To begin, as an instructor the first question I tend to ask myself is what do I mean by stating: “I want my students to learn X?” Secondly, the next question I ask is: “how do I get them to learn X?” In other words, what kind of learning situation do I want to create for my students to actually learn? To answer these questions, I begin with my own experience in the educational process. Throughout my journey, I realized that in order for me to truly say I learned something I had to be able to apply the knowledge learned to various contexts. Furthermore, not only does being able to apply the knowledge learned key but also being in a learning environment which is conducive to that possibility is equally as important. Consequently, my conception of “learning” is based on the student’s ability to apply the content to new situations. This mode of learning moves them beyond simply recalling course content for the sake of passing exams or other assignments. I believe much of life is about applying certain knowledge to different experiences to determine the best means of accomplishing a goal or task or to make sense of a particular experience. Additionally, constructive interaction among the instructor and the students are equally as important to the learning process. A students’ learning environment is one of the most vital aspects to any effective means of pedagogy. Knowledge is socially constructed, thus positive interaction between an enthusiastic instructor and other learners creates a beneficial environment and is imperative to an effective acquisition of knowledge. Thus, the “learning” process begins and ends with the students’ ability to apply course content to new situations and positive interaction with others in the classroom. Once an instructor has an understanding of how to get students to learn, the subsequent step is to discern what does “teaching” mean? And what are the most appropriate methods of “teaching”? To address these inquiries, I start with a multitude of academic scholarship which all speaks to effective pedagogy. For starters, I believe that effective pedagogy must begin with the student and their learning experiences. As Niemi, Heikkinen, and Kannas contend, “…involving students…in educational decision-making, and listening seriously to their stories of experiences as learners [are] essential first steps in developing education”[1]. This means that effective teaching should honor the student’s voice. Moreover, effective teaching involves the instructor to think about the long-term goals as well as the short-term goals of the course. While many students come into the classroom thinking about the short-term goals (i.e. an overall grade, exam scores, etc.), an effective instructor must encourage students to think about the larger social/intellectual/political implications of the course. For instance, a public speaking course is not simply a course that is a General Education course that one must pass in order to graduate. While that is true, this level of thinking is obscure, in that it does not take into account how public speaking can be utilized in other contexts. Thus, I concur with what Husbands and Pearce noted that effective teaching should provide a mechanism for considering long-term goals, specifically by reexamining key ideas, drawing a relationship between new and long-standing materials all while linking the attainment of information and comprehension to related abilities[2]. This relationship between attainment of knowledge and a student’s abilities also correlate with my philosophy of utilizing student’s previous knowledge in my courses. Students come into the classroom with an established understanding of the different aspects of life. Given this phenomenon, I believe that an effective teacher should utilize the knowledge that students already possess to continue to build off previous knowledge and build student confidence as several studies have suggested[3][4]. This technique also allows students to utilize their naturally gifted talents to understand course material. That is, this mode of pedagogy allows students to be able to approach the course material from various frameworks which are generally familiar to them and their mode of learning. Thus, an effective teacher must be open to utilizing multiple strategies given that students come into the classroom with many different forms of knowledge. Furthermore, this claim assumes that the true nature of teaching is not relied upon in the strategies but in how the instructor applies them[5]. This also leads to my goals for my students as an instructor. My goal for my students is to get them to reach higher levels of thinking (as mentioned above) which I base in Bloom’s taxonomy[6]. Utilizing this model, I organize my course objectives, course assignments, assessments, etc. based on challenging my students’ ability to utilize multiple forms of thinking for the purposes of mastering different abilities rather than the course content. For instance, my exams are not all “Recall” questions; some are “application” questions which challenges my students to utilize the concepts discussed in class with new contexts, exercising their ability to apply course content to various circumstances. Furthermore, when I set goals for my students, I do so with intentionality and look for them to achieve those goals. As Perrott mentions, “Without intent, the pupil’s achievements become random and accidental rather than controlled and predictable. However, the intent is not enough by itself. Without achievement of his [or her] intended learning goals, the teacher cannot truly be called effective.”[7] In sum, to assist my students in learning, I structure the course in a manner which will cause them to employ higher levels of thinking that will enhance their skills so that they can use them in new situations. In addition, I structure my classes with purposeful intention to assist their intellectual and social achievements. The also leads to my discernment of exactly how do I know my teaching philosophy is working? To test out whether or not my teaching philosophy is working as intended I do a number of assessments. First, I evaluate through interaction and communication with my students. Each class session I make sure not only I interact with students in an informal manner but I also encourage students to get to know each other and intermingle with each other. Simply put, I encourage small and large group discussions among the students as well as with myself to determine where my students are cognitively with the material. I am a firm believer that a good mix of informal and formal interaction can allow for a safe space for learning. Second, because I believe that reading comprehension is essential, I also assess learning through small reading quizzes and chapter review questions. Next, in my oral communication courses specifically, I allow students to present their speeches and then provide feedback from myself and their partners. While I believe my feedback on their performance is valuable, I believe peer-to-peer evaluations can be equally, if not more beneficial because it demonstrates the student-evaluators’ understanding of the material as well as the student-performer. To that end, these are the major mechanism in which I assess my teaching philosophy. In summary, I believe that learning and teaching are fluid processes that continuously are reconfigured throughout my experience in and outside of the classroom. Some of the challenges I still have is assisting those students who just cannot seem to get “it”. Often times in a sixteen-week course, it may be difficult to reach all my students. However, I take great pride in helping students maximize their potential, especially those that come from disadvantaged backgrounds. With that said, because I consider myself a lifelong learner, I attempt to learn from my students, my peers and mentors to better prepare me for teaching students who struggle in my courses. Each year I continue to set different goals for myself based on certain realizations of the past teaching experience. Whether it is being more prepared, implementing music, pop culture and recent scholarship (public and academic), group interactive activities, and even field trips, my focus is always on enhancing my students learning and my teaching to help them succeed intellectually and socially beyond their time with me as an instructor.
[1] Reetta Niemi, Hannu L.T. Heikkinen, and Lasse Kannas. “Polyphony in the classroom: reporting narrative action research reflexively.” Educational Action Research 18, no. 2 (2010): 137.
[2] Chris Husbands and Jo Pearce. “What makes great pedagogy? Nine claims from research.” Research and development network major themes: Theme 1 (2012).
[3] Daniel Muijs and David Reynolds. Effective teaching: Evidence and practice. Sage, 2017.
[4] Gary D Borich. Observation skills for effective teaching: research-based practice. Routledge, 2016.
[5] John Hattie. “Teachers Make a Difference, What is the research evidence?.” (2003).
[6] Benjamin Samuel Bloom, Max D. Engelhart, Edward J. Furst, Walker H. Hill, and David R. Krathwohl. Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. Longman Publishing Group, 1984.
[7] Elizabeth Perrott. Effective teaching: A practical guide to improving your teaching. Routledge, 2014. 5.