to show compassion towards students who are struggling. A lot of them are under massive pressure to succeed. Sometimes we do get academic integrity cases, mainly people copying stuff they've found on the internet, soliciting answers and things like that. And that's really difficult because some of the time people aren't even aware that what they're doing is wrong, or they do and immediately confess to it. I understand why it happens but it’s sad because it's not the best way of ensuring they pass the unit. Other students might be studying while working full time or struggling to find somewhere to live. There are university processes to deal with this, but within those I try to give students as much flexibility as I can - I don’t want them to fail because of difficult life events.
I would like my students to view me as … approachable. The main issue I find is some students are afraid to say they have no idea what's going on. I try to find different ways of making myself accessible so if they are too scared to say something during a lecture, they can put a message up on a forum, send an email or book a meeting with me. I always make time for students who make the effort to ask questions, are serious about it and want to succeed.
The perfect student is … one who isn't afraid to ask for help. Who knows what they can do and what they can't do and wants to do better. I think it's hopefully someone who enjoys the subject as well!
