Selil

The role of scholar is to provide the intellectual opportunity to students to gain knowledge and mastery of topics in such a way as they can adapt and add to the body of knowledge over their career span. In the world of technology and computational sciences giving students of the discipline the principles and theoretical foundations in such a way as the information remains relevant is not a trivial problem.

I believe on building upon the basics of problem based learning, the use of open-ended scenarios that are relevant to the student, and tasks that can provide an opportunity for creative and innovative experiential learning. It takes more preparation time to create this kind of structured discovery but it can have significant rewards for the faculty and student. Stagnation is rarely a problem for the faculty and student interest in current issues and problem domains of the discipline drives a significant increase in engagement.

It is a primary factor in the use of the problem based learning approach that integration of current research by the faculty member can facilitate and increase research output. Students enjoy knowing that they are on the cutting edge of the discipline and there are always tasks and problems that even a freshman university student can work on. This is an excellent place to point out that this is a philosophy of teaching much in the “guide by the side” version of education rather than the “sage on the stage”. There are issues with this type of educational philosophy too. Success in learning cannot be simply measured in success at task. Rubrics and methods of measurement must clearly delineate between learning objectives and structured tasks at learning.  This requires a engaged learner and educator partnership and a clear understanding of expectations.

It is not likely that a fully functioning educational laboratory and lecture environment will spring fully formed into any currently instantiated curriculum. It is a requirement that an engaged professor learn how to integrate his interests into the needs of his fellow faculty. Nor, is this a philosophy that should likely be attempted by a junior faculty member who is still struggling to identify their own identity and research focus upon which to build learning and education tasks.

In creating coursework that can be accredited and evaluated by administration the documentation for this kind of coursework is enhanced by a strong syllabus that includes rubrics, instructions, and pointers to resources. The syllabus becomes a learning task enabler for the student.

My teaching philosophy is summarized as: Communicate requirements clearly, integrate curriculum into research as much as possible, instantiate learning tasks based on the learning objectives, and create engaging opportunities for learning from the freshman level to the post doctoral level by structuring curriculum flexibly.