Teaching

Dr. McWatt's most transformational educational experience as a learner occurred in the human anatomy laboratory. As a student, the hands-on exploration that occurred through human body dissection allowed him to physically reinforce his existing knowledge, rather than attempting to memorize words on a page. In his independent studying, he consistently integrated his own personal interests with the anatomical content through drawing exercises, comparisons to animal anatomy, and functional applications in sport and musicianship as strategies to assimilate it into long-term memory. By visualizing structures and relating complex concepts to everyday experiences that he was passionate about, the anatomy content became relatable and easily retrievable. These approaches to studying have persisted and evolved to shape the interdisciplinary and humanistic approaches to teaching that have proven to be effective throughout his career.

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Primarily, Dr. McWatt's research has centered around using the 3P (presage, process, product) model of learning to quantify students’ approaches to learning and comprehensively assess the influence that the entire educational environment has on learning outcomes, all while accounting for personal characteristics of students as complex individuals. Combined with his own personal reflection, this student-centered approach to research has allowed him to shape his teaching in a way that helps students reach a deeper understanding of the human body so that they may move forward and apply their knowledge in novel contexts that are meaningful to them.

​As a mostly constructivist teacher, Dr. McWatt strives to reach beyond knowledge transmission toward facilitating student experiences that help them to integrate new information with their own previous knowledge and understanding. This allows students to ascribe unique and nuanced meaning to the topics he teaches, so that they are motivated to engage and connect personally with the information, thereby improving their ability to retain it in their long-term memory. However, learning is also a collaborative experience, and the importance of having diverse perspectives to influence one’s educational journey is undeniable. Therefore, his teaching has become increasingly rooted in connectivism, wherein learning is viewed as a process of forming links between distinct and diverse nodes of information to create ever-evolving networks of knowledge.