I get out of my students what I put into them. If I make the course content diverse, relevant, interesting, fun, and innovative, that is how my students will turn out at the end of the term.
Here is a brief description of how of how each of these five criteria fit into my courses.
Diverse
I like to teach my students more than one perspective about topics. I don’t let them know my personal views on topics because I do not want to influence them one way or another. I want to pose thoughtful discussions in which they see different views people hold about important concepts so my students can arrive at the view that fits their own understanding.
Relevant
This is one of the most important concepts for adult students: They want to know that what they are learning is relevant to their lives today. Therefore, I make a point to relate my discussion topics to a variety of industries and backgrounds.
Interesting
Difficult concepts can be easier to understand if I ensure I attach interesting ideas and videos to discussions. Some people learn by reading discussions and articles, but videos and other multimedia tools are for the students who learn visually.
Fun
If I can introduce fun into my courses, students will enjoy the course much more —as long as I also keep the fun relevant, of course. When I select videos for courses, I only select videos less than 6 minutes long, and I often select ones with cartoon figures rather than a dry speaker. I will also include games that impress upon students the various concepts being covered in class.
Innovative
Today’s course delivery is all about using technology in the classroom for both online and on-ground courses. I prefer technology where students are involved in doing more than watching—they have to interact with the technology. There are many tech tools available to support course learning and the future is even brighter for better and better technology in the classroom.
What else?
These are the criteria I bring to my courses, but none of these alone differentiate me from a run-of-the-mill professor. It is my belief system and work ethic applied to course management that does that! I try to always respond to student emails within 24 hours of receiving them. I also take calls from my students at any time, although I do let them know my time zone so I don’t get calls in the middle of the night. I grade papers as soon as I see they are submitted. I also provide detailed feedback so that students don’t make the same errors in future papers. I follow grading rubrics so that I avoid any sort of bias when grading papers or discussions, too.
Combined, these criteria and my course management techniques help everyone involved work to the best of their abilities. When I draw out the very best learning from my students, they draw out the very best teaching from me.
Dr. Tina Lamb’s contribution to How I Teach is a welcome addition to Professor Services’ efforts to expand the discussion of teaching and learning from individual perspectives.
As an employment services company supporting academic workers in their job searches, Professor Services encourages all instructors to think clearly about their approaches, methodologies and perspectives. Articulating these considerations will make it easier to write your Teaching Philosophy Statement that must be included with all job applications.
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