Teaching Philosophy

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think" 

~Socrates

An instructor's philosophy of how students learn should directly impact his/her philosophy of teaching. My teaching philosophy centers on providing simplified analogies to learn the key concepts, stimulating interest in the subject matter and promoting critical thinking skills. Students in chemistry need to learn not only the fundamental concepts, but also how to apply those learning to hypothesize theories, verify them and understand the physical observations. As I go further into my scientific career, I continue my belief that a teacher of science should devote himself/herself to helping his/her students learn the principle concepts and how to how apply them to solve critical problems. 

As a teacher, my job is to facilitate students' learning. I believe that learning is an active process in which the individual builds or constructs meaning from experiences and events which must be integrated into their existing conceptual frameworks. This is constructivism to some, but I had rather explain my philosophy than to use a "buzz word" that might convey misconceptions. I believe that students learn best from direct experience. At primary grades, direct experience with concrete objects is required. As we mature, this direct experience can take more abstract forms. Equally important to the process is drawing meaning from this direct experience through discussion and reflection. Last is the integration of the new idea or meaning with our existing understandings. These ideas are well-represented by a learning cycle or inquiry approach, in which students gather data about a phenomenon, draw generalizations, and apply or extend the generalizations in other contexts.

As a graduate student of JNCASR, I had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant of computational materials science  labs. In general, these classes have enrollments of twenty to twenty-four. To make sure that all students can grasp the study material, in our "computational materials science" labs we used different teaching tools including group discussion and hands on sessions. Different methods of assessments are also organized, such as home assignments, post lab quiz, writing reports and final exam. 

I will work together with others to ensure the implementation of inquiry-based teaching module and laboratories. The four key principles of my teaching are as follows: 

1. To accurately assess each student's critical thinking skills and pre-existing knowledge on topics presented in high school as they relate to general chemistry in order to identify those at risk of failure and in need of reinforcement.

2. To help students to improve their problem solving skills by moving above the lowest "remembering" level on Bloom's taxonomy into the regimes of "understanding" and "applying" what they are taught.

3. To efficiently increase the knowledge base of at-risk students through instructional videos that concisely explain theories and concepts, while providing sample questions and problem-solving strategies on fundamental topics in an included workbook.

4. To ensure students' mastery of fundamental topics through assignments that continually assess overall student retention.

IIT Roorkee all courses can be found here, link.