Teaching Philosophy
My personal background reflects my teaching philosophy. Both my maternal grandmother and my mother were teachers that firmly believed in the importance of educating girls. My maternal grandmother had unconventional parents who understood that not all traditional customs must be followed. Under the arrangement of her parents, she was able to attend school and finally enrolled at a teaching training college to become a teacher. As the oldest daughter in the family, my mother completed high school and she too became a teacher because her family could not afford to send her to university. Both my grandmother and mother encouraged me to create a future for myself. In 1993, I was awarded a scholarship to pursue my undergraduate education in the United States. To some extent, my research interests are heavily influenced by my personal background.
A cornerstone of my teaching philosophy is to inspire students to grow intellectually and to help students develop critical thinking in the subject matter. Ideally, I want students to become personally engaged with the subject matter, to feel personally changed by their participation in a course I am teaching, and to perceive the subject matter to be directly relevant to their own lives. My principal goal as a teacher and a researcher is to convince students of my knowledge and expertise before they will show a willingness to learn.
The thing I value most of all in a teacher-student relationship is respect. I believe this is best accomplished by create a positive learning environment and by giving equal attention to all students regardless of their educational backgrounds. I not only encourage their openness to the material I am presenting, but also to inspire them to respect each other and other individuals. When I teach online, I reply to every student at least once in each discussion week.
As a teacher, it is important for me to acknowledge that students have different learning styles: some absorb best in lecture atmospheres, some are motivated by discussion, and some prefer to use self-study, while others prefer to learn in groups. My job, as a teacher, is to be aware of the individual learning styles of my students and striving to be flexible in adjusting the curriculum. I have found that this approach to teaching often encourages critical thinking in my students.
I try to grade assignments and provide feedback to students before their next assignment is due. Through my feedback, I first acknowledge what they did right and proceed to motivate them to work on areas of weakness. In this way, students will know what is expected of them in their next assignment. Providing timely feedback can help the instructor establish an atmosphere of mutual trust. Once mutual trust is established, it is easier both to give and to accept feedback. Timely feedback can also prevent students from being bogged down pursuing the wrong path as they progress through the semester.
In conclusion, I believe teachers have a duty to their profession, to their students, and to themselves. Fulfilling this duty requires that a teacher remains an effective learner throughout life, continues to evaluate his or her performance among colleagues and students, and leads by example inside and outside of the classroom. I want to be a professor because I have a passion for the material I present and I want to guide students through the learning process.