Section A
This section contains my Reflective Statement on Teaching Philosophy and Accomplishments.
The guidelines for the statement state:
A teaching philosophy is generally a broad statement reflecting the faculty member’s individual approach to teaching and learning as well as a summary of academic credentials.
The statement might include asking the following questions:
How do you teach?
What do you teach?
What are you teaching methods, goals, and strategies?
These questions address your general ideas about teaching. It has been recognized by many educators that the process of identifying a personal philosophy of teaching and continually examining and verifying this philosophy can foster professional and personal growth.
My reflective statement for 2013-2014
The goal of my teaching is to provide students with tools to improve their lives, and the world.
One of the major influences of my teaching philosophy is the fact that technology is constantly evolving. Many books are outdated the day they are published. This has influenced my teaching philosophy and practice in several ways. First, as much as possible, I focus on overall concepts, not just the current method of implementation. Second, I supplement textbook material with more current information. Lastly, in addition to teaching about certain topics or how to do something, when possible, I teach strategies students can take to learn more about certain topics or how to find out how to do something.
Another influence of my teaching philosophy is the Knowles' theory of andragogy. Specifically, I agree with the assumptions that (1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something (2) Adults need to learn experientially, (3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. I like to use case studies, role playing, and simulations. I think of myself as a facilitator rather than lecturer or grader.
Strategies and techniques common to my courses:
I use course management software to supplement instruction and provide course structure. I have trained extensively on the learning management system and know how to take advantage of the many benefits it offers.
One of the assignments in each module in each course is 30‐40 multiple choice, matching, or short answer questions. The questions are not timed so students can spend as much time answering them as they would like. They are basically designed to ensure that the students spend some time with the material. As soon as students submit the questions they are graded and students can see which questions they got right and wrong. I have added custom feedback to some of the trickier questions. I let the students complete the questions two times. This encourages them to closely review what they got right and wrong and rewards them for following up.
For classes that meet in‐person, questions are due before the class in which we discuss the material. I believe students get more out of class meetings when they come into them having already spent some time on the topic. This allows me to repeat and help clarify topics rather than introduce them. This also allows me to run a report based on the submitted questions to see which ones were answered incorrectly by the highest percentage of the students. This lets me know which topics to spend the most time on in class.
I emphasize effective Internet search techniques and web site evaluations in all classes.
My philosophy with introductory programming classes is that I am not expecting all of the students to go on to be full‐time professional programmers. Without a doubt, however, some of them will go on to do some sort of programming in the future. In addition, 100% of them will need to use problem solving skills, creative thinking, and research techniques. For these reasons, I am most concerned with those aspects of the course.