1. My Teaching Portfolio
Muhammad Adil Raja∗
January 12, 2015
My teaching philosophy is strongly influenced by my early experience as
a student in Pakistan. I went to one of the prestigious schools in Pakistan,
namely, Lawrence College Ghora Gali Murree, Pakistan. It was founded by
Sir. Henry Lawrence in 1860 as an orphanage for the children of British
soldiers. The school currently enjoys the reputation of being one of the
best public schools in the country. Contrary to the popular notion, the
pedagogical system had some serious flaws in it. In the school we were
spoon-fed the course syllabus normally using numerous mild to harsh reward
and punishment mechanisms. The biggest disadvantage this had was that
instead of gaining knowledge we used to memorize information given in the
course material. I nonetheless persevered, in a system where the teacher was
considered to be all wise and the student was expected to blindly accept
what ever was delivered to him.
The most important lesson I took from my growing up there was that
students should not be treated as dumps in which knowledge can be fed and
stored. The students should be helped to understand the world from their
coign of vantage. I believe that life is a continuous learning process in which
we are all engaged in delivering knowledge to each other, exchanging ideas
and sharing ideals. I furthermore believe that to be effective, teaching must
be fun to the students, and that the best pedagogic encounter is one where
everyone leaves with more curiosity than boredom.
Over the past years I have been more involved in doing academic research
than in teaching. Nonetheless, I have had a chance to take lectures from no-
table professors around the world both through the Internet, such as MIT
∗
My Teaching Portfolio by Muhammad Adil Raja is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.cbnd
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2. OpenCourseWare and Stanford Engineering for All, and in real classrooms in
places like University of Limerick, Ireland and Lahore University of Manage-
ment Sciences, Pakistan. Moreover, I have also had a chance to teach courses
in computer science like Machine Learning to Pakistani students. Some of
my students are already pursuing higher education in renowned universities
in Europe and Scandinavia. I personally believe that it is much more fun
to teach when lectures are interactive in the sense that when they are ques-
tion answer sessions as opposed to simple and monotonous one man shows
being held by the teacher. Students learn best when they are engaged in
by the teacher in an attempt to answer questions about the subject matter
so as to develop the underlying concepts by being inquisitive and mentally
engaged in the lecture as opposed to being mere collectors of information
that is delivered in the former style of teaching where the teacher delivers
and the students half heartedly listen to the lecture. As a researcher and a
student of Computer Science and Engineering I also found that certain eso-
teric subjects such as digital signal processing, digital image processing and
some ideas in machine learning are best understood if they are first studied
from the perspective of a Mathematics shy student.
Moreover, I personally think that it is very important for the teacher
to take feedback about the way subject matter is being delivered from the
students to ascertain the level of satisfaction the students enjoy about their
understanding of the subject. I believe that this should be done in the class
room on a regular basis both by directly asking the students and also by
posing questions or by taking quizzes. I also believe that it is very important
for the teacher to be conveniently accessible to the students both in and
outside of the class room. I also think that as opposed to having a stern
demeanor it is rather a good idea if a teacher has a good sense of humor.
This is generally good for lightening up the atmosphere of the class room.
Finally, the students should be engaged in doing practical assignments
related to the material they have been taught and they should be examined
through well prepared comprehensive tests twice in a semester.
In the past I have taught the following courses to students:
1. Machine Learning.
2. Java Programming and Introduction to Software Engineering.
3. Distributed Systems.
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3. 4. Computer Software.
In future I intend to teach the following courses too:
1. Digital Signal Processing.
2. Digital Image Processing.
3. Multimedia Systems.
4. Computer Architecture.
5. Computer Networks.
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