When teaching, I strive to do three things: facilitate learning, promote interaction, and encourage growth. All three of these goals seem to overlap appropriately to create a strong foundation for teaching.
Facilitate Learning
I strive to facilitate learning both inside and outside of the classroom. Inside the classroom, I do this through clear communication of fundamental principles. By this, I mean that I first try to understand at what level of understanding my students are at and then build instruction on top of that. To facilitate learning outside of the classroom, I place an emphasis on processes over pure memorization. I’m firm believer in “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I believe that if you teach a student how to derive a solution to a problem rather than just memorizing that solution then you increase their capacity for critical thinking.
Promote Interaction
I strive to promote interaction both between myself and the students and among the students themselves. I encourage students to ask questions and attend my office hours by providing feedback that they feel is beneficial. For example, if I’m asked a question about something that leads to a hint then I’ll bring it up with the class. Not only has the student helped them self to better understand but they’ve also helped the class. If I’m asked a question that has many correct solutions then, if applicable, I’ll defer to a student or group of students that I believe my know the answer and help them develop their response into something appropriate through discussion. Both approaches also enable me to better gauge my students understanding of the subject matter. In this way, such interaction in the classroom serves to benefit all parties involved.
Encourage Growth
I strive to encourage growth in my students. This mainly comes down to relevance and interest. I believe that making a subject-matter relevant encourages students to think more about both the subject and the matter. I also believe that attempting to make that relevant subject-matter interesting only serves to increase how much students think about it. To make something relevant in the classroom, I first draw from how the material is or has been relevant to me, personally. I then draw from how the material is relevant to others working both in and outside the field.
