Teaching Phylosophy

"No dejes apagar el entusiasmo, virtud tan valiosa como necesaria; trabaja, aspira, tiende siempre hacia la altura" - Ruben Darío.

"Do not let the enthusiasm fade away, it's a valuable virtue and necessary as well; work, aspire, always direct yourself to the top"- Ruben Darío.

One of the most important things I like to transmit to my students is enthusiasm. Commitment and motivation are necessary to learn dense topics like infectious diseases. Therefore, I am compromised with continuously transmitting new information to my students to train their minds in a dynamic way. Since the course I teach is a combination of theoretical and practical lab activities, I need to keep the laboratory closely organized and maintain the students involved and disciplined. Hence, I consider myself a subject-centered educator, with emphasis on the broad fields design, to help students achieve greater integration of public health interdisciplinary sciences. The objective of this popular model is to guarantee mastery of subject matters from a specific academic discipline (Tyler, 1949).

My approach to student learning focuses on the "learn-by-doing" theory of education, described by John Dewey (Dewey, 1897). This method provides students with a strategic and active engagement technique to learn through doing and empowers them to apply what was learned in the class/lab to many public health settings inside and outside the classroom. Hence, apart from using lectures, student presentations, quizzes and, discussions, I also believe in getting student's hands "dirty" in the laboratory to consolidate the learning strategies implemented in the classroom. By recognizing parasitic structures under the microscope, students can understand how tiny organisms are able to kill millions of humans in the developing world. To me, one image counts more than a thousand words. Therefore, I give high importance to the visualization of the disease in a scientific manner. By asking control questions to my students I try to connect with them through verbal and non-verbal communication and I also use this strategy to identify topics that need to be re-addressed. I like to get feedback from them in the middle of the semester, to improve my strategies in the second half of the course program. I also use the discussion of clinical cases to associate perspectives from the patients and health care workers. This method enhances the understanding of the parasitosis by the students.

It is important for me to create a connection with students to facilitate communication and a common understanding of the topic in discussion. I enjoy combining theoretical and practical learning activities to enhance the learning of students. My goal is to transmit information to students in such a way that it's easy to understand and to apply in the laboratory. By understanding the transmission, diagnosis, and prevention of parasitic infections, the students will be able to apply the knowledge to reduce the burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases in the developing world.

Work cited:

• Dewey, John (1897). My Pedagogic Creed. School Journal, 54(3), 77–80.

• Tyler, R.W. (1949) Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.