Teaching Philosophy (This section is in continuous development!)
As a teacher, I believe that I am someone who is playing an important role in facilitating students to reconstruct their version of the knowledge received and therefore empowering them with tools to be successful as individuals and professionals.
To accomplish this task as facilitator, I work hard to create a channel of communication with my students, and I work harder to keep it alive by making myself accessible, challenging them and encouraging them to do the same, and providing them timely feedbacks.
My teaching philosophy was developed through my experience in teaching and mentoring students, in training people in the industry, and in coaching players in volleyball and soccer. I have taught major courses, elective courses, and general education courses, for small, medium and big classes. And it is also based on the following beliefs and values.
I do believe that mutual trust, mutual respect, and caring are very important means to create empathy between students and teachers. This empathy is important in developing a channel of communication.
I value fairness, honesty and integrity as important ethical values for their professional and individual development. To demonstrate the importance of these values, I monitor my own actions and I share stories and examples for discussion and analytical thinking.
I value bridging theory and practice, by allowing students to connect with real applications, to have hands on experience, and potentially be able to create their own ideas.
I use my enthusiasm, humor and positive attitude to capture their attention, and hopefully they would be able to learn from me.
Learning is a continuous process, which should not be limited in the classroom environment, and I am ready to contribute to the process.
Teaching Methodology
As I had mentioned earlier, I have taught undergraduate students from year one to final year, from different majors such as Engineering, Business Administration, Arts and Humanities, Health Science and Education, with classes from few to a hundred students. For such variety of audience, I should respect the variety of skills and needs of the students, therefore different methods of teaching are required to present the material, encourage the development of their critical thinking and associate with their majors.
I made use of technology to organize, present and interact with students. The material of my classes such lectures’ slides, reading material, homework and general news are centralized at UM Moodle. I made use of MS PowerPoint for my classes together with videos and whiteboards. For interaction, I made use of mobile applications that allows student engagement during class discussion and/or quick questions.
Regarding methods of assessment, I had used a mix of methods like exams, quizzes, projects, assignments, multiple choices, essay questions and so on. Each of them being more indicated for a specific purpose, allowing me to challenge students in different ways.