Personal Teaching Philosophy. - Purdue University



Personal Philosophy of Teaching

Dr. B. F. Samuel

[As a life-long student, I am indebted to acknowledge and appreciate the many teachers on four continents who have demonstrated affection for teaching and knowledge, and for collectively leaving their mark on me to be a passionate facilitator in the art of teaching, and a dedicated consumer of the science of learning.]

(Created: 29-March-2001; Updated: 02-February-2008.)

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SUMMARY STATEMENT

Despite my academic credentials, it is my 20 years of working and living on four continents and the wide variety of working experiences that I have accumulated, that enables me to offer “an understanding of the world and how people interact, and can be better at engaging.” I have a passion for “open dialogue and pro-active engagement (as obligation and responsibility) between people with opposing views”. To achieve this, I employ the art of teaching and the science of learning, in order to engage with students (or “junior colleagues”), by utilizing the principles of experiential education (creative simulations, games, and role-playing in working-world situations).

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“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing repackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves”.

Chickering and Gamson (1987)1

For every student in my class, I have the highest expectation that each student “must willingly accept to actively participate” in the process of collaborative learning, as declared by my (1990) definition of “Participaction” which includes the acceptance to:

← ASK questions;

← Answer questions;

← Engage in groups;

← Listen to others, or invite others to speak; and

← Connect personal experiences to theories/research.

Learning should be experiential, interactive, relevant to the working world, and ultimately interesting and/or important for students. My teaching behaviour, therefore, intentionally stimulates undergraduate students towards their learning outcomes. A teacher who finds the course material fascinating, and displays an enthusiasm for teaching that is evident to students, will be rewarded by students being interested in the subject or topic, or at least recognize that the subject or topic is attractive, intriguing and enticing for the teacher in front of them. I want my students (who I prefer to call “my junior colleagues”) to notice my own zestful curiosity for teaching and scholarship in any discipline. My teaching goals, strategies, and vision for the ideal teaching environment are all part of a larger framework to demonstrate my passion for teaching, and for students to have exuberance to achieve learning outcomes. I believe that a teacher should have specific behavioural and learning objectives in mind before entering the classroom.

For me, as a teacher, my preparation includes my body and my voice just as an actor does. I enter the classroom ready to “perform, not to entertain”. For every class session, I resolve that students will have an experience, and I remind myself of my definition for experiential education:

EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

is a process that stimulates learning,

and as such, is a journey that includes growth

and does not exclude conflict.

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An EXPERIENTIAL journey

is never smooth or comfortable.

We learn through the obstacles we encounter and overcome.

Most of all, we understand ourselves and develop in maturity

when we REFLECT on the journey (the experience).

B. F. Samuel (1990)

Having the advantage of crossing borders or barriers of nationality, ethnicity, race, culture, and religion, I obviously have a strong educational commitment to inspire global citizenship, and stewardship of the earth. The influences of Kurt Hahn’s teaching philosophy and advocacy of community service2 together with Paulo Freire’s educational philosophy3 have given me an integrated foundation for teaching. I offer six important approaches that illustrate my teaching goals, strategies, and vision for the ideal teaching environment, and the best outcomes for students.

First, my teaching must develop critical thinking skills for students when they encounter work or interpersonal situations (especially in this global workplace). Students should be able to draw from the knowledge and experiences we have learned from history and from other cultures, so that they do not reinvent the wheel, but instead be able to recognize problems and to offer win-win solutions for all the players. This is done through simulations and role-playing in the working or social worlds.

Second, students must possess effective written and oral communication skills. Good writing skills allow students to communicate ideas, foster critical thinking, and provide students a competitive advantage with employers. I implore my students to contribute ideas during class discussions as this builds self-confidence and public speaking skills. I repeatedly use concepts from other disciplines and from my experiences around the world, as examples and incentives to help students realize that learning involves drawing from many topics, subjects, or disciplines, not exclusively from an isolated course or merely from their own personal experience.

Third, I believe teachers have a responsibility not only to show enthusiasm for the subject, but also to make the material pertinent in the lives of students. I want students to recognize that the knowledge they gain from my courses will enhance their own long-term personal development (in their public and private lives) so that they become:

✓ better practitioners in their interpersonal relationships;

✓ comfortable at speaking in public, and to each other;

✓ aware of intercultural relationships or situations;

✓ perceptive consumers of political information; and

✓ able to find “common ground” through mutual concession.

Fourth, I would like to see my students challenge their personal experiences with the “wisdom” of the textbook on theories and research. The humanities and social sciences are not an absolute science, and there are always several ways to explain human behaviour or social constructs. Challenging accepted concepts enable students to develop their own perspectives and encourages a “think outside the box” mentality, useful for basic problem-solving skills in the working world. Most importantly, I intentionally influence students to integrate the recognized “wisdom” of the text and the “presumed knowledge” of the instructor with their own experiences or perceptions from their social world. This integration happens in every discussion situation when students are always encouraged to cite sources from the text or other readings that link to their experiences; or to confront their experiences and observations with the text or instructor. One outcome for me as a teacher is to encourage students to struggle with issues or controversies, rather than settle for a “right or wrong” or “black or white” approach to education, or in their social world, or in their personal development.

Fifth, to attain my goals as an instructor, my teaching is always within an interactive classroom through creative games and innovative role-playing. My students’ feedback confirms that my creative games reinforces student learning, and I believe that appropriate role-playing is a useful avenue to generate interest in difficult or sensitive issues. Students should not be passive learners. I like to keep students engaged in the learning process, by involving them and encouraging them to participate and to take on leadership roles, in the classroom, teaching, and discussions.

Sixth, I like to expose students to some of the original research in the disciplines of communication, anthropology, sociology, political science, and psychology to challenge them to find shortcomings in the author’s methodology, assumptions, or findings. I have found that students often have not read the original research and only know the references to original theories or concepts. Exposing students to original research demonstrates to students the process of “the contributions of scholars to the theories”. It is my experience that students also develop critical thinking and writing skills when they respond to these original articles.

Finally, I enjoy the art of teaching, and I continue to discover the science of learning outcomes. I hope that my enthusiasm for teaching and my inter-disciplinary approaches are transparent and obvious to students. While I know from my teaching experiences that an interactive classroom, humour, and original research are effective pathways towards my teaching goals, I am willing to adopt new teaching methods if it means that my students will learn new skills or improve in their personal development. For example, several non-traditional female students have suggested that I should smile more, especially in the first week of the semester (to offset the impression that students feel intimidated). I have since incorporated this into my demeanour while teaching. One new approach that I am practicing is to think of students as “junior colleagues”, especially those who are “non-traditional students from the working world”. However, while it might be “nice” to be liked by students, the measure of quality student learning is the key to any success for a teacher or an institution.

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NOTES

1 Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.

2 Kurt Hahn (1886~1974), a refugee from Nazi Germany, recognized as the “father of experiential education,” is also the founder of the United World Colleges and the Outward Bound movement. His document “The Seven Laws of Salem” (1930) is quoted in Flavin, M (1996), Kurt Hahn’s School and Legacy: To discover you can be more and do more than you believed, [Wilmington, DE: Middle Atlantic Press], (and can be accessed from ). Although an outspoken critic of traditional education, he did not publish any of his ideas. However, several texts speak to his vision and inspiration for many students that “no one else in our day has created more original educational ideas, at the same time, possessed the gift of getting them into practice” (The Times of London, 15-December-1974). Besides Flavin’s (1996) text, the other central text is Röhrs, H. and Tunstall-Behrens, H. (eds.), Kurt Hahn: A life span in education and politics, [London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul]. In addition, I wrote an unpublished paper, “The Legacy of Kurt Hahn: Development of the Individual as a Global Citizen” (November 2001), and presented it to the Center for Instructional Excellence at Purdue University.

3 Paulo Freire (1921~1997), the Brazilian educationalist, has left a significant mark on thinking about progressive practice. His Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), [New York, NY: Continuum], is currently one of the most quoted educational texts (especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia). Freire was able to draw upon, and weave together, a number of strands of thinking about educational practice and liberation. His legacy of commitment, love, and hope to American educators can be found in the critical pedagogy, which infuses hundreds of “grass roots” organizations, college classrooms, and most recently school reform efforts in major urban areas.” Exiled from his native Brazil during a military coup in 1964 for his educational work among the rural poor, he continued his “pedagogy of the oppressed” in Chile, and later--under the auspices of the World Council of Churches in Geneva--throughout the world. In 1969, he taught at Harvard University and ten years later returned to his own country under a political amnesty. In 1988, the City of Sao Paulo appointed him as Minister of Education--a position that made him responsible for guiding school reform within two-thirds of the nation’s schools.

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