Teaching Philosophy

August 9, 1996

My views on teaching and learning are evolving with time. When I started as a professor in 1994, my belief was that if I presented high quality lectures, motivated students would be able to learn the material well. Thus, I focused my teaching energies on crafting the best possible lectures that I could. While I believe I did a reasonable job in the classroom, I am learning that being a real teacher is so much more than being a good lecturer. In fact, by focusing on lecturing, to some degree, I was missing the whole point of teaching. My goal should not be to craft the best lectures possible but rather to provide the best possible learning environment for students.

While this may seem like a subtle point, it represents an important philosophic difference between a traditional classroom and an active learning classroom. In a traditional classroom, the teacher possesses all knowledge and doles it out to students; in an active learning classroom, the teacher and the student embark together on a journey of discovery with the teacher serving as guide. I am just beginning to learn how to teach as a guide, and I invite you to sign on for a tour.

Before you start on this tour, though, you should be aware of three important points.

1. First and foremost, learning is an active, not passive, process. You must be prepared to work hard to learn the material. Nothing I do can make you learn if you do not try, just as nothing I do can prevent you from learning if you try hard enough.
2. Second, while this teaching statement may seem quite radical, it is likely my classes will be somewhat traditional for the present. Learning to teach just like learning anything else is a lifelong process. However, you can hopefully take heart in the fact that I am striving to improve and am not satisfied with where I am.
3. Third, the classroom belongs to all of us. While I may set some rules, your learning is the ultimate goal of the classroom. Do not sit idly by if you are not learning. Let me know something is not working, and we will do what we can to fix it.