Teaching Philosophy
I carefully structure my courses with an eye to what students are doing both inside and outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, I intersperse short lectures with warm-up and group work problems so that students stay engaged. Outside the classroom, I give frequent short assignments and careful review guides so that students always have guidance on what and how to study. I have taught courses on differential equations, probability, statistics, multi-variable calculus, single variable calculus, precalculus, and the history of mathematics.
Sample Student Comments
- "Ben was a fabulous professor! He was always extremely prepared and ready to begin class on time. The setup of his class allowed for learning and deep understanding. Great homework. Fair tests. Awesome professor. I would absolutely take Ben again!"
- "Great class, one of the best teachers I've had thus far. Loved the group work and the homework insured that I knew the material. Overall, great class planning and great teaching."
- "Dr. Ben Harris was probably my favorite teacher at LSU thus far. He is very welcoming with questions, encouraging when you ask a question or answer incorrectly, and dedicated to helping his students. I thoroughly enjoyed this class mainly because of his teaching style. Because he allows time for group work, we had time to apply what we just learned with his guidance still present. His grading scale is very fair and reasonable and I will miss him as a teacher very much! When I teach math one day, I aim to teach like he did."
- "Ben explained topics VERY well! I liked how we did group questions because I learn best by "doing" and group questions forced me to practice problems. Homework was sometimes time-consuming but was good practice. Calc III is a hard subject, I feel, but Ben really cared about us and how we did."
