Teaching Philosophy
The following are the basis of my teaching
philosophy:
- Each course should have a basic set of
goals and objectives that address both coverage of
fundamental knowledge and fundamental processes.
- In a typical class the ability levels of
the students will vary and as an instructor it is my
obligation to evaluate each student in such a way that
these different levels of ability are discerned.
- As an instructor it is my responsibility
to challenge each student to extend themselves to the
limit of their ability. To me there is no shame in being
asked to work a challenging problem on an assignment or
examination and not being able to solve the problem;
there is much to be learned in attempting solutions even
if the attempts lead to dead ends.
- Students should be able to apply what they
learn. College education today should not be a
preparation for game shows such as Jeopardy but
rather a foundation for adapting oneself to changes and
challenges in life. In order to appreciate this and to
gain confidence in their ability to make these
adaptations when necessary students need to have practice
applying what they know.
- Complementing the ability of students to
apply what they know is the need for them to have a firm
foundation in theory in order to know how to make
applications properly. I don’t remember where I
first heard it, but a favorite maxim of mine is "The
person who knows how to do something will always be able
to find a job; the person who knows why will be his or
her boss." Knowing the theory is knowing why.
- As an instructor it is my responsibility
to challenge each student to always to do better and to
reward the effort. Rather than give students an
opportunity to back away from a challenge I want them to
feel there is something to be gained from making one more
effort. One manifestation of this occurs in my policy of
counting again a student’s best test grade in the
course rather than dropping their lowest scores. For most
students in my classes it is unlikely that they will get
a perfect score on any of their first exam, hence with
each passing exam there is always the possibility that
they can do better on the next exam, up through the
final. At the same time, I usually reserve the rewarding
of a best effort only for those who make a determined
effort on all their assignments. Students who fail to
turn in even one assignment will not reap the reward.
- Overall I eschew objective tests as a way
of testing knowledge of definitions, statements of majors
results and the like. I want students to demonstrate that
they know something by telling me about it rather than by showing me they can recognize it when they see it. To me it shows a much
greater depth of knowledge and comprehension. In
addition, in a discipline such as computer science where
attention to even the smallest of details and most subtle
of nuances can be critical a practitioner must be able to
read detailed instructions in one form and re-pose them
in another form. Consequently, students have to be made
aware that passive attention to details and having
"the general idea" are not good enough for the
type of work that will be expected of them. By expecting
them to know concepts and details well enough to repeat
them on an exam I hope to promote this attention to
detail in them.
- Students are ultimately responsible for
their own education, including the retention of
knowledge. One manifestation of this is that in courses
which have prerequisites I give one assignment, possibly
two, based on fundamental prerequisite material that we
will be using in the course. This assignment is usually
made in the first week of class. I do not review this
material in class.
- Students have a right to a life outside of
my classes. They have families, jobs, get sick, and face
obligations that sometimes will require them to juggle
the demands on their time and to set priorities. I will
do my best to work with them to work through situations
where there are conflicts between these outside demands
and those in my class provided the course standards will
not be compromised and I feel that I am not being taken
advantage of.