Teaching Philosophy

I find that teaching must be an evolutionary process similar to evolutionary theory in biology. I have learned from past experiences as an adjunct college professor and a middle school science teacher that there are not parallels in class dynamics. I feel a teacher must evolve to each class setting by selecting class traits and niches for individual students so they can retain useful information that can be built upon.

As in biological evolutionary theory phenotypic traits are recognized and passed on through generations. I think as a teacher this same theory can be applied by recognizing what students have retained from previous learning and build upon that knowledge. This type of approach gives me the ability to adapt because I feel that even though I could teach the same course a thousand times, it should have a thousand different dynamics while covering the same material.

I have had the experience of learning from excellent instructors, but inversely extremely bad instructors as well. I am not a “worksheet person”, meaning I do not retain any information I read and then fill it out on a piece of paper. I have learned that discussion through lecture and reading material work best n my learning, so I have developed my teaching philosophy based upon this. I think if theory and concepts can be discussed in real world examples, or applied in a personal way to a student they are more likely to retain that information by making a connection within their mind.

I feel this approach has helped me to retain information in my education but it is not a concept I can take credit for. While at an internship in Washington DC I found a poster at the museum of natural history of Albert Einstein and it quoted;

 “Imagination ... is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”

This quotation has always resonated with me because I think as an instructor it is our job to embrace and initiate imagination for a given subject. Imaginary thinking allows the student to view a concept from several views and thereby retaining the information through personal connection. This is also a useful for research purposes by grasping concepts and teaching the student that it is ok to think outside the box.

This style of teaching can be assessed in several ways but is directly dependent upon class size and the number of sections being taught. I think it would be difficult to assess this style of teaching and retention in a large lecture hall setting, but not impossible. The best practice would be essay questions that probe critical thinking and imagination. For example, in a wildlife management class an exam question may be; if you encountered an over population of deer what management strategies would you use to lower the population? This type of question has the student think about what they have learned and discussed in class while using their imagination knowing that there are multiple answers to this question. The limitation to this type of assessment is a very large class size. This is where the evolutionary process for an instructor would be relevant.

For an instructor to be successful I think the student needs to be able to walk away from a course still thinking about the concepts that were covered. Evolving as an instructor and constantly changing instruction methods for each class is essential and making a connection with as many individual students as possible is key. I have recognized that not all students come from the same background or social setting; this is where divergence in evolutionary theory comes into play.

 When I recognize a cultural divergence I apply an environment where all students will thrive. Providing an equal environment can sometimes be challenging so as a professor it is important to play upon the thoughts of the students, perhaps by playing the “bad guy” and imposing a theory or concept that makes absolutely no sense to anyone. This could be viewed as a cat and mouse game because it brings the students on a united front against one person, me, so as a class they can bring ideas together and nullify a statement I have made. I feel this empowers the student as an individual, and provides inclusion with the majority thinking within the classroom, there by creating convergence as a community rather then competing individuals.