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Computational Cognitive Science

Olivia Guest, Assistant professor Computational Cognitive Science and winner of the Talent Award 2024, talks about what energises her in teaching.

Where do you get your educational passion from?

Probably a mix of knowing how much impact a teacher can make from my own good and bad experiences as a student and that it runs in my family so I feel connected to two generations of my family through it. Although I think we probably have very different styles by necessity because they teach children and because we are different people, of course. I also have always enjoyed teaching because I feel my own teachers have been such a mix of terrible and amazing that I learned a great deal on how to be — and importantly how not to be — that I often feel confident I am doing good work just being better than those very bad experiences and also through standing very firm on important principles. I had been told in the past, when I was a pupil and then university student, by some of my teachers and mentors that I would not make it in academia nor get into a “good” university, for example. This feeds me on what not to do and on how much impact a select few badly chosen words can have. But for what it's worth, I also have very strong opinions on the differences between academics as teachers and teachers who are more often in loco parentis, as the former has a very different responsibility profile and role. Notwithstanding, both have a duty of care and especially so with those who typically are not from supportive backgrounds or who are widely underrepresented in academia.

What teaching moment has always stayed with you?

Not sure if this is a single moment, but there are many individual moments where you know you have cracked the solution to a small or large problem with students. My specialty and partially why I won the prize of my faculty and university talent award is because I have a deep passion for understanding why students feel and are excluded, for example, and thus helping them regain what has been taken by negative experiences or through imperfect interactions. These incidents, which are deeply private and personal — like understanding what it is like that a student has never had a woman lecturer before — in a way seem minor because the local fix is simple enough, but are huge to them personally and to me as an educator (Guest and Forbes, 2024). I have heard more than once that after an intervention students are now inspired to understand more about a topic or to entertain the possibility of a chance at academic life. These are very precious to me — even though I also explain the potential downsides, which is also my responsibility as an educator — because I do not think there is any specific reason they should rule out academia or a topic just because somebody behaved poorly or a certain situation went badly. The only thing that should govern life decisions and aspirations in the ideal case is if they find enjoyment in something, especially so within the brief moments of student years. Being a student or a PhD candidate at university is a great privilege; and being their educator or mentor an even greater one.

What do you hope to pass on to students?

I hope three basic values are passed on:

1. Self-driven curiosity. I believe students, at all career stages, do well when they are given the space to read, think, and process their self-identity and learning goals and materials. I hope they notice this and maybe even go so far as to even demand it from further educational contexts.
2. Cultivation of contrarian views and critical thinking. I hope they understand the importance of pushing on the boundaries of the status quo knowledge they are often asked to regurgitate. When and where possible, I tend to allow my students to explore any topic, within reason, they wish. Within that topic, I will help and support them to find sources outside the white masculine mainstream ideal, for example. And I will remind them that their own views do not have to be derivative of existing views nor do they have to take standard perspectives as valuable; they can question anything — from assumptions, to reasoning patterns, to results — they want. I even make space to question given pedagogical frames or norms too, such as what counts as an academic reference, what can be cited, what analyses are scholarly.
3. Nourishing of their empathy and of their perspective-taking skills, both towards each other and society at large. I aspire to teach them this through showing grace towards them myself and by showing them how important these acts and thoughts are in principle. I try to remind them of their social awareness, their ability to see specifically for AI and in general how science, engineering, and technology can harm and help others. These are vital frames in the context of unaddressed climate change that has led to full-blown planetary ecological collapse coupled with the general rise of fascism, far right ideologies, and an unprecedented gulf in quality of life between rich and poor, Global North and Global South (Forbes, S. H. & Guest, O. (2025)). And so, I also aim to empower them to say “this is wrong” from an angle of human connection and empathic awareness, not only in isolated scholarly discussions, but as engaged academics and thinkers. 
   What this means in practice is learning how to listen to their peers and people they might otherwise not listen to, it also means learning how to give and take space, and help others do so. This happens in class in, e.g. situations in which students present their ideas or more informally share them. It also happens outside the classroom when they read and research. I encourage them to do so from the angle of including e.g. social media in their sources and analyses, or attending to, e.g. marginalised voices. Hopefully, they carry these ways of working to other situations in the future.

Curious to read more? Continue reading what energises Olivia as a teacher.