Teaching Philosophy
I was surprised one day when one of my undergraduate professors, Joanne Ciulla, remarked that she believed the real purpose of a college education was to teach the privileged class how better to enjoy their leisure time. Her comment was based on the observation that very little of what students learn in college is ever applied in their professional lives. (She later published a book on the meaning of work in modern society.) Ironically, perhaps, the skills I learned in the two courses I took with her—critical thinking, and ethics—are skills that I use almost daily as a scholar and teacher. The first thing I’ve come to believe in my nearly ten years as a teacher is that above all, effective teaching focuses on skills and knowledge that have tangible, practical value to students. Teamwork, professionalism, problem-solving, and communication are the foundations upon which I build every course that I teach. Regardless of the course content, these four items go on the syllabus and factor into the students’ evaluation.
I’ve found that the more I understand my students, the less I teach. I believe that the most effective learning takes place when students are actively engaged in building things, verbalizing their beliefs, explaining concepts; to give them time to do so, frequently the best thing for me to do is to shut up and let them talk. I used to plan my lectures so that I had about one PowerPoint slide for about every three minutes. For a ninety minute class I would have between thirty and forty slides. When I forced myself to cut back to only one slide per ten minutes I found a dramatic thing happened: students became more alert, talked more, and their understanding and performance greatly improved. Their motivation levels increased and they were more likely to complete the outside preparation, which meant that even though I covered less content in class, students learned more.
I believe in frequent, formative assessment. I avoid number and letter grades unless absolutely necessary. I do most evaluation of student work in class with the students for the simple reason that if students do not learn to tell the difference between high and low quality work, they will never on their own be able to produce high quality work. There is solid research (cited in my dissertation) to support my approach. By removing number and letter grades from the classroom, the focus of the course becomes the content. Students ask “What did I get on my assignment?” and I respond with, “You tell me. If you understand the material, you should be able to answer that question on your own.” Most of the time, they can.
I learn students’ names as soon as I can. It’s important. I’m strict about attendance—showing up on time is a professional skill. I strongly encourage students, particularly seniors, to dress as they expect to dress for their professions. I have zero tolerance for cheating. I set an example for my students by keeping myself up to date on current trends, and current news and events, and incorporating them frequently into class discussions—it’s important, for example, for students in a web development class to see how a technology as simple and easy to set up as a blog, can help bring down a Supreme Court nominee, or help to organize support for disaster victims.
Lastly, I’m interested in innovation when it comes to teaching. I studied the first two years for my master’s degree completely via the Internet from my home in a tiny town in rural northern Japan. It cost a fortune to ship books and videos from the U.S. to my home, but I thrived in the self-paced environment. Over the past several years, I have built systems to support my teaching and my students, and I have worked on larger projects to support all instructors. I like to try new approaches, new technologies, to tinker, to push boundaries. My students are frequently my partners on these explorations.
The most important qualities of an effective teacher are that he or she believes in the students’ innate ability to master the material, and that she or he is genuinely interested in knowing what the students understand. Combined with genuine caring for the students and this type of instructor is most likely to have successful students.