Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is a noble profession.  It is an activity where you impart knowledge to your students, without you loosing anything.  In fact you gain by discussing the knowledge with your students. The opportunities to teach and work with students and to develop new educational materials and techniques as well as performing high quality research are my primary reasons for choosing an academic career. My academic background, teaching experience, research experience and career as a professor of mechanical engineering make me well prepared to teach various types of introductory and advanced engineering courses such as Mechanics of Material, Finite Element Method, Material Science, Machine Drawing and others. Over the last nine years, I have dedicated much of my time to quality teaching and research as well as developing courses and educational materials. 

During my teaching career, I taught the following courses:

Undergraduate Courses

Mechanics of Material

Material Science and Metallurgy 

Computer Aided Machine Drawing

Finite Element Methods

Dynamics of Machine

Manufacturing Process

Engineering Economics 

Elements of Mechanical Engineering

Computer Aided Engineering Drawing

Graduate Courses

Modeling and Simulation

Teaching Philosophy Effective teaching is a challenge for all educators due to many coupled student-related and teacher-related factors and aspects. These include student’s background, motivation and aptitude to learning and teacher’s preparation, communication, presentation style, effectiveness and love of job. An effective teacher is one who can make and keep students in the classroom feel at ease, motivated and inspired to absorb and learn the information delivered by the teacher. Effective learning in the classroom depends greatly on the teacher’s ability to maintain the interest that brought students to the specific course in the first place. Teaching Style My personal style of teaching excellence is based on the following principles: 

1.      The teacher should always come to the classroom well prepared and enthusiastic. There is no doubt that the teacher’s enthusiasm is a crucial factor in student motivation. This comes from confidence, mastery of the course subjects and genuine pleasure in teaching and can bring out student learning excitement and a sense of engagement.

2.      The teacher should always emphasize conceptual understanding and repeatedly touch base with the fundamentals of the course.

3.      The teacher should always begin the lecture period with a brief summary of the last class meeting and end by a summary of major or important points. 

4.      The teacher should make the students think.  Do not give everything away in the class.  That will be spoon feeding.  Hold something back.  Challenge them to figure it out. Weekly quizzes are the best way of making them think and get answers.

5.      The teacher should always de-emphasize grades but rather emphasize mastery and learning of the course material as being beneficial for students’ careers.

6.      The teacher should have or develop an interesting presentation style. Impressive presentations tend to grasp students attention to the lecture given.

7.      The teacher should use a varying speed and tone of voice. Using the same speed and tone of voice can make the students feel bored.