My teaching to date has involved tutoring, mentoring, and outright instruction of both graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. Due to the differences in instructional level I work with, I find that being flexible with teaching methods I study and practice is best. In general, I try to avoid outright lecture in favor of activities or an active lecture style that help students to understand the material in their own way. These types of activities may include group work with worksheets that lead the students through the process, or a discussion board type assignment where the students and I work together to describe the days objective. The active lecture style that I previously referred to involves a similar methodology to the worksheets, except in a more traditional lecture style environment. As I feed the students bits of information, I ask probing questions that require the students to use the pieces as a whole. This whole will then become the foundation for the next subtopic to be covered for the day.
Students of electrical engineering often find it difficult to connect the many concepts that are important in the field. The amount of possible applications for the field compound this issue when students try to focus in on a particular topic at the expense of foundational knowledge which seems inconsequential. To combat this, I ask students to break down a topic into what they think are the most important subtopics required to understand the larger picture. Making this a group discussion allows for an exchange of thought which, on its own, may lead to insights concerning the complexity or nature of the topic at hand. I then use these maps to determine where the students are weak in foundational knowledge, and fill any gaps in the map as necessary. This is a way I find works to strengthen a foundation without directly contradicting students’ prior assumptions or learning.
Education in general is one of the most important experiences a person will have in their lifetime. I say this because, even outside academia, people are constantly learning either by instruction or observation. These experiences will determine how that person responds to further instruction attempts, but also how they digest information. When students come to me looking for knowledge, it is absolutely my responsibility to provide it to them in a way that they can make use of those ideas to their fullest extents. Simultaneously, even though I am only teaching particular topics in Engineering, I should be providing these students with structures and skills that will be useful in making them more receptive of and efficient at receiving instruction.