I believe that the craft of teaching is the constant interplay between teaching concepts and students’ objectives and learning styles. As an educator, I strongly believe that my pedagogical stance focuses on helping students to succeed as distinguished educators. I believe that a distinguished educator must be armed with critical thinking skill. To help my students developing critical thinking skill, I start by creating a positive learning environment and promoting intellectual diversity. This not only sets an example for students to follow, but it also allows students to share their ideas openly with other students and the teacher. Respecting and promoting intellectual diversity requires a deeper understanding of how diversity manifests inside and outside of the classroom. On the one hand, intellectual diversity manifests itself in the various worldviews that students possess. On the other hand, intellectual diversity manifests itself in the various ways students learn. To effectively promote and develop students’ critical thinking skills, both forms of intellectual diversity must be taken into consideration.

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In my teaching, I follow student-centered approach through a structured program of individual and group assignments exploring range of applications, and genres, alongside intellectual analysis of the cultural, critical, and contextual issues. The bulk of my classroom method is teacher-guided collaboration. I believe that students retain best by collaborating with each other and under experienced supervision. During this collaboration and open learning process, students gain from success as well as mistakes.

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I see teaching and learning as having three interwoven stages: exposing students to new technology concepts, facilitating understanding of the learning material, and relating these concepts to the other aspects of students’ learning objectives and their daily lives. Elements of each stage must be an integral part of the design of every class in order to support the ultimate goal of developing an effective meaningful learning. The first stage exposes students to certain information and ideas. This exposure can take many forms. While readings can provide a foundation for understanding the discipline and setting forth theoretical concepts, there are other ways to offer the first exposure to ideas such as discussing hypothetical and actual cases. Such exposure activities may be done in or prior to class to facilitate deeper reflection and discussion in the actual class-time. For this stage, I use different teaching strategies to ensure that the material is accessible for students with variety of learning styles.

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The second stage is closely related to the first: to facilitate student learning of the material. I must not only expose the students to information but also facilitate understanding of what the material means. Again, because students learn differently, I believe that each key idea must be addressed with several different strategies. Readings can be reinforced through related cases. Students can analyze these cases through written reflection by relating to the learning materials. Short lectures can introduce new concepts and reinforce ideas. Writing can take the form of in-class exercises or at-home work. The writing may provide the basis for small group or large group discussions, or conversely, group discussion may serve as a brainstorming precursor to writing. I incorporate a thoughtful variety of these activities into class work in order to reach the greatest number of students. Using a variety of techniques and methods also serves to peak students’ interest and thus motivate interest in the learning material.

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The third stage is relating the learning concepts to the other aspects of students’ objectives and daily lives through considering a broad range of perspectives and sources of knowledge. In this stage, students would share their ideas with the larger group, and I would facilitate their conversation and analyze their results. This preparatory work could lead to examine and critique their work. The key is to construct the sequence of activities so as to further the learning goals for the particular course.

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To assess student knowledge, I utilize a variety of tools, recognizing that students may succeed in demonstrating knowledge differently. Case analysis, hands-on projects, creating e-portfolio as well as oral presentations, have their place in assessing a baseline of concrete information. The actual choice and combination of assessment tools must align with the learning objectives for the course and the teaching strategies. Being open to change and using a variety of assessment tools and teaching methods underscores how I see my role as a teacher: to open the door to as many different types of learners as possible. I believe that the outcome will be students who have broadened their knowledge base in the goal of mastering the learning materials.

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Because there are many dimensions to student-center learning environment, it is best to use multiple measures involving multiple sources of data to evaluate the instructional activities. I include multiple inputs, including student growth as essential part of it to assess my instruction effectiveness. The measurements include the following inputs:

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1. Teaching effectiveness based on student feedback.

2. Teaching effectiveness based on assessment results.

3. Evidence of my contribution to positive academic, attitudinal, and social outcomes for students such as regular attendance, self-efficacy, motivation and cooperative behavior.

4. Evidence of the use of diverse resources and activities to plan and structure engaging learning opportunities; monitor student progress formatively, adapting instruction as needed; and evaluate learning using multiple sources of evidence.

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Diverse teaching techniques and strategies

 

I use the following teaching techniques and strategies to deliver the learning content:

   

• Active Learning: By engaging students in activities, such as reading, writing, discussion, or problem solving that promotes analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content. Cooperative learning, problem-based learning, and the use of case methods and simulations are some approaches that promote active learning.

• Cooperative Learning, Groups and Teams: By having students involve in work together in groups to maximize their own and one another’s learning (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991).  During cooperative learning activities students are exposed to perspectives that may be new or contrary to their own.  By working together students actively explore class concepts and material by talking, listening, reading, writing, and reflecting. 

• Case-based Teaching and Problem-based Learning: By having students develop skills in analytical thinking and reflective judgment by reading and discussing complex, real-life scenarios.

• Discussion-Based Teaching and Handling Controversial Discussions in the Classroom: By helping students to apply abstract ideas and think critically about what they learn. This activity intended to encourage students to talk, and handling common problems that arise during discussions.

• Experiential Learning and hands-on Work: By involving students in “learn by doing” and by reflecting on the experience. Experiential learning activities can include, but are not limited to, hands-on creating artifacts, applying ideas to real-life situations, and presenting performances.

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