My Teaching Philosophy

Introduction

Since leaving active duty in the Marine Corps and entering my first college class in 1999, I have wanted to be a college professor. I graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.A. in History in 2003 and while I still wanted to pursue a career in higher education, I chose to become an entrepreneur and work in the tech industry. This choice afforded me the ability to return to academia in 2010 and obtain my M.A. in Diplomatic and Military History from Boise State University. I am now an adjunct professor in both the University Foundations and History Departments at Boise State with an emphasis on history, ethics, and social diversity. I am also a Student Success Advisor with Extended Studies and am currently working on my second graduate degree in Addiction Counseling. My goal as a professor, both now and in the future, is to create an inclusive and engaging space for my students to internalize the connections between historical understanding, ethical decision making, and cultural integration. Through engaging and thought-provoking lectures, active learning, transparent assignments, and scaffolded course design, I introduce new modes of self-awareness, metacognition, and cultural sensitivity. During the semester I challenge students to reevaluate their understanding of themselves, the past, and the world in which they live in order for them to become more ethically-minded and socially aware citizens.

Approach to Teaching

In order to achieve my pedagogical goals, I apply the principles of backward design, starting with course learning outcomes and then ensuring that the activities and assessments that follow are aligned with the learning outcomes. Using a learner-focused approach, the students are encouraged to actively participate and create their own connections to the material both inside and outside the classroom. For example, students are introduced to various mental biases within the course content through a series of lecture-based examples; they then participate in learning activities and are asked to create a journal about when and how these biases impact their daily lives.

In conjunction with this learner-focused approach to teaching, the students are assessed in both formative and summative formats that show their understanding of the material and their personal connection to various aspects of the course. Each of the assessments is designed to be transparent in nature with clear grading rubrics with the intent to challenge the students’ understanding of the concepts presented in the course while giving them the ability to internalize and relate to the course content. These assessments come in the form of anonymous surveys, quizzes, essays, research papers, and individual presentations. An example of a transparent assignment I assign is the reflective essay. These essays are assigned at specific points during the semester and ask students to choose particular aspects of the course that they have most related to, then expand upon how and why they feel those aspects are relevant to them in their daily lives. These assignments provide the students the freedom to choose the topics in the course they find important and delve deeper into them to explore how and why those aspects are relevant to their current lives and how a better understanding of them will help in their lives after the course has concluded.

The Importance of an Inclusive Classroom

Beyond the course design and desired educational outcomes, I strive to create the most inclusive classroom possible. It is imperative as an educator to understand that students come from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences, and have unique identities and worldviews. As an educator, it is essential to ensure that my teaching methods and approach accommodate the widest number of students in order to give as many as possible the feeling of being comfortable, welcome, accepted and that they all have an equal chance to succeed. In order to do this, I strive to present visual aids, source materials, examples of concepts, and assigned readings that represent a diverse number of voices: voices that are often underrepresented or muted by the majority. Hopefully, doing this will help expose those underrepresented voices to students who fall into the majority and help those underrepresented groups to feel empowered and included.

Making as many students as possible feel welcome, included, and valued is the foundation of a positive learning environment. In order to ensure students feel comfortable exploring the course content, I feel it is important as an instructor to continually be aware of the situational factors (background, learning style, prior knowledge, etc.) in each class I teach, and to adjust any factor that may be in my control to make my classroom as welcoming as possible to the widest range of students. While I strive to provide various formats and methods to in-class activities, assignments, lectures, and assessments, I also rely heavily on iClicker for anonymous ungraded quizzes, polling, and short answer questions to give students the ability to speak their minds openly and freely.

Outside of the classroom, I believe in being available and responsive to students. While I am tasked with teaching a foundational understanding of ethics and social diversity, I also feel it is important that each of my students know that I am approachable, caring, and someone they can talk to about both the course itself and if they need, non-course related issues that may need help with. To help foster this I do my best to learn each student’s name early in the semester, talk to them before and after class, continually remind them that I am a resource, and do my best to demonstrate that I care about them as not only students but as people. I have had a number of highly supportive professors during my time as a student and I strive to emulate their care and compassion for their students.

In summary, I am a passionate and driven educator with the goal of supporting my students in their educational pursuits. With my diverse background in military service, entrepreneurship, and academic achievement I am confident that I can effectively guide the education of my students in an organized, transparent, and inclusive manner. I look forward to a long career as a university-level educator and to apply what I learn throughout that career to become a more effective and impactful professor.