My personal Teaching Philosophy                

I keep my students at the heart of everything I do as a lecturer. I see the students as partners in the learning journey that we are on. In the first class each semester I ask a brave student to draw a boat on the white board and then to draw a number of people in the boat, with happy faces. I ask them why I have asked someone to draw this and eventually all the ideas come. I tell the students that we are all in the same boat and that no matter how or when you got in to that boat, we are all in it together and that we all have to work together to keep the boat moving in the same direction until the successful end to the academic year. This sets up a positive collaborative dynamic in the class which is conducive to teaching and learning.

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In the opening class of the year, I outline the ground rules for my classes which are short and easy to remember, yet effective. (1) Give respect, get respect, (2) Ask Questions, (3) Put phones on silent. It works and students respect these three simple rules, in 19 years of teaching, I have only ever had to ask one student to leave my class for not following the ground rules.

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I view my role as a lecturer as a guide and a facilitator who is open to questions and to questioning. One of my mantras is “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn” and teachers need to be aware that they too can learn from their students. I promote and encourage peer learning and often I will learn from a student. I welcome questions and I want the students to feel welcome to contribute to the class by offering their opinion or asking questions. When I think about the picture one would have of the traditional lecturer, unapproachable, standing behind the lectern, I would like to be the very opposite to him. I strive to be a lecturer who is; approachable, knowledgeable, experienced, effective, trusted, open to learning, engaging and interesting. I walk around the class during my lectures, engaging the students with my material and techniques and I also try to engage them at an emotional level, where the real learning takes place. I am interested in understanding the important role that emotional, behavioural, physical, and social factors play in the learning process.

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Scaffolding in the Cognitive approach is also known as Constructivism. It consists of the activities provided by the educator, or more competent peer, to support the student as he or she is led through the zone of proximal development. The ultimate goal is that the student completes the task on his/her own. Wood et al. define scaffolding as a process "that enables a child or novice to solve a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond his unassisted efforts". They explain, scaffolding requires that the adult "control those elements of the task, that are initially beyond the learner's capability, thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence" (Wood, 1976, pp. 89-100), i.e. the ZPD. I would add that the coaching can come from another student, which we call Peer Learning. In primary and secondary schools, teachers could make greater use of the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) in their classes, widely known as the “early finishers” to help other students learn in class.

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We have all felt the joy when we worked hard to accomplish something we found difficult but with perseverance and some coaching we were able to complete it, giving a sense of accomplishment and added belief in our abilities, thus widening our Zone of Proximal Development. This can build confidence in a learner and provide them with the encouragement they may need to continue with their studies.

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To better understand Vygotsky's theories on cognitive development, it is important to understand principles of Vygotsky's work, the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (which incorporated scaffolding). These concepts were developed by Vygotsky in the late 1970s. Vygotsky defines the ZPD as "the distance between the actual developmental level, as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development, as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978).

 

The Zone of Proximal Development refers to the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a facilitator. Thus, the term “proximal” refers those skills that the learner is “close” to mastering. Refer to figure 1 below, for a graphical representation of the ZPD.

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Figure 1: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

(Image source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/ZPD-Scaffolding.jpg)

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Adult learners come to class with many transferable skills and some prior learning and/or experience. During my 18 years teaching adults, I have found that it is essential in a class of mature students to check for the learners’ prior experience/knowledge, as there will invariably be students who will have valuable contributions to make in the classroom, based on their experience in the area under discussion. This peer assisted learning needs to be recognised and facilitated by the lecturer to harvest as much potential and value from it as possible to enrich the learning experience for all students in the class.

 

I have been teaching formally for 18 years so I have much valuable experience to draw from. A wonderful bonus of doing the research for this Certificate in Teaching and Learning, personally is that, I now have the pedagogical terms and vocabulary for the teaching methods that I have employed since I started teaching but had not previously formalised. In the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training courses I delivered in the Medical Device industry, my modus operandi was Problem Based Learning (PBL). In all my teaching, I encourage students to widen their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), by giving them the information and tools they need to master a topic or question and facilitating them through the learning path. My teaching mantra, as many of my students quote back to me, has been “give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for life”. There has been much fishing in my classes, especially the “landing” of statistical theories when the students see the application of same in their working life. The teaching of adults lends itself extremely well to Peer Learning as these students come to class with a wealth of experience which I encourage them to share with their peers. I have facilitated more than lectured over the 18 years and have made effective use of Scaffolding where I have given students the tools to build the learning bridge but yet, not build it for them. I have viewed my role of teacher as I view my role as parent with the ultimate aim of being no longer needed as the student/child becomes self-sufficient, which I now appreciate as the teaching method of scaffolding that is used with the ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978).

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As well as teaching students how to learn, it is important that we teach them the relevance of the topics they are learning and the application of these topics in their social and working lives. Each time I introduce a new topic in one of my classes, I remind my students to add this topic to their “radar”, in other words, to be aware of where and how they will see the application of this topic/tool once they leave the classroom. As I work with mostly mature students, who are working in industry, this is very relevant pursuit when they return to their company after the lecture. Many students have told me that they used to pass by examples of what I had spoken about in a lecture, for years and it was not until they put it on their “radar” that they realised its function and understood the theory. Hendley and Whitehead describe this concept more articulately than I in the following, “Whitehead would have us prevent such "mental dry rot" by showing our students that the ideas we are asking them to learn are indeed useful. Rather than allowing them to remain inert, he would have us utilize ideas. “"By utilizing an idea,"” he says, “"I mean relating it to that stream, compounded of sense perceptions, feelings, hopes, desires, and of mental activities adjusting thought to thought, which forms our life”" (Hendley, 2010). I simply call it, ‘making it real for people’.

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My ongoing teaching objective is to be an interesting and knowledgeable, inspiring and approachable, student-centred lecturer, striving for the best results for my students. I will continue to use effective teaching methods in my classes and hone my teaching and learning knowledge and skills through my future engagement with the Diploma in Teaching and Learning and subsequently the Masters in Teaching and Learning in GMIT. I look forward to continuing this interesting journey.

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References:

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1. Hendley, B. P., 2010. 1st ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University (SIU) Press.

2. Vygotsky, L., 1978. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

3. Wood, D. B. J. &. R. G., 1976. The role of tutoring in problem solving. 17(2), p. 89−168.