Teaching Philosophy

I believe teaching is to guide students on their journey to learning, which is an open-ended process. Learning is not just obtaining some knowledge, but one of the ways to engage ourselves with the real-world out there. Learning is not or should not be a passive activity, but an active or interactive engagement with the world. Therefore, the purpose of teaching is, I think, to help students be self-sufficient and active life-long learners. I especially believe that developing or improving students’ analytical and critical thinking is one of the most crucial goals of higher education because social progress supported by the ideas of democracy and justice would not be possible without informed democratic citizens with that capability. They should be able to understand, describe, and explain important social and political phenomena systematically on their own. They also should be able to see the big picture and apply abstract ideas or concepts to social and political problems from a critical perspective. The role of a teacher is, I think, to expose students to those learning goals and encourage them to achieve them. I attempt to accomplish this not only by my lectures, but also by class activities and assignments.