13-01-2010

My Statement of Teaching Philosophy

In my view, the way a teacher teaches is highly influenced by what she believes learning is. Thus, teaching philosophies primarily vary with assumptions about the nature of knowledge and how it is learned. Considering how individuals learn, I believe in the social construction of knowledge and the impact of personal, social, cultural and immediate contextual factors upon learning. Thus, for every class I teach, it is essential that I know my students and the setting well. Besides their grade level or status of being undergraduate or graduate students which I know from the outset, I seek ways to get them know better in terms of their more personal and cultural characteristics. For this, I encourage them to talk about themselves and their experiences both in and outside of classroom. I aim to develop close personal relationships with my students which are also pedagogical. In this way, I try to make available most of the time and resources in response to the diversity of their learning styles vital to their professional growth.

In my opinion, teaching is not about “filling the empty minds of students.” While balancing a direct and student-centered teaching can be and is challenging for many teachers or instructors coming from a traditional education genre including myself, my belief in life-long learning is one idea that guides me in setting a mutual classroom environment. The idea of creating learning communities in my classes is a central one to which I adhere. For this, depending on the subject matter, setting and the students’ needs, in different ways I strive to enrich my courses and to encourage group work, exchange of ideas, and for every member of the learning community to learn from the others. As a teacher, I see my role as cultivating curiosity, facilitating interactions, and ultimately, empowering students to think critically as well as take responsibility of their own learning.

In designing course format and evaluation requirements, I aim to enhance student engagement and success. I consider it very important to set clear standards and make the intended course practices clear from the outset. I see course syllabi as a way of communicating this information and a means of negotiating the anticipated learning community aspects for the related course. Class format generally includes my PowerPoint presentations with multimedia features when possible as well as stimulating questions to discuss. There is also time for group work and discussion, and I invite guest speakers as they pertain to the particular topic. For example, for the biological bases of learning topic of my doctoral course on learning theories, I invited a neurologist whose particular research interest was brain and learning, to give a talk. Students were expected to ask questions and reflect on their own experiences around the issue.

In my experience of teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, I have worked to optimize my teaching strategies and methods, and to align them better with my philosophy of teaching. In doing this, I have always strived to keep the link between my in-class practices and the educational literature strong. In particular, I have supported my own subject matter knowledge with up-to-date readings from leading educational journals in my specialty area, science education. I also utilized current research to inform my classroom practices as well as my students’ learning. For example, for my text analysis course at the undergraduate level, I have developed a curriculum based on five different text analysis methods from the literature to be utilized by the students in their analyses of science textbooks. In this course, the students were expected to complete their textbook analysis projects in groups and to write evaluation reports as well as present their work in poster format to other students and faculty. I consider research-based teaching and involving students –both undergraduate and graduate—in educational research as an effective way of fostering their learning and professional growth.

I am a firm supporter of integrating technology in teaching. Enhancing my courses with technology is closely aligned with my teaching philosophy as this approach allows me to continue my interactions with my students outside the boundaries of classroom as well as provide opportunity for their interactions among themselves. In this sense, technology serves as bedrock for our learning communities. I utilize technology in my courses primarily in the form of a course Web site where I can post all course materials and announcements, lay out course syllabi, open forums for discussion, and provide space for uploading assignments. I have used the online aspect of course format both for my undergraduate and graduate students and received their positive comments.

Finally, teaching philosophy is what guides a teacher’s ideas and actions. Specific methods may vary depending on students’ needs, subject matter and context, and may shape and reshape resulting from experience, student and peer feedback, and self-reflection. My goal in education is to promote life-long learning for all the members of the learning communities in which I also belong, and to fulfill my responsibilities through continual improvement.