Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is grounded in the principle that the best learning happens when people are engaged in the activity of learning for highly internalized reasons, independent from extrinsic motives for learning (i.e. rewards or punishments). Learners who are less than susceptive are passive, fail to ask questions; they require a maximum of planning on the part of the teacher, because they do not initiate projects without prompting. More independent learners are imaginative, use their teachers and each other as resources for the pursuit of whatever questions drive them, and to take the discussion in unexpected directions.

I realize that most students are, for a variety of reasons, not intrinsically motivated to organize their own learning without the authoritarian intervention of the teacher and the institution. For this reason, as a teacher who understands this, I am constantly trying to find ways to work toward a situation in which students can become more independent learners.

My methods are open and experimental, but are always constructed with the hope that all students will become independent learners. For instance, an ideal writing class for me would be structured using the collaborative learning and teaching pedagogy. The class would center around discussions led by student groups, so that class time can be taken up with exploration and questioning rather than lecture.  Students would be able to spend more time talking to each other than to me. I am also an advocate for incorporating writing workshops, in which I teach students how to evaluate each others’ writing so that they can help each other with the work of drafting, revising and editing.

I structure, I initiate, I intervene, but at all times I strive to help create conditions in which authoritarian modes of learning can be exchanged for more participatory and democratic modes.