Personal Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Personal Statement of Teaching Philosophy

I. Teaching Philosophy and Goals

I have one goal for my teaching: helping students to think and learn for themselves. This goal is as simple as it is illusive. The more experience I have as a teacher, the more I understand that there is no one-way of achieving my aim. Clearly, the proper focus of education is learning, not teaching; but I know that it is within a teacher's power-and thus it is the teacher's responsibility-to create the conditions necessary to allow students to learn. How best to create these conditions is the question. Although doing so involves performance, it is not a performing art. Although it requires the rigor and systematic methodology of scientific inquiry, it is not a science. There is no algorithm for good teaching.

I believe that students look to their philosophy teachers to challenge and inspire them. I think that learning philosophy is a process that involves wonder and awe, a process that evokes an emotional response as well as an intellectual one, and one that invites laughter as well as awakening a serious commitment to reasonable and responsible behavior in the world. I think that I serve my students by welcoming challenges and honestly pondering and engaging difficult questions in the classroom, rather than dodging confrontation and evading the tangle of discussion. Teaching, clearly, is not about demonstrating one's own knowledge or simply disseminating information. Good teaching stimulates self-reflection, enhances intellectual curiosity and empowers students to actively participate in and shape their own education. I aim to make my teaching nurture an...

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... distance learning. My current web site contains pages that display students' work in the classroom, a page that provides research tools and links to other relevant Internet sites for students to pursue further interests, and finally my e-mail and a group bulletin board, which allow students to ask questions whenever they arise.

The above teaching methods and strategies flow out of an educational approach that appreciates and celebrates student diversity. I believe that reaching a student via the mode he or she most fruitfully engages with the world is a prerequisite for effective teaching. Finally, I recognize that I still have much to learn about teaching, but I am hopeful that my passion for learning and for remaining critical and rational is contagious-that it serves as an example and challenges students to challenge themselves.