I believe a fundamental role I have as an educator is to develop a mentoring relationship with my students in order to develop their scholarship in the field. I aim to help students become reflective and collaborative thinkers, and who are also effective communicators. As with any relationship, both parties must be involved in its growth and development. As a teacher, I strive to demonstrate to each student my respect for them as a person and for their contributions to the learning process, as well as to motivate them to truly master the various knowlege and skills critical to their chosen field of study. A primary role of a teacher is as a facilitator, and in that role they should enable students to become responsible for their own learning. I view teaching as a process of encouraging students to make connections between their own experiences, prior knowledge and the subject matter. I strive to foster in my students critical thinking skills and problem-solving strategies. As field keeps changing, one of the key goals in my teaching process is to provide a framework for life-long learning.
As the integration of various skills and knowledge are critical for the educational development of my students, I have worked extensively to integrate proven high-impact educational strategies, such as inquiry and project-based learning, into my courses. Project-based learning (PBL) leads the students to develop a deeper understanding of the subject area by focusing upon a realistic problem, which also provides a critical contextual component to their learning. Some of the main goals are to aid students in the acquisition of critical knowledge, problem solving proficiency, self-directed learning strategies, and team participation skills. The impact on student learning is continuously evaluated, both in the current course as well as downstream courses, so as to ensure the best educational experience for my students.
I strongly believe that our students are more capabable than they know and by setting high expectations and providing support and motivation they can master very complex topics. With this in mind, I think a major part of my role as a teacher is to truly challenge my students and to actively help them rise to the level of that challenge in a variety of ways. Though knowledge of the fundamental course concepts must be covered and mastered by the students, I am more concerned with a student’s understanding of those concepts and their ability to integrate that knowledge and apply it in new problem-solving situations. My exams are designed to bring together different concepts from individual examples and homework problems and put them together. My intent in developing exam questions is not to evaluate whether a student can solve this particular problem, but rather whether they understand and can apply the concepts required to solve this problem, as well as to integrate them with other concepts/skills critical to their future.