Teaching Philosophy
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The great teacher demonstrates. The superior teacher inspires.” - William Arthur Word
I am a teacher. By this account I strive to lead by example, inspire my students to develop through their own understanding of the world, and expect them to grow in content as well as moral fiber. My teaching philosophy is contoured around the notion that: education is not just the filling of minds, but rather the lighting of a fire.
I take pleasure instructing undergraduate classes, full of promise and uncertainty, but needing inspiration and direction. In addition, graduate teaching allows a deeper journey into the intricacies of subject matter. I believe at graduate level the student/advisor relationship is foremost in working as a team, creating ideas and solving ongoing challenges true to the world of inquiry.
To these ends, I hope to achieve the following goals through my role as teacher.
A Fair and Open Environment
I believe in a classroom platform that always provides a place for sharing, discussion, and feedback. Only through dialogue with material can students wrestle with new ideas. I am a firm believer that knowledge is hollow until one not only understands it, but can apply it. For this reason the applicability of learned knowledge should be within reach of all students and have a direct link to the world outside of academia. Students should be able to evaluate arguments and rhetoric in order to apply the basic concepts and facts they learned in a course.
Student Experience and Teaching Expectations
The nexus of power in the classroom has been decentralized. The classroom of tomorrow is already here; with blogs, twitter and wiki pages. Today’s students are savvy and possess valuable skills and knowledge, which should be utilized in the service of their educational goals. Students today are no longer empty vessels into which teachers can pour knowledge. Teaching with technology allows students to share and engage on a higher level. For this reason I value teaching with a Tablet-PC and foster online activities as part of my teaching style. In addition I remind my students that all grades must be earned; not everyone can get an A without hard work, which is the whole point of a grading system.
Teaching as Relational
Teaching necessarily involves relationships. Those relationships consist of teacher and class, but more importantly a teacher and each individual student. I pride myself by knowing every student in my classes by name regardless of class size. Every student and every class has different personas where I find it necessary to create a sense of trust within the classroom among students and myself. Lastly, my phone number is listed on my syllabus, allowing students the right of access when needed.
Student Motivation
The most important criterion for student learning is motivation. I believe the best way to motivate students is through engagement by going beyond the standard lecture format. Group work is an ideal venue in engaging young minds in dialogue, thinking and relying on peer feedback. Working closely with students, especially graduate students, is a form of indirect motivation. Lastly, the goal of motivation is to get students to go beyond memorizing facts and move into a realm of understanding.
Evaluation Standpoint
Some students perform well on traditional multiple choice exams, while others do better when given the chance to take an assignment home and spend time thinking about it and working on it in solitude. For this reason I utilize multiple methods of evaluation for each student by using in-class exams as well as written assignments, and in-class participation via short in-class reflections. Thus, students are given a variety of ways to show learning and to be evaluated in my classes.
Continually Becoming a Better Teacher
As an instructor I rely heavily on feedback from students to improve my future performance. The journey of lecturing well is an unending one. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to me to reflect on final evaluations, but also on the pulse present in every class. Favorite classroom experiences reflect a combination of personality, classroom dynamics and subject matter of interest to students. These experiences can be mined from improved syllabi, lectures and mannerisms.
Teaching as a chosen career does not often yield great things all at once; it much more resembles the trickle of water that, over time, may grow to influence. It is in this way that I view my teaching and research.
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