Teaching Philosophy

Goals for student learning

My goal for students is to be successful in the classroom. It is my responsibility to help students acquire the skills they need in order to be successful. I can do this through the use of transparency and be explicit in what the classroom dynamic will look like. My goal is to establish relationships and a strong rapport with students that they feel included, heard and understood as they move through their educational career. I want to make a positive impact on their lives, even if it is one tiny detail from the whole semester. I want to prepare students for the next chapter of their lives.

I am preparing my students for life. I am preparing them for their career. I am preparing them to be better speakers and to be effective communicators. This goes beyond the classroom. If students cannot effectively communicate, they could lose out on job opportunities, a friendship with someone, or growth in communication skills. I want to prepare my students to go out into their chosen career field and have a foundational skill set of tools that they can apply to any situation. The teaching-learning process can have a number of challenges. One in particular is the amount of information associated with the communication process that students have to absorb. Much of this is delivered via lecture, but it is crucially important to ensure that active learning happens. Other challenges in the teaching-learning process can include fears from the students and apprehension of them being able to complete the tasks assigned. The major challenge will be delivering content that will meet the needs of all students and their learning experience. I have to figure out how to effectively create material that will relate to their life and career after college.

Enactment of goals (teaching methods)

I use a number of methods to help break up materials and differentiate between units. I use role play to implement the lecture material into practice before students will have to present in front of the class. This allows them to practice on a lower level and receive peer feedback before getting in front of their class of peers and receiving a grade from me. I assign presentations where students will present on a chosen subject that they have the ability to practice the skills over the course of the semester. I use lecture as needed to supplement the activities for further understanding. As students develop their skills, I use other activities that involve small group discussion and using concept maps to dig deeper into the concepts. These methods contribute to the goals for my students because it allows them to practice the skills that have been taught over the course of the semester. I am able to provide feedback throughout the process that they can use to improve with a growth mindset. These methods are appropriate for my discipline because they are the best way to engage with the material and practice the skills for public speaking. This allows them to establish their foundational skills in oral communication and implement how they see fit for their own individual use. They get to be creative and establish their own sense of who they are and how they will communicate in the future.

Assessments of goals

Throughout the course of the semester, I use a variety of assessments to determine if students are accomplishing the learning outcomes. I use summative assessments such as quizzes and tests for content, presentations for the oral component of delivery and formative assessment through the use of activities in class like muddiest point or role plays. These forms of assessment offer the best well-rounded approach to gauge where students are in their learning process. The assessments contribute to the student learning through the use of feedback. This feedback is then used for students to re-evaluate and use going forward. Assessments are communicating disciplinary priorities throughout the semester. The assessments are initially indicated at the beginning of the semester through the use of the syllabus. Each of the rubrics or the assessments have the disciplinary priorities listed and what learning outcomes are met through the completion of these activities.

Creating an inclusive learning environment

When teaching in the classroom, I bring my professional experience with real life examples to relate to the class content. By doing this, I am creating value as to why these skills are critical for professional experiences. Each of the students have different backgrounds and perspectives that they can implement into the classroom experience to derive deeper discussion about communication. I try to create an inclusive environment and set the standard at the beginning of the semester that the classroom is a safe space through the use of ground rules that students set. Every student’s response, feedback and communication has value, regardless of if a student or myself disagrees with what is being said. The student interaction would continue to encourage the ability to build tolerance in disagreement and establish stronger communication skills to work through conflict.

I account for different learning preferences by evolving over the course of the semester through the use of student feedback. Accounting for diverse learning preferences can be accommodated through the use of a variety of learning activities by mixing up strategies used in the learning process. This allows the students to learn disagreement tolerance, different perspectives and the ability to problem solve. I integrate diverse perspectives into teaching through the use of communication research and experiences from people in the communication field. This helps to provide value and connection to why students are learning the material. I want students to succeed, thrive and grow over the course of a semester. I want to instill confidence and assurance that students may not have mastered the skills right now, but they are just not there ‘yet’. Over the course of a semester, I hope to see students grow and flourish in their skills.