TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I believe that teaching is preparing students in a discipline that will help them fulfill their mission of being tomorrow’s excellent educators, researchers, practitioners, or entrepreneurs. Teaching a course is an opportunity to help students understand concepts and scenarios and be able to refer to them for effective decision-making. It is ensuring that students grasp key concepts, their meanings, their implications, and apply critical thinking. Beyond gaining the basic knowledge, teaching is a critical thinking exercise whereby students broaden their perspectives and views of the world and issues in their respective communities.
I believe that students learn best by reading the course materials, asking questions, engaging in peer-review activities and interactions, retaining main ideas, remembering examples, and referring to their own experiences. Students remember best with visual aids, homework, field exercise, or practical projects. Students should be allowed to choose their own projects, discuss the topic with the instructor, and complete the project. Students are more likely to successfully apply the knowledge acquired in this manner in real-world situations. Lecture, class activities, discussion and final project are all part of teaching. Technology has become inevitable and will be used to facilitate or supplement certain aspects of teaching.
As professor, I understand that students are encouraged to improve if I show some understanding of their concerns and special needs. Sometimes, students only need to be rightly oriented to overcome the challenges they face with academic work. I will encourage students to understand that learning is the first gift that they make back to their communities as their knowledge make of them the change agent, innovators, and inventors in these local or regional communities. .
ADVISING PHILOSOPHY
As an academic advisor, it is my responsibility to help students understand their major, their choices, and address the students’ concerns so that they get a good quality education.
As the student comes to me in search for information, my advising duty may require that I also fish for information in order to provide sound answers to the students; which will build maturity and confidence in the student.
Advising occurs as an accepted relationship and therefore the primary element of successful advising is to ensure that both the student and the advisor are each comfortable exchanging messages and communicating thoughts.
Advising means understanding the student’s needs and elaborating on the implications, the challenges, the advantages and disadvantages, opportunities and concerns for the student moving forward.
Advising is about being proactive with the student’s aspirations but at the same time as David Fritag put it, it does not exclude challenging the student on unrealistic and unreasonable beliefs at times.
Advising is a collaborative and revised work on progress where adjustments can be made to gains and opportunities for testing the relevance of advising are discussed and provided.
Advising is bringing awareness that the student get the best value for his investment and thereby creating some enthusiasm for greater accomplishment by the student.