As a student, I generally acted as a sponge for information, readily absorbing information as long as the teacher could keep my attention. This became a problem as I began to encounter the less interactive lecture style of teaching found everywhere in high school and throughout my undergraduate degree. Without my attention, the information wasn’t sticking. It wasn’t until I began being involved in tutoring and mentoring towards the end of my undergraduate education that the missing link was found. Engagement and maintenance of attention.
Of course, there is a portion of this that is the student’s responsibility. They must come to class and be willing to participate in the discourse to make use of any information that may be presented, regardless of the teaching technique. However, even with driven individuals, long lectures can leave the students feeling drained and missing out on important details. Thus, as I moved into my professional career and graduate studies, I resolved that more interaction would be a better way to engage the students and assist in transferring and understanding the material presented.
This ‘experiment’ started at the beginning of my career at Florida Power and Light (FPL). I quickly finished the training material and became a project manager for Distribution Engineering. Being a high turnover position, we often saw new-hires being placed in the department, some of which did not have a proper Electrical Engineering education. To combat this foundational lack of knowledge, I took on the role of a local mentor and tutor to aid new Engineers through the sometimes unfamiliar material in the training manuals.
I initially tried the old lecture style, but quickly confirmed my suspicions when several Engineers were quickly left clueless, too afraid to ask clarifying questions. I then began to take a more interactive approach, taking the role of a guide. Quickly, the confidence of the new Engineers increased and they were learning and applying the information faster than before. In my 3 years at FPL, I slowly refined this process before deciding to take on graduate studies and pursue a career as an educator full time. This became the basis for my teaching philosophy, embedded herein.
After being offered a position as a TA for a graduate section of Random Processes, considered to be one of the more difficult courses in the degree, I quickly began to apply what I learned during my years mentoring at FPL to my weekly lecture sessions. Although the professor lectured via pre-recorded webcasts, it was the TA’s responsibility to provide in-class time for working example problems, answering questions, and lecturing on some of the more complex issues to firm up understanding in the students’ minds.
It was during this time as a TA for Random Processes, and then next semester as a TA for Semiconductor Devices, that I continuously applied and refined a more active teaching style. This style involved incorporating students directly into the lecture. Some examples include asking students to play the part of particles diffusing through the classroom, or holding one or two question mini quizzes throughout the lectures to test student understanding. I found that the students were less likely to hold back on concerns about the material, and were more vocal when they did not fully understand something.
Around the end of the semester, I was offered a unique opportunity to tutor for the USF INTO program. This program helps international students acclimate to the American academic system, as well as succeed in the same. I saw this as an opportunity to expand and test my developing teaching philosophy into not only the realm of tutoring, but also the area of teaching individuals of varying cultures and masteries of the English language. The biggest challenge turned out to be very similar, if more deeply engrained, as students native to the US: being scared to interrupt a professor or instructor for clarifying questions.
The familiar fear of interrupting the instructor allowed me to further develop a technique for combating the block. I began by asking probing questions that they could answer without feeling that they revealed an ignorance. If they answered incorrectly, I would guide them to their error and ask why they thought that was the answer. This line of questioning allowed them to self-reflect on their thought process, and focused on the material rather than the fact that they incorrectly answered a question. After one or two sessions of these sorts of questions, even students who came from cultures where the no interruption rule was the most deeply engrained were opening up and actively searching for information they were missing. This was very well received by the students, as I have gotten direct feedback concerning my effectiveness.
At this point, starting the semester TAing for Circuit Lab I, I began developing sample lesson plans, syllabi, and exercises that align with this teaching philosophy. The idea was to cement some of these experiences and lessons I had learned into a more concrete form, as a jumping off point for further refinement. In the attached lesson plan, you can see how there is an emphasis on discussion and activities rather than a typical lecture style of teaching. The main point to follow is that in all cases, the style and presentation is focused on getting and keeping the students’ attention through interaction and active teaching techniques.
In addition to the example lesson plans, student testimonials, and teaching philosophy, there are example grading schemes and syllabi, as well as a sample 'crash course' electrical engineering presentation used as a first day introduction to the topic. Even in these other documents, the idea of an active and interactive classroom should be apparent, as well as having multiple checks in place to assess the students in a 'soft touch' approach that provides minimum barrier to entry into the discussion, and encourages discussion, removing the fear of being incorrect. The ultimate goal of my search will be to have an open classroom in which students feel welcome and discuss their confusions openly instead of sitting on them, waiting for a test.