Narrative

I discovered my interest in teaching during my undergrad years when I used to give sessions to students in different subjects in electromechanical engineering. Being a student myself and a "sort of an instructor" at the same time gave me the opportunity to discover the strengths and weaknesses of our learning process at that time. I knew the mistakes that students -including I- used to make and began to act upon them, giving students clues and shortcuts to solving problems in an easy-to-understand way.

I graduated knowing that my academic career has just started. I really wanted to continue my education in Mechanical Engineering. I found an opportunity to complete my master’s and PhD degrees in the University of South Florida where my teaching philosophy began to develop and be influenced by some of the brightest scholars there. 

My teaching philosophy is based on the importance of successfully delivering "the fundamental concepts" of the subject that is being taught in the classroom. I believe that an instructor must know the knowledge level of students, and their capabilities. A good instructor, however, should always direct students to learn the fundamental concepts by using simple examples, and then, by making them work in groups to help each other. Working in teams will put all students at the same level of understanding which is the ultimate objective of the instructor. 

In order to test the knowledge of the students, a good assessment is required. Some instructors tend to make complicated exams and homework problems to examine the students’ level of understanding. I find that a good assessment must reflect the amount of knowledge students received in class. At the same time, I do not want students to take grading as a customary procedure. A good approach to test the assessment and grading processes is to conduct a survey for the students half way through the course asking them about the exams, quizzes, homework, and projects that they have taken so far. Were they adequately challenging? Was the grading process fair? Looking at this topic from student perspective helps the instructor to stay on the right track. 

Starting the class is always an important part of the course. An instructor should know how to properly start a new class session by connecting the thoughts and ideas of the previous class to the current one. I always start the class session with a five minute recap on the previous class and then connect it to the new subject. This quick revision can be a brief summary or a quiz from the last class. The purpose of the quiz is to remind students about the previous topic, which is why predetermined quizzes should have a small portion of the grade in a way that should not affect the students' academic performance. It is also important that an instructor gives a few minutes break when moving to another subject. This will give students the ability to ask questions in the class regarding the previous subject. 

One of my favorite learning experiences was in a class where the instructor used to play a three to five minute video of a topic that is related to the subject in class. Many engineering topics can sometimes be dry and boring to the students and to the instructor as well. To make the class more interesting, I choose a short video to play at the end of each week to give students an insight into different interdisciplinary sciences. The video can be about a new technology, a smart way to solve problems, or even an animation that summarizes the class topic. The learning process is supposed to be fun and exciting to the student and the instructor at the same time!