The Scholarship of Teaching
Aristotle said "Teaching is the highest form of understanding." As an undergraduate teaching assistant for CSC210, the motto I shared with my fellow TAs was "You do not understand something until you can explain it to your grandmother." Boyer discounts the idea that teaching is routine and something that almost anyone can do, arguing that teaching is "not only transmitting knowledge, but transforming and extending it as well." Great teachers not only educate, but inspire others to scholarship.
My first experience as an instructor of record was humbling and sometimes painful. It made me keenly aware of how much I did not know about teaching and learning. I thought that because I had a deep understanding of the material and could clearly communicate that to my class, they would learn it. After all, I wouldn't have been given the responsibility if I was not prepared, right? It was a sobering experience, and one that inspired me to learn more about the art of teaching well, a quest that has occupied a close second place to my research activities. In the 2006-07 acaemic year, I had the opportunity to take my research into the classroom, developing and teaching a course on software system design as the central focus of my work as a NCSU Preparing the Professoriate Fellow.
One of my goals, after completing my doctoral degree, is to be a teacher. But I do not want to be "just another teacher." Rather, I want to be the best teacher I can possibly be, motivating and inspiring not only my students, but my peers and colleagues as well. The purpose of this part of my portfolio is to document my teaching-related experiences and reflect on them with the intent of improving my teaching skills. In particular, I will answer the following questions:
- What have I learned about teaching and how have I learned it?
- How have I applied this knowledge in my opportunities to teach, and what are the results?
- As a student of teaching, what strategies should I develop to help me continue my growth as a teacher?
- What have I done to communicate my learning about teaching to others, particularly my peers and colleagues?
The answers to these questions are embodied in my experiences as a teacher and a learner. Stripping the answers of their experiential context would be like looking at Mona Lisa's smile without the rest of her face. Instead, I take a reflective approach, examining my teaching experiences and identifying aspects of those experiences that respond to these four questions. This section is organized as follows:
- Statement of Teaching Philosophy
- My goals for teaching, including discussions of strategies for achieving these goals.
- My teaching responsibilities and what I have learned from them.
- Developing my teaching and learning skills
- Communicating what I have learned about teaching
