Over the course of the past ten years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the type of professor I want to be and the principles that are important to me as a person. Since gaining tenure in 2019, I have continued to work towards ensuring that I am creating a classroom environment that provides the best possible means for my students to be successful. Based on the feedback I have gotten from students and colleagues to this point, I have a very clear idea about the type of learning environment I want to create for my students. The principles that I have used to guide my academic career include always putting my student’s needs first in the classroom, treating each student as an individual with individual needs, and finally, to always create a positive and encouraging atmosphere for my students. Each of these three principles will be discussed in greater detail below.
This principle is something that I took from my practice as a physical therapist and as someone with extensive experience working in the fitness industry. One of the first things I learned was important to me when working with a patient or client is that the time they spend with me has to be about them, not me. What this means to me is that from the time I begin treating a patient or working with a fitness client, my sole focus has to be directed towards their unique needs and goals.
I would always cringe when overhearing a trainer on my staff or a fellow physical therapist start a session with a client or patient talking about everything that was going on in their life. From the beginning of my professional career, I always felt strongly that my time spent with a client or patient should focus on them. This principle is applicable to the classroom as well. Just as my patients could have chosen another physical therapy facility for treatment, our students could have easily chosen another institution for their undergraduate or graduate educations. I want all of my students to feel like they made the right choice in coming to Adelphi when they are in my classroom, because they know that when they are in my class, my goal is solely to focus on their particular needs in order to ultimately help them be successful. I can remember very clearly being a student in courses during my own undergraduate and graduate education where I did not feel that this was the case.
I believe that adhering to this principle has helped me not only develop a successful case load as a physical therapist but has also helped me build positive relationships with my students in and out of the classroom. My hope is that continuing to use this principle and applying it to my academic career will contribute to my continued success at Adelphi in the years to come.
Similar to my previous guiding principle, I again was able to draw from my professional experiences in other areas to help me further develop my own personal teaching philosophy. One of the things repeated over and over during the course of my graduate education was to always treat each patient as an individual.
After working in the field for a prolonged period of time, it is easy to see how a healthcare professional can begin to look at a patient solely as a diagnosis rather than as a person. Keeping this in mind and applying this principle has helped me greatly in my physical therapy practice as I strive to approach each new case with an open mind. This has significantly enhanced my success. Just like two patients with a similar pathology can have very different responses to a particular treatment due to differences in a variety of individual factors, I always try to be mindful of the fact that each student may respond differently to my instruction in class.
As a physical therapist, it is my responsibility to problem-solve and figure out which course of treatment will work best for each of my patients. Similarly, I feel that it is my job as a professor to figure out how to best present the necessary material in a way that each individual student is going to be put in a position to be successful. I try to encourage as much student participation and feedback during my classes as possible so that I can get a better sense of whether or not the students are grasping some of the more important concepts. In addition, I always begin every class with a brief review of the previous material and always encourage questions during my lectures. My hope is that by doing this I will create an open line of communication with the students so that I can better gauge who is in need of more individualized help with the material.
The final principle that I strive to attain in my teaching is to always create a positive and encouraging atmosphere for my students. Again, I have leaned heavily on my previous experience in other professional areas as well as my experience as a student to help me form this foundational principle.
As a professional, whether in the world of fitness or rehabilitation, I learned early on how valuable it is to develop a good rapport with my patients and clients. One of the ways I do this is by always creating a positive and encouraging environment for them. Patients in physical therapy go through physical and emotional ups and downs over the course of their rehabilitation. The last thing they need is to be working with someone who is negative or discouraging towards their goals and aspirations. Similarly, I feel that a student walking into a classroom in which the professor creates a negative environment immediately inhibits the development of a good student-teacher relationship and ultimately negatively impacts the student’s chance for success. I work hard to create an atmosphere in my classrooms that is both encouraging and positive, because, ultimately, I believe that it will foster the best possible environment for my students to be successful.