I believe that learning is a cumulative, life-long process that can be challenging, nurturing and rewarding all at the same time. I therefore strive to provide my students ample opportunity to develop transferrable skills, such as writing, time-management and critical thinking, in addition to learning and applying the substantive content of the class. To reinforce this perspective in my classroom, I take great care to point out how the work they will complete within the context of my classes has relevance to other aspects of their personal and academic development.
I seek to prepare my students to function effectively as individuals and as members of a team keeping in mind that they are the future leaders of our nation. I subscribe to the belief that learning is a collaborative endeavor and the ability to produce a final product by effectively managing group work is a skill that our students will face regardless of the field or profession they choose to pursue. I therefore look for ways, both formal and informal, to encourage collaboration among students. Understanding the challenges that often arise within the context of group work and recognizing that this is a skill they are in the process of developing; I often put support systems in place that help structure effective collaborations.
Consistent with my stance on collaborative learning, I believe that I have as much to learn from my students as they have to learn from me. While I am technically the subject matter expert by virtue of being immersed in the literature, I sincerely believe that a much wider wealth of knowledge can be tapped into by recognizing that each student has the potential to bring forth a unique and valuable perspective to the floor. Student feedback and perspectives are therefore very important to me.
I can’t demand from my students what I am unable to provide myself. Integrity, respect, commitment and preparedness are thus my guiding principles. The open and honest discourse I encourage in my classes is balanced by always maintaining, encouraging and enforcing a safe environment where mistakes can be made, but mutual respect and consideration for others reigns.
My overall teaching goal is to achieve balance. I always strive to achieve balance (1) between lecturing and facilitating; (2) between challenging and supporting; (3) between being fair and consistent and being responsive to individual student needs; (4) between treating students like adults and recognizing that they are often at different cognitive and developmental stages; and (5) between being accessible to them while maintaining a clearly identified professional relationship.
Lastly, I consider myself a student of the teaching process. My personal growth plan is to continue to develop myself as an educator by way of student feedback, discussion with colleagues, continued familiarization with the education literature and incorporating empirically validated teaching principles into my courses.
In recognition of the fact that students have different abilities, interests and responsibilities outside of my classroom, it is my duty to be organized, to provide variability, permit choice (within limits) and to explain my expectations and evaluation system early on. This method of teaching, I believe, allows my students to have a sense of control over their education, pursue topics of interest to them and increase their level of enthusiasm for the task at hand.
In the game of life, we all encounter circumstances that are beyond our control; require immediate attention and take precedence above a class assignment. Even though I am an advocate of professional development which entails fine tuning practical skills that can be applied in any and every other aspect of personal and professional life such as time management, when weighing individual circumstances and assignment submission, I tend to err on the side of the student. I spend a great deal of time designing and organizing purposive assignments. Assignment completion is thus imperative to achieving the objectives of the course. In an attempt to balance these contrasting goals, I accept late assignments.
That said, I must also mention that I believe that college students are adults; that life doesn’t always allow “do-overs” and that there are lessons to be learned by way of natural consequences. Untimely submissions are accepted, but they do incur a grade penalty. This balance between flexibility and accountability, I believe, fosters development while not losing sight of the substantive focus of my courses.
Some of the above statements may seem contradictory, but I believe that very few answers are found on opposite ends of the spectrum. In my role as an educator, I am obliged to set specific, measurable, attainable and time-targeted goals. As such, adherence to these standards will always be monitored. If adjustments need to be made, they are to be made in terms of the quantity of material presented. What will never be comprised is the quality of the instruction and assignments that the students receive.
I stated above that I value the following: individual and collective development, achieving an appropriate balance between facilitating and lecturing and progressively developing higher order thinking in my students. These principles combined cannot be achieved without active learning and therefore class participation. According to Bonwell (1991), leading educators are saying that “learning is not a spectator sport” and that “students learn by “becoming involved” which requires a physical and psychological interaction between the student and the material. The traditional lecture format, albeit important, is not designed to achieve these goals.
There are no global answers. “The challenge (to educators) is to choose a suitable method at the appropriate time” (Bonwell, 1991). The importance of achieving a balance between active and passive learning was without a doubt one of the re-current themes of this course. It was repeatedly referenced in class discussions; in Angelo’s “Teacher’s Dozen” as principle number one, which states that “active learning is more effective than passive learning” and in Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles as principle number three, which states that “good practice in undergraduate education encourages active learning”.
Active learning was also indirectly supported by a whole host of other concepts and practices such as the principle that encourages the development of reciprocity and cooperation among students. To elaborate on this principle, Chickering and Gamson state that “learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race” which is impossible without the utilization of active learning in the classroom. Active learning is thus a guiding teaching principle that supports several concepts in my teaching philosophy, has been empirically tested and provides what I conceptualize as structural support to other effective teaching methods.
I previously stated that I am a student of the teaching process; that learning is a collaborative process and that I value my student’s input. These principles can be directly linked to Peter Seldin’s article which makes the claim that student input can be an “invaluable source of information” that can later be analyzed and used to improve teaching and therefore learning outcomes. The method by which we attain student feedback was also covered in the readings. Although Seldin predominantly spoke of the formal teaching evaluations that commonly take place in educational institutions, he also makes reference to other less commonly practiced data sources such as interviews, small group instructional diagnosis and student evaluation committees.
The goal is to make multiple attempts at getting input from the students on how they believe the course is going. When choosing a student rating instrument, however, it is more useful to enquire about “specific teaching behavior” rather than “overall teaching effectiveness” (Seldin, 1983). This is a point that is also supported by Wilbert McKeachie who argues that although there is little disagreement about the utility of student feedback, there are some problems that can “detract” from its usefulness. The good news is that these problems can be overcome by better feedback. I think the overarching point that both these authors are making is that student feedback is an important source of information, but they must be designed, used and applied appropriately.
In teaching, one of my goals is to move away from mere recollection of information and towards a deeper understanding of the relevance and application of the material. My assignments, class sessions and assessment methods must therefore align to the hierarchy of educational goals described by B.S. Bloom following the 1948 APA Convention. According to Bloom, the most basic level of learning takes place when students are required to remember previously learned material. This is an important component as it represents the base for all higher level cognitive tasks.
Most educators believe, as do I, that we want our students to be able to apply the information and skills they’ve attained in our classrooms to other settings and circumstances (application). The ability to be independent thinkers, however, has to be cultivated. They have to be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they grasp the meaning of the material presented (comprehension) beyond application which is the most basic level of learning I want to achieve in my classes. Higher order thinking involves the ability to break down and put together large concepts (analysis and synthesis). These progressive educational objectives will prepare students to be able to evaluate or judge the validity and logic of material covered in higher level classes (evaluation) and beyond.
In stating my personal growth plan, I emphasized the importance of developing myself as an educator. This is a concept that was echoed Angelo’s “Teacher’s Dozen” where he stated that “mastery of one’s discipline may be necessary for effective college teaching, but it surely isn’t sufficient” (1993). Our pedagogical decisions should be based on empirical data that informs us about how and why students learn. Ignoring this can lead to “inefficient, ineffective and sometimes even counterproductive” learning outcomes. This argument was further developed by Randy Bass who argued that teaching isn’t just something we do. It’s a subject worthy of investigation, analysis and debate. The principles that guide our academic investigations should spill over into how we effectively train the next generation of students and scholars.
Although Bass emphasizes the importance of the formal “scholarship of teaching”, I don’t believe he denounces the importance of the informal data sources that inform our teaching such as student feedback and consultation with colleagues.