Teaching

At the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Horticulture, I am teaching the following courses;

Undergraduate Studies

1. Plant biotechnology

2. Plant breeding

3. Plant tissues culture

My Philosophy in Teaching

My name is Jamal Mahmood Faraj, I am a lecturer at university of Sulaimani, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Horticulture Department, in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. I have finished BSc. degree in 2005 in horticulture science and finished MSc. in the felid of plant Breeding and genetics in 2010. I received the Ph.D. degree in plant biotechnology from Nottingham University, United Kingdom, in 2017. At present, my research interests focus on Plant Breeding, plant tissue culture and plant biotechnology. My MSc work was carried out on Characterization of a mutation in some varieties of English ivy (Hedera helix L.) by molecular and histological methods. During my Ph.D., I worked on overexpression on HvDYT1 gene on barely and Lily for crop improvement is entitled Manipulation of Agronomic Traits in Barely and Lily for Crop Improvement.

Regarding teaching philosophy, Teaching is the process of attending to student’s needs, experiences, and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given. Most teaching philosophy statements are cover three core areas (objectives, methods, evaluation).

Therefore, it is important to start by describing what are your objectives as a teacher? How will we achieve those objectives? First of all, we have a clear vision for teaching objectives, we can discuss the methods that will use, to achieve those objectives. Here is also where you can elaborate on your knowledge of learning theory, cognitive development, curriculum design, etc. as the topic(s) relate to the teaching strategies you implement. It is useful to explain specific strategies or methods you use and tie these strategies directly to your teaching objectives. For example, if you include a field trip as part of your course, what are the learning objectives associated with the field trip? How do you decide whether to use collaborative or individual projects based on your teaching objectives? When appropriate, relate your strategies to national-level needs for teaching in your discipline. If you have developed instructional materials that have been or could be disseminated, be sure to discuss them and how they support your teaching objectives and possibly national-level disciplinary objectives. How will you measure your teaching effectiveness? In this section discuss how you intend to measure your effectiveness relative to the objectives and methods you have outlined. Because your teaching objectives are most likely related to student learning, you will probably use measures of student attainment of learning outcomes, rather than simply how many chapters you can cover from the textbook. The end of semester course evaluations completed by students can also be used to measure teaching effectiveness. Consider having a peer evaluate your teaching and provide input on the quality of teaching materials you have developed as well as your effectiveness in the classroom. Having multiple methods of evaluation rather than just a single source provides a more comprehensive picture of your teaching effectiveness.

In my opinion, teachers should provide students with meaningful content in all of our classes and encourage students to use that content to interact (talk and listen) with their classmates and teachers, and also activities in and out of the classroom should acknowledge and exploit our environment. Students in Agriculture felid receive frequent and detailed feedback from their teachers on their practice work in the lab and felid with reading, writing, and speaking. This helps students discover their individual strengths and the weaknesses that they need to work on to improve their skills. We believe that our students should be accountable for their own learning and will be most motivated when they have some choice in what and how they learn. Furthermore, the teacher should vary presentation styles and take into account different student learning styles. It should vary tasks and foci, with consider the meaningfulness of the tasks, activities, and the language used. The teacher should consider what kinds of feedback should be given to students and when. The teacher should consider student interests, expectations, needs, and reasons for study.

Students should be accountable for learning in terms of attendance, attention, and homework. As adults, our students will be most motivated when they have some control over and choice in what and how they learn, especially in terms of task, task style, the content of class materials, and focus of the class. Our courses should meet or change student expectations. Students need the opportunity to practice skills in a safe environment

In summary, I believe that it is my responsibility as a teacher to provide students with the following: an environment conducive to learning, knowledge that will help them, be successful in achieving their lives' goals, materials, opportunities, and feedback. It will help them learn, and help in becoming and remaining motivated to be successful both in their studies and in applying their knowledge to solve problems in their lives.