Teaching Philosophy
- Empower students to be agents for change
- Active learning beyond the scope of the classroom
- Relationship building and role modeling
Dr. Chui’s Perspective
“My philosophy of teaching and education is one that focuses on the student.
Throughout my teaching experience, it has always been important to me to put the students first and develop a relationship with them. By genuinely caring about and listening to my students, we are able to openly communicate and understand each other. This approach allows me to gauge how their comprehension develops and, with student feedback, streamline the exchange of information. I rely on our communication to continuously improve the quality of my teaching.
Since arriving at UW–Madison, I have taught professional and graduate courses in the Schools of Nursing and Pharmacy. One of my goals for these students is to empower them to be advocates for change. Healthcare professions are changing every day, and with change comes uncertainty. Although it is easier to think in the same proverbial “box” as many other healthcare providers, it will take innovators and leaders to make the field of healthcare better for providers and their patients.”
– Dr. Michelle A. Chui, PharmD, PhD
Courses Offered
Grant Writing Course
What to expect:
- A network of graduate students from a variety of academic areas who are interested in writing a grant to improve human health
- A guided discussion on how to complete the first 2-4 pages of an NIH/AHRQ grant
- An active writing workshop, including weekly peer-review of short, individual presentations to demonstrate ideas
- A literature search to develop your writing in your area of interest, including specific aims page, significance, innovation, approach outline, and biosketch
Each semester, a multi-disciplinary group of graduate students elect to workshop writing their federal grant together. We meet weekly and utilize a small group peer-review process to elicit meaningful feedback. I assist the students by sharing my own experiences with grant writing and provide individual feedback on their grants. By the end of the semester, my students show growth in both their grant writing skills and confidence in their research.
This course is designed to help graduate students with an interest in human health further their research and understanding of the grant application process. Through targeted reviews of NIH and AHRQ applications, we discuss how to find grant opportunities, what is expected in a grant application, and work through the application process together. My co-instructor and I sit in on group discussions to guide students through any challenges they may have.
Grant writing is important because grants are the primary source of funding for graduate student research and beyond. By taking the time to build fundamental writing skills and using a peer-review process, students will be prepared to formulate and defend their research. This course fosters collaboration, with equal parts scientific mentoring and practical career development advice. It’s been taken for course credit by PhD students from nearly a dozen departments and is continuing to expand every semester.
Link to Syllabus Coming Soon
What the Students are Saying:
“This course provided an opportunity to learn from experienced and successful grant writers, and a lens for how to tailor your writing to your audience. I applied what I learned and used my course materials to submit and receive funding for a Pilot Study training grant! Now, I am now in the process of applying for an R36 dissertation award. This course was super beneficial for my graduate school program and future career!” – Taylor W.
“I’ve heard that grant writing is one of those “on-the-job” skills. This is one of the few classes that prepare you in advance to form an imperative skill for both academic and industry careers. Through this course, I gained techniques that help me with the content, structure, and precision of my grant writing.” – Shweta S.
Mentoring Students
Dr. Chui takes a personalized approach to mentorship.
“To My Future Colleagues-In-Training…
I am always looking for new students who are interested in pursuing a career in improving patient safety outcomes. When I start mentoring my graduate students, I encourage them to think about research topics that are meaningful to them. Graduate students are responsible for identifying gaps in the literature and describing the rationale for their project. With continual encouragement, they refine their research question through a process of discussion, literature searching, and articulating their ideas in writing. In addition to opportunities to present their work in graduate seminars, I encourage my students to present their work at national meetings, where they will be challenged by researchers to think on their feet and engage in terrific dialogue. I hope my students will develop independent thinking and learning beyond the scope of the classroom.
As a mentor, I am confident in my abilities to guide students through the challenges of graduate school. I have over 110 journal articles, conference papers and book chapters from my research, and I am a peer-reviewer for journals including the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Joint Commission Journal of Quality and Safety, BMJ Quality and Safety, Journal of Patient Safety, Research in Social & Administrative Pharmacy, and Applied Ergonomics.
I spend significant time with each student to refine their presentation skills and role-play potential questions. Our work has resulted in dozens of presentations and posters at national conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and doctoral degrees and this record continues to grow. Many of my graduate student alumni have gone on to faculty positions at research-intensive universities across the country—an outcome that reflects their development as independent thinkers and scholars. I am inspired by their hard work and dedication. Together, we have advanced numerous research projects in the field of medication safety, collaborating with countless prestigious universities and healthcare systems pharmacies to drive innovation the field.
While I recognize the impact that I make in teaching students theoretical concepts, it is important to me that I make an impact on students’ ability to achieve other goals, like dedicating time to satisfying pursuits or having a family.
I welcome the opportunity for building relationships, informal mentoring, and being a role model. Students need to know how to be successful in their future job as a practitioner or researcher, but they also need to know how to manage their time, prioritize responsibilities, and make tough decisions when it comes to balancing their work and home life. As students start to think about transitioning to the next phase of their career, they seek guidance that goes beyond the didactic material to include life skills. So, it is important to me that I make myself available to both practitioner track and graduate students to encourage these types of conversations through potlucks at my house, informal chats in my office, and opportunities to speak at graduate seminars and student organization meetings. Because my mentoring philosophy is based on mutual collegial respect, I am not afraid to talk about mistakes I have made and what I would do differently if I had the chance. Other common topics include how I seek my own mentoring, how I worked my way through difficult and scary decisions, and how to identify and be at peace with my own measures of success (rather than someone else’s measure of success).”
-Dr. Michelle A. Chui, PharmD, PhD