Unlike other jobs, being a teacher
requires different qualifications. There are many theories that explain how to
be a good teacher. As a business student who may teach in the future, I would
like to keep up with the times and try to be understanding to the students.
If we want to face the truth, we need to accept the fact most of the students never enjoy their class. Unfortunately, counting the minutes might be more interesting than listening to the teacher. At that time, the teacher needs to get their attention. If I was a teacher, I would talk about the trend topics that all students take interest in. Since the contents of business area change every day, I would like to read about the news with the students in order to ensure they are familiar with what is going on in today’s society. I would choose one of the companies, for example Apple or Samsung, and also talk about their strategies that they would use in marketing class. Also I am very sure that most of the students will enjoy talking about the income of World Cup in the finance class.
Obviously, we can not follow news without using technology these days. I would like to allow my students to use their laptop to access internet for reading news. Also using power point slide show makes the class more enjoyable. People will most likely forget what they hear, but it is hard to forget what they see.
On the other hand, I believe that a student who is majoring in business needs to learn how to be a good businessman/businesswoman. Sometimes theoretical information means nothing in a real company. In that case I would assign my students projects in which they have a chance to see how things work in a company, so that they can gain experience before they work. There is something else that I will always remind myself; every student has different experience. Some of them may have never worked before, so they need to know which behaviors would be appropriate at the interview. I would like to teach them how to be a good employee.
In conclusion, there are certain things that every teacher should do and should not, but it depends on the teacher. I would be a teacher who tries to make class more enjoyable and be helpful to the students. But in the end we need to take into consideration that every person has different personalities, so that every teacher lead to exhibit different strategies of teaching. (-Kubra Nur Aric)
9. Teaching Philosophy
I am a visiting scholar in Chemical Engineering. I am a lecturer in Shanghai Sports Institute. I teach Exercise Physiology andTraditional Chinese Medical Massage. I am proud of my students, since they are elite athletes in Shanghai; some of them are members of national team. When it comes to the national sports competition, I always watch them on the TV and am touched by their fighting spirit.
I love my job very much, because I am a
sports fan and love my students. Moreover, I impart knowledge to them and make
them know more about sports science, which helps them run the scientific
training and reduce the injury frequency. For example, I tell them the theory
of altitude training in the exercise physiology class, so that they do not
reject altitude training and know that altitude training increases the number
of red blood cells so that their aerobic ability is improved. In addition, they
learn the methods to remove fatigue in the traditional Chinese medical massage
class; these methods are useful for them.
I not only use the blackboard to write,
but also use the multi-media to teach, so that the class is not boring. I hope
my students love my class, and want to make friends with my students; sometimes
I share some interesting things with them and tell them my hobby or opinion
about recent events. Moreover, I will ask my students questions to make them
think and discuss things. Only in this way can I be close to my students. I
believe a good relationship between teacher and students is beneficial for
teaching.
With regard to the assessment, I will
observe the learning attitude of the students and the performance in the class.
Furthermore, I will give a writing examination to my students.
To be a good teacher, I think
responsibility and wide knowledge are very important. Moreover, the
presentation skill plays a vital role in the teaching process. A teacher should
make students understand some rare theory. It is difficult to use simple words
to explain the profound principle.
In a word, I am very glad to be a
teacher. (-Xue Zhang)
8. Teaching
Philosophy – Design
Before starting my graduate studies, I had
never thought I would want to be a teacher. I used to be a good student of
Industrial Design during my bachelor’s days and a good designer at work.
However, after around five years of working as an interior and furniture
designer, I started questioning my career. Since I was not happy with trying to
satisfy wealthy clients’ desire to have more stylish life anymore, I decided to
continue my education to explore other opportunities for making bigger changes
in the world. Today, I feel I am doing a more rewarding job by doing research
on the effect of environment on people’s health and learning how to share my
knowledge with a younger generation. It is my intention to help my students
experience the same feeling.
The first step will be broadening students’
perceptions of their major. I am responsible for helping them develop
problem-solving skills and learn how to apply their skills to real problem
situations. Instead of giving them ineffective assignments such as designing a
fancy chair for a chief executive officer, I will assign them to design mobile
learning devices for children in undeveloped regions, toilets that consume less
water, chairs for disabled pilots, and toys and games that encourage children
to do more physical activity. Class discussions will give them the opportunity
to share their ideas and look at the world problems from different
perspectives. They will also learn how to cooperate with other experts in their
future careers to arrive at optimal solutions.
In the process of finding solutions and sharing
opinions, I will challenge them to identify the areas where they can improve. I
will also expose them to exemplary works by design-driven companies and ask
them to evaluate those works. I will provide an environment where students can
think loudly about outcomes of socially-responsible design versus unsustainable
design, even if the second group is created by well-known and admired
companies.
As for assessment, I am a proponent of using a
variety of methods including class participation, presentations, quizzes, and
writing assignments. While I have high expectations for my students, I also
expect myself to be responsive to all questions, both in person and through
e-mail, in a timely manner. I should also update my knowledge of the discipline
and teaching tools to be able to assist students with all their needs. It is my
hope that at the end of each semester, students leave my class knowing what it
means to be responsible, competent, and productive citizens. -Shabboo Valipoor
7. Teaching Philosophy: Self confidence
Each teacher needs a teaching philosophy
to help him/her to teach students better. Each teacher has his/her own opinion
regarding with teaching philosophy. For example, some teachers think teaching
students critical thinking is important. In contrast, some teachers think using
technology to help to catch the attentions of students is also important.
However, in my opinion, helping students to establish their self-confidence is
the most important.
Self-confidence has a critical influence
on the success of students. If a student does not believe in himself/herself,
how does he/she make others believe him/her? In other words, a student does not
have confidence, and in return others naturally do not believe him/her. A
student could miss a good opportunity to be successful, since others do not
trust in him/her. On the other hand, if a student has confidence, his/her
confidence will have a great impact on others and easily allow others to follow
him/her. At this moment, he/she could get a good opportunity to be successful
because everyone believes him/her. For example, there was a young and great
emperor in the Ting Dynasty of China called Kangxi Emperor. He was supported to
be an emperor of China when he just was eight years old. At the beginning, he
was inferior. He was afraid of making any decision because he thought he could
not take the corresponding responsibility of dealing with state affairs. As a
result his country was in a struggle because many good policies could not be
implemented without his agreement. At this moment, his grandma had a meaningful
meeting with him. In this meeting, his grandma told him that he should deal
with state affairs following his heart and encouraged him to be more confident
about himself. After that, the Kangxi Emperor became confident and started to
learn how to manage such a big country. Several years later, the country became
prosperous again. He finally became one of the greatest wise emperors in
Chinese history. If you want to be successful, you should catch any opportunity
you have. If you want to get the opportunities, you should be confident and
believe yourself. For students, only when they have their own confidence from their
heart can it be possible for them to make big contributions to their family,
society and country in the future.
Self-confidence can also help students to
identify themselves and develop their positive attitudes to their lives.
Self-confidence can help students to tell them what’s meaningful when they live
in this world. This can help students to develop their positive viewpoints
towards the society and the world. Recently, there were several sad events in
which several young students killed themselves because they did not know why
they were alive. I think one of the reasons is that they lack confidence. When
students are self-confident, it is easy for them to make friends with others.
If they have a good friendship to share their feelings, the possibility of
their suicides greatly decreases. For instance, I had a best friend when I was
a pupil. His father and mother divorced when he was four years old. He always
looked very sad and wanted to kill himself. When we became friends, I often
encouraged him to be more self-confident. Later, he started to learn music. In
the music, he began to find himself and identify himself. Now he is a famous
musician in my hometown. What’s more important is that he has a positive
attitude toward his life now. Helping the students to develop their
self-confidence is very important nowadays because the modern society is very
completive. Every student has a high possibility to be compared with others.
This comparison always makes students feel very frustrated because they are
always compared with the better ones. In all, teachers should help students to
build their self-confidence when they are young. (-Feixiong Luo)
6. Teaching Philosophy
As
a geography teacher for more than six years in China, I developed my own
teaching philosophy. It has been updated since I become a teaching assistant of
Geoscience department, Texas Tech University (TTU). My teaching philosophy can
be summarized in three points.
First,
the goal of education is to teach students methods, not just knowledge.
Knowledge obtained from teacher is limited in school, but students can learn
knowledge by themselves using methods in everyday life. In China, due to a huge
population it is fiercely competitive in entering good universities, colleges,
and even high/middle schools. The only evaluation criterion for admission
qualification is score of various examinations. Consequently, most Chinese
teachers use a “cramming” teaching method, which is to make students remember
as much knowledge as possible. The result of such teaching method is that
students forget almost everything after taking examinations. This teaching
method is meaningless except for obtaining an admission qualification.
Oppositely, I change my teaching style in the United States (U.S.) due to
relatively less stress on obtaining admission qualification. My classes are
always designed with many activities. Students are encouraged to participate in
these activities. In these activities students try to explore their own methods
to solve problems. For example, students had an experiment to test the
temperature change speed when heating and cooling sand, water, mud, and
asphalt. Through this experiment students got a very comprehensive
understanding of the albedo differences between different materials. Also,
after the experiment they explore the reason why on beach sand temperature is
much higher than water in summer.
Second,
the training of creative and critical thinking is an essential part of
education. People with highly creative and critical thinking abilities are more
competitive in modern society. For example, interviewees were asked how to
increase sales of toothpaste in an interview for sales manager. Most of them
used complex economic theories. The answer of the person who finally got the
position was just to increase by 1mm the caliber of toothpaste. Since Chinese
teachers spend the whole classes telling students knowledge, students do not
have any time to think. Such cramming education inhibits the development of
students’ creative and critical thinking. Conversely, American teachers provide
more opportunities for students to talk about their opinions, ask questions,
and even query teachers’ views. Although Chinese students can get very high
score in various examinations, no one wins the Nobel Science Prize in Science.
China has lots of good students but few geniuses. Thus, I encourage students to
discuss in groups, represent their opinions, and question me in class.
Third,
creating a comfortable environment is the precondition for the training of
creative and critical thinking abilities. Such comfortable environment is based
on respect instead of fear. In China, students seldom point out teachers’
mistakes because they are afraid of making their teachers embarrassed. In
America, teachers and students are equal in class. Teachers are common people
but not authorities. Students who find teachers’ mistakes are always praised.
Actually, teachers and students both improve quickly through questioning each
other reasonably. Consequently, I try my best to make a positive environment in
my class. I create a policy that students who find my mistakes in class can get
a bonus in their final exams.
Finally,
teachers should keep improving personal teaching skills, becoming more and more
knowledgeable, and updating teaching philosophy in mind all the time. -Ying Liu
5. Teaching Philosophy
The process of teaching is a joint
operation between a professor and students. They must be associated with the
educational process to get the success of the education. The teaching
philosophy should allow students to acquire skills and knowledge that will help
them in their lives. I will try to discuss the subject of teaching philosophy
in two sides, one the side of professor and the other the side of students.
The professor is a practical guide to the
learning process. He can control and care about his class to take it to the way
of success. There are certain important points which the professor should use with
his students. The professor should encourage his students to discuss inside the
classroom; this strategy will help the students to be involved in their ideas
with each other. In addition, a big issue that usually happens inside some
classrooms is when the professor shatters one of his students in front of
others, because this behavior may cause his student to fail in his learning.
On the other side, the students have
duties to the educational process. All students should respect their professor
and their classmates inside the classroom. Also, they should work hard with
their professor and bring all assignments which the professor requests them
without delay.
Finally, teaching is joint interaction
between professor and students. All of them have rights and duties to the teaching
process. Each one should do his work faithfully to complete the educational
process. (-Fahad
AlMutlaq)
4. Teaching Philosophy
Teaching in general is not just staying
in front of the people and talking. Also it’s not only about how much you know.
Teaching is more how you can transmit the information to other people in the
way that they can learn and enjoy what they are learning. However, being a good
teacher is a complex issue where there are features in how you teach and what
you do. If you use too much information, maybe students didn’t take it all; but
if you make an “easy” course, students don’t take the course seriously. Also
it’s very important how much you prepare yourself to teach. I think there is no
more annoying thing than having a professor that is disorganized in a class.
That’s why, maybe one of the most important features for me of being a good
teacher is always being prepared for a class (topics, lectures, technology,
tasks, etc.).
Teaching biology and ecology for
undergraduate and graduate students should be a nice experience for most of the
students. Most of the classes in ecology, for example, are really specific and
most of the people take those classes because they like the topic and not
because they have to. Keeping this in mind, it’s important that the teacher
encourage students to go further and be proactive. Critical thinking is one of
the most important issues in our field. The teacher should try to get the
students to learn to think more than just copy what is on the board or in the
book. There is so much information in science that students must learn, but
this information is always in books, papers and online. It is really important to
have a balance between how much people have to memorize and how they can find
this information if they need it, and of course how to apply it in the real
world. All in science is about how you can apply years of knowledge developing
new ideas and new approaches, and try to know better our world, our reality.
The technology issue has two sides in
this field. The first is the tools that we can use to interact with students.
The use of social media, blogs, and different applications to make learning easier
for the students is welcome and maybe it is a good way to make students
involved in the class. However, the most important use of technology in science
is in terms of new software, new machines and new procedures, and is just as
important as the theory of the class. Nowadays, no one can write a paper in
ecology without statistical analysis just with specialized software you can use.
One of the most important issues in my courses will be teaching how to use this
software and making people competent to work with this software in as many
fields as they can.
About assessment I think I’m and old school
teacher. I like the traditional exam, because it is an easy way to evaluate and
measure how much the students learnt. However, I’m a big fan of mixing these
traditional exams with more didactic assessment, for example making models, or
relating some theory with a different topic. This kind of assessment lets the
students be more creative and brings closer the reality beyond a book.
Finally, interactions with students must
be as strong as they can be. I think that maybe the most important issue is that
students can ask you and be confident that they can be wrong. Also it is
important as a teacher to recognize that you don’t know everything, and when
you don’t know, say it and try to get the answer next time. This is how
students can see that you’re not perfect, but you are interested in making
things better. (-Maria Cristina Rios Blanco)
3. Teaching Philosophy
In
the landscape architecture major, there are three kinds of course types: design
courses, technical courses and verbal courses. In my view, each of them
requires different teaching approaches.
Design
courses are suitable for landscape architecture students; however, other
design-based major students (i.e. architecture, interior design) could attend
these courses. Design classes require critical thinking, problem solving, and
knowledge of drawing software (auto CAD, GIS, Photoshop etc.) from students. In
these classes, students should work on a design project the whole semester, and
they follow certain design processes, which are observations, site visits and
analyses, conceptual design, first draft master plan and final master
plan. In my view, design classes
should be student-centered. Instructors should be a supporting force for
students. In order to introduce students to the design theories and processes,
there should be a one hour lecture each class day before the studio/lab working
time. These lectures should be the only time the instructor leads the course.
In the lab hours, students should work on their design projects as they wish
and the instructor should give them desk criticism every class day. That way,
students can learn the theories very well in lectures, and they can be
productive in the lab hours. Students should be encouraged by the instructor to
use the drawing software while they are producing their design projects. In one
semester there should be one preliminary presentation and one final
presentation of the projects, so that the instructor can evaluate students'
work and grade them. The contribution of the students should be considered an
important part of their grade also.
The
technical courses include materials and details courses, and grading and
drainage courses. These courses could require some mathematical and geometrical
work. There are some formulas and equations used as well as theoretical
knowledge in the grading and drainage course. In my opinion, this kind of courses
should be both instructor-centered and student-centered. The instructor has to
teach the theories and formulas to the students; therefore, students can work
on their grading projects. This class format, like that of the design classes,
must have lecture hours and lab hours. In the lecture hours the instructor should
teach the formulas and rules; in the lab hours, students should work on the
assignments provided by the instructor. While the instructor is helping
students on their assignments, students should help each other while working on
the assignments. From my point of view, students learn better by helping each
other in classroom. In this course type, learning the course content should be the
student’s first concern, not the grade. Therefore, the assignments that are provided
in classroom should have the highest percentage of the final grade; therefore,
the class participation and attendance have a significant role on these course
types. An open book midterm exam and a final project would provide the rest of
the percentage of grade. These types of classes are more preferred to teach by
me.
Verbal
classes consist of history classes. For example, the history of landscape
architecture course could be useful for landscape architecture students,
architecture students, and even maybe art history students. These type of
classes should be instructor-centered. Lectures should be given on each class
day by the instructor. As a midterm assignment, students can make presentations
about different historical projects and a final exam would generate a student’s
final grade. (-Serdar Kaleli)
2. My Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy is something that
has been developing over several years as my teaching experience grows. Through a few years of experience and a
lot of trial and error, I’ve learned that the job of a language teacher isn’t
really to teach, in the traditional sense. Language teachers should be class facilitators.
As a language-learning
facilitator, I don’t believe that my job is to dispense information to
students. I’m not the key master
whose job is to graciously bestow gifts of wisdom to humble, intellectually
impoverished students. I believe
that my job is to provide an open and comfortable environment for students to
learn through their own discovery.
I’ve found that when people have to work through problems and come to
understanding on their own instead of just being handed information, they tend
to internalize those discoveries more because they contribute to the learning
process and have more ownership of it.
This teaching style is sometimes referred to as the deductive method. As the name suggests, students are left
to deduce solutions through their own reasoning.
In some ways, my teaching
philosophy is, in some ways, similar to the well-known method of Socrates. I like to facilitate students’ learning
as they lead themselves to answers by asking relevant questions. I believe that asking questions allows
students to be more introspective and find answers within themselves. For the most part, after being given
the proper tools, students have almost everything they need within them to answer
their own questions. I like to
empower students by giving them confidence and helping them to understand that
they usually don’t need to look outside of themselves for answers, but rather
that they already have them.
In facilitating language
learning, I firmly believe that lecture style teaching is very
ineffective. I have found a great
amount of effectiveness in facilitating language learning using a discussion
style. With discussion format
lessons, students can exchange ideas with each other and the facilitator,
reason through material and deduce solutions. I don’t assign homework in my language classes because I
believe that real and lasting language learning can only occur through human
interaction and communication. I
like to make a deal with students at the beginning of the semester that, in
exchange for not assigning them homework, I require their full attention,
effort and energy during class time.
As for tests, I do believe that tests should be given, maybe 4 per
semester. I believe that giving
tests is important because it gives students a motivator to bring their A game
to their studies and to fully apply themselves. In speaking classes, my tests consist of listening,
speaking, and grammar comprehension. While tests play a big role in students’ final grades,
daily class participation grades are almost as important, percentage-wise.
In closing, my philosophy on
teaching is that the classroom should be a dynamic and non-judgmental place to
exchange ideas and come to our own conclusions. (-Rachel Branch)
1. Teaching Philosophy
I base my teaching ESL/EFL Writing
philosophy on the idea that teaching as much as possible to many people at a
time requires using time very effectively. In ESL/EFL, people are only ready to
learn certain grammar points at certain times, so teaching a grammar point to a
class at any given time may be of limited effectiveness. In fact, because
students need to produce quantities of language and alter the habits they use
while producing it, I find it more useful to gear the class toward ways of
getting them to produce more while thinking critically about what they produce.
Traditional writing classes have limited
the actual production, and increased the amount of attention each student is
required to put into a single draft. I have the opposite approach, because I
feel that students' first requirement is to have confidence, which they get
primarily by experience writing many things in many different environments.
Putting too much attention on a single draft focuses them on things they don't
know or aren't ready to master, and makes them less confident. Focusing their
attention on continual opportunity and more chances to do it right, or improve
one's habits, makes them more aware of the skills they carry with them and
their own ability to integrate new knowledge into their skills.
With larger quantities of writing, some
of it goes ungraded, or not sternly or severely criticized. Yes, that is a
price I pay for improving their confidence, getting a quantity of things to
compare, and being reasonably sure of encountering a wide range of grammatical
and rhetorical choices. Making students into better writers implies, to me,
making sure that these positive influences on their writing outweigh the
debilitating, negative feelings that result from being told that one's writing
is "not good enough." (-Tom
Leverett)
