Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy Statement

I cannot imagine anyone who has made more impact on my growth academically, morally, and intellectually than my teachers. Over the course of my learning, I have come to recognize and value the cumulative impact teachers have on students. As a teacher, I strongly believe learning is facilitated more effectively in an environment that allows for a partner relationship rather than a teacher-student power relationship. Students are more likely to accept learning responsibilities and embody the morals and values of learning when they feel recognized as partners. I continue to set this as a standard of learning from the first day of class.

When I revisit my academic history, I am convinced that my mother being a teacher played a big role in my academic success. I did not always feel like the most intellectually gifted student in my class, but I always felt more equipped. My mother believes every student is unique, and it is the duty of the teacher to help the student maximize their strengths to learn and develop intellectually. Little wonder she stopped me from attending a tutorial when the teacher said I would not be able to learn science. My mother found me another tutor who understood my strengths and harnessed them.

Nobody understands a student like the student. As a result, my goal is not only delivery of class materials via multiple instructional strategies, but to also help students figure out how they visualize 3-dimensional models, understand molecular structures, and learn chemistry concept. While this might seem like a deep philosophical trail to navigate with a student, I have come to understand that my duty is to provide support for students in my class to attain a point where they realize how they can use their uniqueness to learn chemistry. For example, in one of my class, through continuous problem solving with a student, she realized that she was able to visualize the 3D model structures in stereochemistry if she flipped the paper to the back. This was an aha!!! moment for her, my duty was to support her and provide a strong foundation for her to learn chemistry. This is the partnership I strive to create in my classroom.

Teaching to Inspire and Challenge

At the core of my teaching philosophy is teachers are more than content instructors. I see myself as both an instructor and a facilitator. I take a pragmatic approach towards learning by challenging and inspiring students in the classroom to use the knowledge, skills, and values developed to improve themselves and their communities. It my belief that the real value in learning is the ability of students to develop the responsibility of critical thinking. My approach to this is to be an example of that in the classroom. During brain breaks, conversations revolve around how we can use chemistry in our daily lives to create a better community.

Chemistry is fun – Let’s use humour

A common misconception about learning chemistry is it is hard, monotonous, and should not/cannot be enjoyed. While chemistry concepts can take time to understand, the learning of these concepts are far from monotonous. I utilize fun and humour in the classroom while maintaining the learning objectives for the course. With the current science and technology, I utilize a variety of fun activities for learning. For example, a fun activity is a democratic polling system used in my classroom to solve problems. Students are given a problem to solve and asked to give the right response. Then everyone is asked to vote on the different response, and then we go through a manifesto on why they picked a particular answer. I have found this to be inclusive, active, and engaging. I call my classroom a safe-space where students should be able to have fun learning, not scared to engage in class activities and recognize the need to respect other people's perspective. Through the process of teaching and learning, my goal is to help students achieve the learning outcomes through learning activities, formative and summative assessment.