Teaching Philosophy

          ​Education, as a field, has captured my interest because it requires an awareness and respect for the complexities involved in building individual capacity through interactions.  Learners must interact with others, relevant material, necessary tools, and even their own thoughts as they expand their cognitive awareness.  Truth, production, and action are more than the goals of knowledge set forth by Aristotle; they are the embodiment of knowledge as learners contemplate, cultivate, and engage with the world around them; each works to produce the others in an effort to reproduce themselves.  As an educator, I am afforded the opportunity to connect with learners during this process.  More importantly, my engagement in their learning process happens on two distinct levels.  There is a purposeful intent as I structure lessons, activities, and assessments.  Yet, there exists a layer of incidental interaction, interpreted differently by each students, in the way I conduct myself, in the words I choose when speaking with them, and their perception of my effort and intent towards guiding them as learners.  The entire process is reciprocal as they, in turn, impact my own personal and professional journey. 
          Teaching requires a balance of transparency and ambiguity, especially at the graduate level.  It is imperative that students understand the learning goals for a course, the path they will take to learn that material, as well as how that learning will be assessed.  Yet it is necessary for them to struggle within their zone of proximal development to think critically about the information presented to them and synthesize it in a meaningful way.  There is a fine line between coddling students and pushing them into unnecessary frustration.  Stellar instructors find a way to create and manage the desired amount of intellectual tension. 
          My goal as an educator is to provide the structure, support, and encouragement required for student success.  I believe the best way to do this is through forging relationships with students both individually and collectively.  Each student comes from a different background that requires acknowledgment and acceptance.  The group, as a whole, should also be observed as a “learner” in its own right.  We are coming together out of a shared interest in learning the course material to develop competence, engaging in joint activities and discussion in order to learn from each other, and utilizing a common repertoire of resources.  This establishes us as a unique, albeit transient, community of practice.  Through my effort and attention, students should leave my classes with a better understanding of the course content, an awareness of their individual strengths and weaknesses as learners, as well as the skills for working positively with others.  The goal is to create a variety of opportunities for students to interact with each other, the material, their own reflections, and me as a way to expand their knowledge; hopefully with the benefit of encouraging them to continue asking questions and seeking answers about the world around them.