Kiki's New Teaching Philosophy

I'm in the process of applying for jobs, which entails writing individualized cover letters, shifting around the order in which I present teaching and research information in my cover letter to suit the college for which I'm applying, and compiling all sorts of other documents. I had no idea it would be this time-consuming, and I've only officially applied for one job so far! In the process, I had to revisit my teaching philosophy. The first teaching philosophy I wrote can be seen here. Of course, my philosophy has changed since I've had more teaching experience. I haven't the stomach to read my old teaching philosophy; I feel I've changed so much it was written. But, I've included my new philosophy here, and if you are so inclined, you can compare the two yourself. Keep in mind that my new philosophy was written for a job teaching at a community college. Community colleges are very focused on developing excellence in teaching, and I tried to tailor my philosophy to the unique missions of community colleges. Please feel free to comment on my teaching philosophy; I'm always seeking to improve.

Much of my teaching philosophy is grounded in my research on college student retention. I find that faculty can make impressions on students that affect students’ departure decisions. If faculty can have such a profound affect on something as important as a student’s choice to continue pursuing education, then it is my duty as an educator to ensure that the impact I have on students is positive. Not only do I hope to encourage students to continue in college but I also wish to ignite in them a passion for learning and to equip them with the tools necessary to be life-long learners.

In addition, particular aspects about teaching that influence students’ departure decisions include students’ perceptions that faculty are passionate about the material they teach, care about the students they teach, and are physically and psychologically accessible to students (Lundquist, Spalding, & Landrum, 2003). Physical accessibility can easily be achieved by spending extra time in my office on campus and by responding to students’ emails and phone calls in a timely manner. Psychological accessibility can be achieved through an expression of willingness to talk with students about their needs. I endeavor to emanate an attitude of openness towards students and an eagerness to value their intellectual contributions to class. Furthermore, I highly value interacting with students inside and out of the classroom. Student-faculty interactions outside of the classroom have enormous benefits on students, including increased retention, academic achievement, satisfaction with college, intellectual and personal development, and career and educational aspirations (Lamport, 1993).

I believe I have succeeded when all my students can demonstrate learning and improvement. For example, I endeavor to foster critical thinking in students. Students do not need to be cajoled into engaging in critical thinking. They will do so if I model critical thinking as I teach, if I present material in an engaging manner, and if I foster openness towards students’ expression of their ideas. Subsequently, I find that students frequently ask me questions in class or offer critical evaluations of material we discuss in class. In order to allow students to demonstrate their critical thinking and knowledge in writing, classroom assignments include research papers and forms of evaluations include essay questions requiring application of theories and concepts.

Finally, I endeavor to engage students with the material I teach by occasionally infusing humor and real life examples into lecture content, and by including applicable demonstrations, assignments, and activities. I taught neuroscience to high school students participating in the Frontiers of Science Institute, a summer program for students interested in pursuing careers in math and science. After a unit on neuron communication and neurotransmitters, I had students take their chairs outside and line the chairs up to represent the synaptic cleft. Students took on the role of neurotransmitters and re-enacted the various neurotransmitters actions that occur during neuronal communication. My students reported that they understood the concepts more thoroughly after participating in the activity.

Building rapport with the students, interacting with students outside of class, and making a lasting educational impact on students are facets of teaching that I highly value. I welcome the opportunity to teach, advise, and mentor the students of your institution.

Graduation Ceremony

I decided to wait until spring semester to participate in the commencement ceremony. That will give me more time to order announcements and send them out to people. And I can be sure that I will have a cap, gown, and hood reserved for me. I think some of my grad student friends are graduating next semester, too. It would be more fun to graduate with others in my cohort. So I guess it all works out in the end.

Regalia

I was concentrating so hard on the dissertation that I neglected to order regalia for graduation. Now it's past the deadline to order regalia and I'm going to have to hope they have extras for me when they disperse the orders the week of graduation! I'm so horrified! What if they don't have the right size, and what if they don't have a hood in the right color? I can't believe I might not be able to participate in graduation, and I would be so embarrassed if I was wearing the wrong colored hood. This was the only graduation that was finally going to be worthwhile, and I might not get to participate. I feel so deflated.

More thoughts on the dissertation defense

Sometimes you just have to let go and move forward, forgetting about the past. I will not let my committee members make me feel inferior. They aren't trying to do that anyways. They are just aware that I did a shotgun dissertation, and it would have been preferable to spend more time on the dissertation. I'm aware of that, and I agree with them. But, I think I'll just graduate and get a job instead.

I have to consider my current financial situation and current debts as I think about spending more time in graduate school, especially since the program doesn't support its graduate students to conduct research or even pursue funding for research.

It's just simply more beneficial to graduate, and it is no longer worthwhile to stay in school, even if I would benefit from more training. I should not have to feel like I need to defend my choice to graduate on a faster time line than is typical.

I passed...

And then the self-criticism and self-loathing hit me hard. All night long...all I could do was bawl. It really is a hazing ceremony. And I didn't think I was worthy of passing and the other professors wondered why I was trying to graduate so quickly. They obviously saw that I was not ready to graduate, and that I would benefit from another year or two in grad school. The problem is, I know I'm not ready, and I feel like I'm hurting myself by trying to graduate so soon.

And only one person bothered to congratulate me when it was over. I think that really shows that they didn't think too highly of my performance even if they did pass me.

But, the worst part of it is that I can't stand it when people address my as doctor because I don't feel like I'm worthy of the title. Why do I entertain such self-criticisms? And how do I stop doing that to myself?

I'm defending my dissertation!

The defense is this Thursday at 3:30pm. I'm trying not to get too nervous. And I'm still working on reading articles to beef up the presentation. But, I hope it will go well. That's the last thing I have to pass in order to graduate. Then all I would have to do is make any necessary revisions to the dissertation and submit it to the grad school by the following week. I can't believe it, and I hope it is over soon so I can concentrate on writing papers for publication, which I'm getting more and more excited about. I just want to puuuublish!