PDF Statement of teaching philosophy

Laura Angelescu

Statement of teaching philosophy

November 2009

My teaching philosophy is the result of my experience as a teacher and also as a student for more than 20 years, in both the US and Europe. In fact, with both my parents being teachers, school always felt like a second home to me. As a student, I have experienced great teachers, some terrible ones, as well as a lot in between. In my experience, excellent teachers have to be passionate about their subject and striving to instill this same passion in their students. They have to establish a positive class atmosphere by investing time in building a rapport with their students and encouraging active class participation. Moreover, teachers should not just expect respect from the students, but should treat them with the same kind of respect. They should show that they care about the students and are interested in their learning.

During my graduate studies at the University of Southern California, I have been offered the opportunity to work as a research assistant, but I had the chance to be a teaching assistant while at the University of California, Irvine. This experience spanned very diverse classes involving diverse teaching methods. For the intermediate microeconomics class, the discussion sessions focused mostly on solving problems; during the global economy sessions, the focus was on open discussion of issues; finally, the introductory class in probability and statistics was set in a computer lab and required me to introduce students to the statistical package SPSS. Throughout this experience, I tried to incorporate those aspects of excellent teaching that I had experienced myself as a student.

I believe that life-long learning occurs when students are not just being told facts, but are fully involved in the class and can connect to the information presented. Many people say that they did not really understand economics when they took courses in it. My goal is to have my students leave the class understanding the subject and how to apply it to real life. Teaching economics should go beyond teaching a set of facts and definitions. It should teach students an economic way of thinking about problems that will help them as citizens and in whatever career they decide to pursue.

One thing I realized during my teaching experience is how diverse classes can be. There are usually differences in majors, but also a variety of economic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. The most challenging disparity, however, is the difference in student learning styles. Some students understand things better when they are put in mathematical terms, others prefer a more graphical or intuitive explanation, while others like to have real world examples to relate to. In order to appeal to all these styles, I try to combine problem solving, graphical analysis, data visualization, and news stories during the classes.

In order to get my students interested in the subject matter, I convey my own enthusiasm by talking about my research and other work I am doing related to the topics covered in class. This can help students see how theoretical concepts can actually be applied to real world problems.

It is important for me to set high standards for my students and, as an instructor, this starts with being well prepared for every class. The first step is to set clear objectives for the class, starting with what I think is important for my students to remember long after they leave college. Once these objectives are set, the next step is to develop the means to achieve them, the final result being a curriculum that challenges the students and awakens their interest. It is also very important to make it clear to the students that they need to have a good understanding of the subject matter in order to do well in the class. A teacher should treat students as adults, answering their questions thoughtfully, describing their responsibilities, and trusting them to fulfill these responsibilities. I

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Laura Angelescu write extensive comments when grading exams so that each student understands why credit was deducted and where there is need for improvement.

I believe that creating a class atmosphere congenial enough for students to feel comfortable to express their opinion and approach me with questions is very important because learning is incomplete without questioning. To this end, I encourage my students to contact me frequently as a way to show my concern about their learning. When asking a question in class, I want to encourage them without being patronizing, by waiting until someone offers a possible answer before I explain the concept. Leaving pauses in a presentation also gives the students the opportunity to ask questions if they feel the need to.

One of the things I most enjoy about teaching is personal interaction with students. It is really rewarding to work with students both in class and individually during office hours, and to see them progress. I also take great pride in mentoring students for their research projects and I find that being a mentor teaches me more about research than any single class could. At USC, I have mentored a Master student and a visiting Ph.D. student from Italy.

A tool that I find very powerful in improving my teaching is listening to student feedback. Students' comments on end of semester forms as well as the views they voice in person are a great starting point for future improvements in teaching a course.

I believe that an academic career has two complementary sides: as a researcher, my purpose is to push the frontiers of knowledge further, while as a teacher, I want to awaken my students' curiosity by making them aware of developments at the frontier. As Stephen Brookfield wrote in his book The Skillful Teacher (1990), "Teaching is about making some kind of dent in the world so that the world is different than what it was before you practiced your craft. Knowing clearly what kind of dent you want to make in the world means that you must continually ask yourself the most fundamental evaluative questions of all?What effect am I having on students and on their learning?". My main goal, the dent I want to make, is to encourage my students to become curious, independent life-long learners, to develop critical thinking skills, and gain an understanding of the world we live in.

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Statement of Teaching Philosophy

"Teaching is about making some kind of dent in the world so that the world is different than what it was before you practiced your craft."

Stephen Brookfield, The Skillful Teacher (1990).

What kind of dent do I want? Rather, what effect do I have (or am capable of having) on my students and their learning? I attempt to answer these questions in formalizing my teaching philosophy. As a graduate student at Brown University, I have had opportunities to teach a wide range of courses within the discipline of Economics, interact with students whose personal characteristics span a very wide spectrum and receive guidance and mentorship from some of the finest academicians. Needless to say, my evolution as an intellectual has been shaped by these influences and which continue to get reflected in the way I think, execute and evaluate myself as a teacher.

Perhaps the most insightful lesson I learned from my experiences as a student and as a teacher, is that the key to being a successful instructor is to spend enough time reflecting upon one's objectives, means and results. To illustrate my point, consider the act of developing a syllabus for an undergraduate Game Theory course. It might appear that anyone sufficiently familiar with the topics in the area would be able to formulate a curriculum. However, if one were to start at the end, meaning, by asking- `what is that one thing that I want my students to remember long after they have walked away from the college green?', and then construct a syllabus keeping this question in mind, the result would be completely different. This is because at each stage the instructor would be acutely aware of the fine differences that exist between-(i)things the students should be familiar with (say, the different types of games and the ideas behind major solution concepts); (ii)things the students should learn to do (like set-up a given problem as a rudimentary game) and (iii) things that have lasting value beyond classroom (like, the idea that most socio-economic phenomena can be explained in terms of strategic interactions). Reflecting in this manner affects the way the course is designed, the evaluations are done and most importantly, the delivery of the content in the classroom.

I believe learning is incomplete without questioning. And a classroom must provide an atmosphere congenial enough for students to ask questions. Some questions will be from minds that would go on to challenge the conventional wisdom of the day and some will make the instructor feel like an utter failure. But at all times the intellectual diversity of the class should be respected and promoted. I feel it is a fundamental responsibility of the teacher to promote critical thinking without being imposing and to encourage without being patronizing.

I remember, when I first started teaching, I was far from perfect. A bit of soul-searching made me realize that I was unconsciously emulating the teaching styles of some of my own professors, especially those whose lectures had captivated me the most. And I also realized that that does not work. I need to find my own style- one in which I can be relaxed and confident, because teaching is not only about disseminating knowledge; it is also about persuasive communication. In class, I am a public speaker and must master "the art of influencing the soul by words" as Plato suggested. I learnt to make use of the board, the slides, the hand-outs and my own body-language to achieve my goals of rousing the students' interest and sustaining their attention in the lecture in particular and in the course in general.

Next important realization was about how diverse classes can be. Some diversity is apparent. For example, I had to lecture to a class populated by humanities majors as well as computer science majors, and which meant I had to be extra careful about the usage of math. I got around by appealing mostly to the intuitive way of thinking about a problem, rather than solving the algebra. Other than differences in majors, students typically come from a variety of cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds and while it is interesting to see how these forces shape a student's attitude towards learning it also calls for a reevaluation of the efficacy of the teaching styles employed. More interesting and much more difficult is dealing with the diversity in learning styles, mostly because it is so abstract and elusive. It takes prolonged interaction with students to actually fathom how they learn best- is it by problem solving or is it by visualizing pictures? By contemplating or by experimenting (and getting their "hands dirty")? The problem becomes harder to solve when one factors in course-specific rigidities (for example, it is near impossible to `draw' in higher dimensions) and the undeniable fact that the instructor also has a specific learning style. I realized that since I am more of a thinking individual myself, my exercises unintentionally appeal more to the abstract thinkers. In the Industrial Organization course that I taught, I forced myself to include some empirical exercises so as to engage the `learning-by-doing' types. Even in lectures, I try to combine slideshows, board-work and discussions in an attempt to engage students who learn visually, vocally or verbally.

Finally, a tool that I feel is extremely powerful in helping one mature as a teacher isfeedback. I cannot say enough about how much I have learnt from my students through what they scribbled on those end of the semester forms or voiced their views in person. At times they helped to draw me out of the intricate labyrinth of theorems and get my focus back on the bigger picture. At other times, they bolstered my confidence by suggesting how I have inspired them to apply to graduate schools to pursue economics. Through their praise and criticisms, they have made a much better instructor of me. Other ways in which one can continue to improve is by observing senior professors, colleagues as well as lecturers in other disciplines, as this allows one to contrast different teaching styles.

To conclude, I would like to say that an academic has two complementary sides: as a researcher, I am bound to follow the frontiers of knowledge and help in pushing them forward, and as a teacher, my duty is to make the young minds aware of these developments happening at the frontier. When I look at it in this way, I see how much of sharing my work, or the works of others in my fields, with my students can be a rewarding experience and I understand why I have always wanted to join academia.

Debipriya Chatterjee.

Dept. Of Economics, Brown University. March 2009

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