‘You teach because it’s a calling’

Don Davis: The call of the classroom 

Over the last 15 years as a part-time instructor in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (ENCS), Don Davis, BEng 92, MASc 95, estimates he’s taught between 70 and 80 courses in a range of engineering, mathematics and computer-science subjects. This past year alone, he taught nine.

Davis, who earned a PhD from McGill University in 2004, is an expert in the field of electromagnetic engineering. He's sometimes hired as a consultant by medical, biomedical or telecommunications companies. While the contracts are lucrative, he says he’d rather be in the classroom.

“You don’t teach for the money; you teach because it’s a calling,” Davis says. “As long as it fits with your life, and you feel that you’re making a positive impact on other people’s lives, you do it. When you stop feeling that, it’s time to ask yourself, ‘Is there something wrong with what I’m doing? Has the environment changed?’ You have to adapt.”

Adapting is the cornerstone of Davis’s teaching practice. The veteran instructor, who earned an ENCS Teaching Excellence Award last year, strives to align his curricula with the current demands of industry, and challenges his students to solve the sorts of problems they might encounter in the workplace.

“Companies don’t hire an engineer because they already have all the answers,” he says. “An engineer is something who’s in the tool shed of a lot of companies, and they’re called on when there’s a problem.”

With the goal of creating a dynamic, interactive learning environment, Davis always includes ample time for questions and discussion in his classes.

“The really skilled students have already read the book; they already know what I have to say,” he says. “What they’re in class for is to fill in the gaps. It’s really during the interaction that the learning occurs.”

For Davis, the ideal classroom is one in which the learning flows both ways. “It’s not my great knowledge being shared with the world so much as it is my understanding blending with their understanding,” he says.

“Sometimes the students’ questions, or my answers, are actually developing a new type of understanding. That’s the whole point of this.”
 

Pierre Gauthier: A focus on real-world knowledge 

Next year will mark Pierre Gauthier’s 30th as a part-time instructor at Concordia. He hopes he’ll be at the university for 30 more.

“I often joke that they’re going to have to kick me out of here,” he says.

Gauthier, PhD 96, began teaching at Concordia at 22, as a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. “I’ve been teaching like a madman ever since,” he says.

But that’s not all he’s been doing. For the last 25 years, Gauthier has also held down a full-time engineering job. He now works for Rolls-Royce Canada Ltd. As team lead for the company’s combustion numerical methods group, Gauthier is in charge of the mathematical models that analyze the combustion systems of jet engines used as stationary power plants.

“I’m very lucky because I’ve got a foot in both worlds, and the two worlds communicate with each other,” he says. “Everything I do at work, I get to teach it here at Concordia.”

Straddling the professional and academic spheres allows Gauthier to point to the real-life applications of what he’s teaching. That’s a touch his students appreciate.

“The age-old question is, ‘When will I ever use this?’ Well, I can tell them, ‘I used it this morning.’ Then they pay attention,” he says. “I even bring in parts of engines, sometimes, and say, ‘The stuff we’re doing today may seem abstract, but we actually use it to figure out something specific inside the engine.’”

Teaching also allows Gauthier to sharpen his own engineering and mathematical knowledge base. “It’s like going to the gym every day, in terms of keeping me on top of what I do at work,” he says.

Gauthier recently became an affiliate associate professor, allowing him to supervise graduate students and run his own research projects with them — something he had already been doing at work.

“I’m a proud Concordia graduate, so I try and bring as many Concordia students as I can into Rolls-Royce to do internships and summer work terms,” he says.

Although most of Gauthier’s courses draw on his mathematics and engineering expertise, he also teaches a course at the School of Extended Learning that provides struggling students with practical tools for success. “When I teach this course, I feel I’m really making a difference because I can see a change in them from the beginning to the end of the term.”

After almost 30 years, Gauthier is committed as ever to his part-time job at Concordia.

“I want to be here as long as I can keep contributing,” he says. “I have a lot of fun doing it.”

See what two part-time instructors in the Faculty of Fine Arts have to say about life inside and outside Concordia’s classrooms.