Teaching Philosophy

My Official Statement of Teaching Philosophy can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

The webpage itself is updated more frequently though and is intended as an introduction and summary of the full (1 page) document.

Teaching is a collaborative endeavor. Effective teaching requires myself, the teacher, and the learner(s) to be actively involved in the educational process; therein lays the crux of the matter and the largest challenge—involving the learner(s). There are three primary interactions with the learner I believe must go on: assessing learner needs, motivating learners through engagement and active learning, and development of student self-assessment.

As the teacher I must evaluate and take into consideration learner strengths and weakness to tailor assignments and topics. This tailoring adds or removes material, and allows learners to be more highly motivated by including application examples and techniques of interest to them. With a motivated learner who is addressing the work I have decided is valuable and necessary a significant step has been made, yet it is not reaching the peak of their learning potential. With an outside source guiding decisions on appropriate or inappropriate techniques and solutions a learner is still dependent on me. I can never see all the mistakes a student makes, nor can I correct them all, but I can develop the student’s critical analysis of their own work.

Considered together, assessing learner needs, motivating learners through engagement and active learning, and development of student self-assessment forms the core of my teaching beliefs.

For a more in-depth explanation of how I view and carry out these 3 interactions, please read my entire Statement of Teaching Philosophy.