The Foundation Of My Teaching Philosophy

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The foundation of my teaching philosophy was inspired by my most respected and beloved professors throughout my education. During this influential time, I discovered that effective professors must excel at multiple roles including stimulating lifelong learning, encouraging critical thinking skills, exhibiting constructive interpersonal communication, and serving as role models. These roles may be challenging and require an unwavering commitment to not only enhance a student’s knowledge but help them become successful professionals. The following statement will outline the specific actions I take in my classes to meet my responsibilities as an influential professor as well as discuss prime highlights of my teaching experience. For my efforts and teaching proficiencies, I have received superb evaluations and a teaching award.

First, I strongly believe motivating students can make the difference between success and failure. Students may expend very little energy if they do not gain interest in the classroom material; thus, a lack of interest can lead to a lack of learning. I concur that interest can be generated by a number of different stimuli, such as having an engaging professor, the allure of wonder, or relating classroom material to personal (real life) experience. For example, when I covered Poisson and Negative binomial distributions in my Stat 361 class, I connected those two distributions to real-world problems and even mentioned this process in my PhD thesis. I also encouraged the students to attend my Stat seminar the following week to learn more about the distributions and realize their application in the fields of economics and biology.

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In my opinion, it is incredibly important to create an interactive learning environment in the classroom. Instead of viewing students as an audience that does not require participation, I favor classroom dynamics that permit dialogue. I understand that it is the professor’s duty to not only inspire critical thinking but help students communicate their original thoughts and apply them. An effective professor should serve as a guide to the students who can provide alternative explanations, asks varied questions, and suggests different scenarios. Another technique that I believe enhances a student’s academic achievement is allowing cooperative learning where students work together in small groups.

I consider any opportunity to actively involve students and build meaningful experiences during lessons because it provides natural motivation, and helps them in discovering the virtue of learning. For example, when I present a new statistical formulas, I usually explain it with a small proof or method of motivation. The motivation or proof helps the student understand what is going on and gives them a simplified method for remembering the formula. In my teaching evaluation, one of my students said, “I used what I learned in this class to help my friend who is taking Stat 361 at Wright College. She was really struggling…I showed her how I learned to solve problems and how our instructor taught us. She got every question right on her quiz after understanding the proof and why they are used. This shows how great the instructor is and how much he cares about the students.”

Like many other professors, I agree that quizzes and exams are essential learning and feedback tools. Good grades not only mean the student understands the content but usually validates that the professor explained the concept effectively. I typically assign weekly or bi-weekly quizzes for most of my courses. For exams, I normally provide practice sheets and run a review session. Of course, I stress that they should not use the practice exam alone for studying. I always try to make the exams fair and balanced; therefore, most of my exam questions are based on the homework and examples discussed in class. The last class session before each exam is a review session where I ask the students to prepare any questions they may have and ensure constructive feedback.

Personally, hearing how students view current problems and respond to the topics being discussed can provide valuable feedback I can use to become a better professor. Therefore, student evaluations are extremely critical for me and I ask my students to complete three per semester. I also understand that students learn in different ways, whether that be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. Thus, discovering how a student came to understand the concepts discussed in the class can help me create new explanations of concepts for future students.

Above all, I deem trust and honesty as important parts of a classroom community. I treat my students with the utmost respect because it is an important step for building refined cultures and nations. In my classes, I allow every student to freely express his/her ideas in an environment where everyone feels safe to discuss topics in which they may be struggling, academic or otherwise.

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