Teaching Competency
My philosophy and teaching experience has helped me identify some “core competencies” absolutely vital for good instruction. Below I demonstrate my efforts directed towards the mastery of these competencies through my own practices.
My philosophy and teaching experience has helped me identify some “core competencies” absolutely vital for good instruction. Below I demonstrate my efforts directed towards the mastery of these competencies through my own practices.
Articulation of appropriate course goals and objectives: I make sure to design a detailed course syllabus that lays out, right at the beginning, a “well-defined” set of objectives for the course communicated to students as clearly and effectively as possible. The main role of these objectives is to emphasize on the kind of learning experience they can expect to get from the course and what is expected of them from the course.
Articulation of appropriate course goals and objectives: I make sure to design a detailed course syllabus that lays out, right at the beginning, a “well-defined” set of objectives for the course communicated to students as clearly and effectively as possible. The main role of these objectives is to emphasize on the kind of learning experience they can expect to get from the course and what is expected of them from the course.
Organizing and designing the course with these goals and objectives in mind: My philosophy highlights the importance of having a variety of teaching and learning methods that contribute to or foster the student learning outcomes my course addresses. To assess their foundational knowledge, I implement test enhanced learning or practice testing with feedback which helps in retrieval of economic theory, concepts and key ideas. To asses their ability to apply economic ideas and concepts to real-world situations I make use of integrated homework assignments include a set of randomly ordered miscellaneous questions based on real-world application of all the different concepts and ideas. In order to foster critical thinking in students, I use techniques that encourages students to analyze content and practice written evaluation skills. I incorporate this via assigned readings from journal articles or web-based data assignments.
Organizing and designing the course with these goals and objectives in mind: My philosophy highlights the importance of having a variety of teaching and learning methods that contribute to or foster the student learning outcomes my course addresses. To assess their foundational knowledge, I implement test enhanced learning or practice testing with feedback which helps in retrieval of economic theory, concepts and key ideas. To asses their ability to apply economic ideas and concepts to real-world situations I make use of integrated homework assignments include a set of randomly ordered miscellaneous questions based on real-world application of all the different concepts and ideas. In order to foster critical thinking in students, I use techniques that encourages students to analyze content and practice written evaluation skills. I incorporate this via assigned readings from journal articles or web-based data assignments.
Presenting material effectively and communicating with students in a variety of settings (e.g. large classes or small groups): My past experience has taught me that it is extremely important to have well-structured and organized lectures. I am therefore a big proponent of the idea of having an outline or key takeaway from the days lecture on a side board so that students can follow it like a road map when listening to the lecture. This helps students understand the big picture and focus their attention on what is most important. I use as many real-world examples as possible when motivating a particular economic concept. Visuals also form a very important part of my illustrations. For my teaching to appeal to different learning styles of students, at the end of each week, I even post power point slides on Canvas. These slides provide a structured outline of the course material assigned for the week to help students who have a hard time both listening and note taking.
Presenting material effectively and communicating with students in a variety of settings (e.g. large classes or small groups): My past experience has taught me that it is extremely important to have well-structured and organized lectures. I am therefore a big proponent of the idea of having an outline or key takeaway from the days lecture on a side board so that students can follow it like a road map when listening to the lecture. This helps students understand the big picture and focus their attention on what is most important. I use as many real-world examples as possible when motivating a particular economic concept. Visuals also form a very important part of my illustrations. For my teaching to appeal to different learning styles of students, at the end of each week, I even post power point slides on Canvas. These slides provide a structured outline of the course material assigned for the week to help students who have a hard time both listening and note taking.
Providing feedback to students to give them clear messages about their performance in ways that will help them improve before the semester is over: I always post answer keys to quizzes and exams. In case of assignments using online learning platforms, I try to provide students feedback by engaging on a one-one basis when they come to me with specific problems during my office hours. Through these different channels I make sure students have a clear idea of where they are going, what progress they have made till date and ways they could improve themselves
Providing feedback to students to give them clear messages about their performance in ways that will help them improve before the semester is over: I always post answer keys to quizzes and exams. In case of assignments using online learning platforms, I try to provide students feedback by engaging on a one-one basis when they come to me with specific problems during my office hours. Through these different channels I make sure students have a clear idea of where they are going, what progress they have made till date and ways they could improve themselves
Incorporating into my teaching the latest scholarships in my field: Given how research and teaching practices in this this field are constantly changing and evolving, experience-based learning is becoming a major aspect of the teaching climate - preparing and training students in a way that they are well equipped with skill sets (analytical, research and critical thinking) that employers are looking for. Therefore as an instructor, in courses where applicable, I would strive to foster transformative learning in my class room in the best possible way— helping students develop their empirical skills-designing assignments in a way that provides ample opportunities for hands-on experience with economic data and analysis using software packages e.g. STATA or R most commonly used in this field. In the present day, having good empirical skills is considered one of the greatest long-term assets of applied econometricians in the field of economics. Introductory courses however allow limited scope for fostering transformative learning as compared to intermediate, specialized and graduate courses which have smaller class sizes that provide far better opportunities for inter-personal interactions and in-depth coverage of material.
Incorporating into my teaching the latest scholarships in my field: Given how research and teaching practices in this this field are constantly changing and evolving, experience-based learning is becoming a major aspect of the teaching climate - preparing and training students in a way that they are well equipped with skill sets (analytical, research and critical thinking) that employers are looking for. Therefore as an instructor, in courses where applicable, I would strive to foster transformative learning in my class room in the best possible way— helping students develop their empirical skills-designing assignments in a way that provides ample opportunities for hands-on experience with economic data and analysis using software packages e.g. STATA or R most commonly used in this field. In the present day, having good empirical skills is considered one of the greatest long-term assets of applied econometricians in the field of economics. Introductory courses however allow limited scope for fostering transformative learning as compared to intermediate, specialized and graduate courses which have smaller class sizes that provide far better opportunities for inter-personal interactions and in-depth coverage of material.