Revised Teaching Philosophy

My group from last week had requested that we post our teaching philosophies here, so here is my revised teaching philosophy:

Teaching Philosophy

Student learning happens through multiple means and on different levels.  In addition to using a variety of formats to address students’ different learning styles, teachers should also consider the different types of learning that can occur in a course.  Educational studies reveal that students learn more by actively participating than by simply memorizing information (Prince, 2004; Bean, 1996; Bonwell and Eison, 1991; etc.).  My pedagogical goals are for my students to move beyond learning information and acquiring skills to become critical thinkers and lifelong-learners.

Today’s globalized, postmodern whirlwind of abundant and conflicting information requires citizens who can sort through this information overload and discern well-founded ideas from unsupported opinions.  In order to help my students acquire the analytical and rhetorical skills they need to be effective writers, critical thinkers, and productive citizens, I use discussion and journal writing to examine ideas, pose problems, and offer questions for their thoughtful consideration in order to address course learning goals.  In addition to informal at-home journal responses that ask students to consider overarching questions of the course and their relation to course readings, real-life events, and student experiences, I will also often introduce learning outcomes and course topics by having students respond to questions through brief in-class writings.  For example, to address the learning outcome of rhetorical awareness and its importance to effective writing, I will assign a supplemental reading about rhetorical situations, have students respond by describing encounters with such situations in their own lives outside of the classroom, and then we will discuss how to relate these concepts to rhetorical situations encountered in writing—both in the college classroom and in the real world.

Since students learn best through doing, I give my students ample writing assignments through which to hone their writing and thinking skills over multiple drafts.  I also require that students review each other’s drafts and collaborate to give constructive and thoughtful feedback on peer review group members’ drafts.  Through this activity, not only do students get feedback from each other, but they also gain useful strategies for revision that they can then apply to their own writing.

I expand my students’ repertoire of analytical skills—preparing them to both write and analyze information in their daily lives outside of academics—by incorporating a variety of media texts in my classroom, including advertisements, speeches, websites, news articles, and video clips.  Media literacy, the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety of forms, is essential for full and effective functioning in our increasingly digital culture. Rhetorical expertise and conventions must be understood and applied, no matter whether a student is writing an academic essay, creating a web page, discerning the validity of information on the internet, analyzing the arguments presented in an advertisement, or producing a digital video project.  I have students examine, evaluate, and compare websites as part of the research skills unit, and I also often incorporate video clips from cable news or advertising to demonstrate the use of rhetorical appeals or logical fallacies.

In my student-centered approach to learning, I allow the students a degree of choice in assignments and class procedures.  Even when I give students a specific writing task, they are able to have broad leeway in choosing the subject of their essays with guidance from me as necessary.  For example, for the final research paper in my English 112 course, College Composition II, I give students three broad topic options and work with them to tailor a specific topic to their interests.  For end-of-the-semester group projects and presentations, I also give several topic options to choose from and encourage student groups to develop a creative presentation in a format of their choice.  By relinquishing some of my power in the classroom, students not only feel more invested in their learning, but they learn to take more responsibility for their own choices.

Just as reflection is important to student learning, I believe it is also the most important part of being a good teacher.  By keeping a journal of my observations about the effectiveness of my assignments and activities and getting periodic feedback from my students, I am able to adjust my strategies and methods to accommodate their needs during the semester rather than after the fact.  Every class of every course is an experiment in teaching and learning, and as a reflective practitioner I can learn from every student.

A selection of anonymous student responses from evaluations over two semesters demonstrate the effectiveness of student learning and many of my teaching strategies:

“I felt that my teacher was great.  She used many different learning strategies.”

“My favorite part was the assignments and how they really made me think about what I was doing.  It definitely helped me master this course.”

“I enjoyed the discussions and writings on controversial topics. This helped me see new views and helped me strengthen my own through writing techniques.”

“The class has taught me to see all sides of a situation before deciding.”

“I enjoyed learning about the writing process.  How everything works and why is something I like to learn about…The class definitely helped me master the course goals.”

“My critical thinking has improved tremendously.  Before I lacked that ability.”

“I liked the discussions because we got to talk about what we are learning.  [This] made the class more hands-on and interesting.”

“The best part of this class is the essays.  The topics were broad enough that you felt free with your choice, but narrow enough to keep you focused.”

“The class gave me skills I can actually use in life.”

“My favorite would have to be the essays as they are engaging, introspective prompts.  The essays certainly helped to reinforce topics and helped with real world application.”

“Professor Hitchcock led really good discussions and got the whole class to participate.”

“I loved how Mrs. Hitchcock is very approachable and how many times I have been able to meet with her outside of class.”