Teaching Philosophy

When working with students, I have two goals:  1) help them learn the course content material and, in doing so, help them meet the course objectives, and 2) create an environment that helps them become stronger students. My teaching philosophy is derived from my clinical training, community teaching and training experiences, and my five-plus years of university teaching experience with diverse populations who range in levels of college preparedness. Through these experiences I have come to believe that the teacher-student relationship is the foundation by which I can best attain my goals. Clearly, teachers need to be well grounded in their theoretical domain(s) and specialties, and I also believe that teachers need to understand the complex motivational and psychological processes associated with learning.

Simply stated, learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in thought, feeling, or behavior. I recognize that people can learn on their own.  This learning is often the result of trial-and-error. In the classroom it is hoped that learning is more focused and effective due to the teacher-student relationship.  Nonetheless, by themselves or in a classroom, learning requires that students leave a place of known reality and experience temporary dissonance – the experience of “not knowing.”  Generally, this place of not-knowing and dissonance can be uncomfortable. Even well-prepared students who enter college feeling competent and skilled will experience degrees of dissonance as they assimilate new information into their existing schemas or as they create new schemas. Usually, they have the necessary self-regulatory processes to marshal academic resources and to initiate motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies in order to successfully move through the dissonance.  Some students come to college with limited academic and motivational preparedness and hardiness. In order to survive their “K-12” experience they may have developed maladaptive motivational processes that hinder their success, for example, self-handicapping and avoidance strategies. Typically, it is not the case that unprepared students do not want to learn.  For them, experiencing the dissonance as they learn is fraught with “perceived” dangers that threaten them at a deep level. 

For all students, but especially when working with unprepared or developmental students, I believe teachers should be sensitive to the way students approach learning and work with the student to help them identify their strengths, strategies as a way to avoid their stumbling blocks. Thus, for me, teaching is more than presenting content material; it is about understanding the mediating regulation and motivational variables that could impede learning.