Teaching Philosophy
Teaching is mystery clothed in daily ordinariness, artistry hidden in demanding practices, awe whispered in interior struggles.
My philosophy of teaching asserts that students are entitled to quality instruction in an active and stimulating learning environment. Students should experience frequent and repeated opportunities to act, react, and interact with each other and the professor. Curriculum materials should be timely and relevant. Standards of excellence—high, yet attainable—should be used to facilitate optimal student learning. Finally, as teaching is a process, not an activity, my teaching philosophy offers an invaluable reflective view on “how to” strive for instructional improvement. Students want their professors to be engaging, humorous, wise, and informative. They will do everything within their power to draw these qualities out of us if given some indication that these qualities are there to be tapped.
My approach to teaching is to spend a good deal of effort prior to class in preparation and then to attend to the students very carefully to determine what they want and need to hear at any point in the lecture. For each class, I always prepare far more material than I can present while bearing in mind which material must be presented and which is optional. The dynamics of each class determine how the optional material is employed. Student questions and facial expressions inform me about what issues to delve into in more depth, what examples to give, and what stories to tell. I attend to faces very carefully. I tell a lot of stories.
My emphasis in teaching is on learning. My teaching goal is to facilitate learning (helping students learn) and I believe that teaching plays a major role in that. Learning is primarily the student’s responsibility, whereas teaching is my responsibility. My emphasis is on helping the student to learn, rather than just dispensing my knowledge to them. I am there to “light their candle,” not just “fill their bucket.” Service-learning is a pedagogical approach that I use consistently with undergraduate students. This experiential learning tool allows students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems in community contexts and to complete structured reflections on the relationships between assignments, course objectives, and personal educational objectives. I feel it is important to include such activities in all of my classes since writing skills are critical for all speech-language clinicians and researchers. I also use undergraduate research as a teaching tool, since the research process allows students to apply classroom knowledge through scientific questions of specific interest.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet: Then Said a Teacher: “Speak to us of teaching”. And he said:
- No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
- The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
- The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
- The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it. And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
- For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
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