Below is the philosophy of teaching essay I submitted when I first applied for the PtP program. It will be interesting to see how my teaching philosophy evolves over the next year...
Effective teaching consists of three components: foundation, exploration and reinforcement. The foundation is often a lecture component that reinforces basic concepts and general ideas. The exploration is a hands-on activity that provides a guided exploration of a concept. The exploration component may be an in-class activity, a project or a homework assignment done prior to the lesson. The reinforcement component of the lesson continues to instruct and reinforce the concept after the instruction ends. Usually, reinforcement is in the form of a problem set or exam, but may overlap with the exploration component in the form of a class project. The three component lesson allows a teacher to effectively teach basic concepts, provide real-life application and promote retention of the concept. The three component lesson also allows a teacher to appeal to different learning styles.
The Preparing the Professoriate program will provide a platform for me to develop into a more effective teacher. Each aspect of my program outline will provide a means to develop all three components of effective teaching. Through the use of Faculty Mentor evaluations, student surveys, and self-reflections, I will track my advancement in each area throughout the PtP program. In addition, I will focus a large part of program on development of exploration activities for statistics education that I will implement and evaluate throughout the year. The project will culminate in a collection of best practices for statistics education that will provide the necessary tools to encourage graduate teaching assistants to incorporate the constructivist style of teaching.
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