My goal as a teacher is to promote
life-long learning,
amongst my students. Teaching, to me,
involves not only helping my students to understand information
pertinent to
the course that I am teaching, but also training them in the
development of
practical skills that they will use in the various roles that they may
have throughout
their lives. Skills such as the ability
to apply the scientific method, the ability to communicate effectively,
and the
ability to interpret information using a variety of different
perspectives.
I believe that my teaching philosophy
comes from a mixture
of my experiences as a student; my research on teaching
philosophies,
and most importantly my mentor's teaching philosophy. As a
student, I
am able
to see different teaching philosophies and how each approach seems to
work and
how some do not work in the classroom. While researching teaching
philosophies,
it became clear to me that my philosophy is one of life-long learning,
and
helping students to gain knowledge that will help them outside of the
classroom. Learning from my mentor, a cognitive psychologist, it became
aware
to me that we all think and learn differently. It is important to
acknowledge these differences as a professor. Education is about
teaching
students to think and to be aware of their own meta-cognitions. Thus
allowing
students to develop critical thinking skills, and behaviors that they
need to
solve problems in and outside of the classroom.
Not too long ago, books and academics
who had read them and
could synthesize them for others were the main sources of information
available. Today, however, information is readily available at most
peoples
fingertips. Thus, I believe that to
promote life-long learners, our job as educators is to train students
in skills
that they will use to critically evaluate and synthesize available
information. If we train skills across a variety
of
courses or in a variety of situations, students are going to be more
likely to
generalize their knowledge and skills to novel situations or problems.
Teaching Style
I will use a variety of teaching
styles, which I will try to
tailor to each course that I am teaching.
I want to use a mixture of lectures with discussions and
application
exercises. My goal is to help students understand the course content
and see
its practical significance for their lives.
During the lectures, I will use a broad range of examples from
information sources including textbooks and journal articles as well as
mass
media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, and movies. I believe this
will
engage the students in discussions and allow them to see the practical
applications.
I will also use my own personal and professional experiences in lectures to illustrate concepts. I believe that this will serve my students learning in several ways. First, I believe that this models for students how to apply course-related information to their own lives. Second, it also will allow students to see another side of me, beyond that as an expert in the field. I believe that students need to see that I am not really that different from them, which may increase their commitment to the course and the field of psychology. This portion of my teaching style reflects my own experiences as a student, in which the classes that I enjoyed were the ones where the professors would relate to their students.
I want to be able to include a variety of assessment measures in each course. Most classes will require several exams over the semester, as well as several writing assignments. Although, not all of the writing assignments will be high-risk assessments, some will be low-risk as a way of accounting for participation and attendance points. Using a variety of assessment measures will give me a number of ways to assess student learning and gives students a variety of means by which to demonstrate competence. Again, giving students practice at applying their knowledge across various modalities. I will also try to give students choices to increase their motivation to be invested in the material whenever possible. For example, in the undergraduate Orientation class, students will be allowed to choose which of six workshops they attend.
I am in general a very organized person,
and this will show
through to the way I structure my courses. My syllabus will be well
organized
and although may not always be very long, will provide detailed
information
regarding the course requirements, my expectations, and the course
schedule. I will use PowerPoint during
lectures, but also make the presentations available to the students so
that
they can
follow along. This will allow students to attend to or process the
information more thoroughly,
instead
of copying down just the information on the slides.
Finally, I will include technology and
communication skills
development experiences in my class. For example, students must use
computers
for a variety of functions (e.g., to word-process documents, create
presentations, access and download course documents, and take exams)
and I will
be able to provide at least some training and feedback on the skills.
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