1. Teaching Philosophy
Teaching is a circular process. This process involves gathering information, developing
tangible means to facilitate learning, presenting it in fashion relevant to a particular
class, receiving feedback from students, and re-calibrating the preliminary steps as
needed. I believe that the best teachers are those who eye their own strategies
critically and actively seek to improve their teaching strategies, through implementing
new technologies and innovative learning activities, rather than handle the glaring
deficiencies in their teaching style as they arise. With my brief teaching experience, I
have observed that teaching is actually a reciprocal exchange: the student learns the
course content of a particular discipline in the overarching objectives of a liberal
education and the instructor hones their teaching style to reach out to a diverse learning
body. I approach teaching with the humility that I myself am learning how to teach as I
impart knowledge and skills to students, a position that I believe students will take note
of by the end of a course.
As a librarian and perpetual seeker of information, I was struck by the lack of intellectual
stimulation in many college courses I have taken. Though not all students are born with
an intellectual curiosity that compels them seek new information, I believe that the best
professors are ones who stimulate students to find information outside of the classroom.
These professors leave a mark on students well after the course had ended. I have
developed two strategies for creating lifelong learners. One is to present conflicting
accounts of a particular issue to stir up cognitive dissonance and thereby drive students
to find answers autonomously. The second strategy in developing perpetual learners is
to engage them in the Socratic Method, which often take the form of pro/con debates,
critical thinking questions interspersed between lengthy lectures, and critical response
papers. Through this dialectical method, I am confident that students will take
ownership of the content they are learning.
In developing a learner-centered environment, I will, by my actions, emphasize the
importance of students’ learning over the adherence to a rigid course outline. One the
strategies to overcome the tension between rigid outlines and students’ acquisition of
new data and skills is routine assessment. I believe that assessment can occur
informally in the classroom. One of my strategies for gauging my effectiveness is to
focus on students’ nonverbal gestures (i.e. blank stares, tense postures) to determine if
students ‘get it’. When I notice a number of these signals, I stop and ask students if
they grasping the information. I follow that question with a sufficient pause to allow
reluctant students to voice their confusions. Another strategy is to pass out note cards
towards the end of class in which students are instructed to write what they found most
intriguing about the day’s lecture and most perplexing. I would then spend a few
minutes in the following class meeting to discuss reoccurring areas of confusion.
Teaching in a post-modern environment is acutely challenging. Students come from
increasingly divergent ethnic and income/class backgrounds and have been socialized
into different value systems. Due to my own faith background, I am keenly aware of the
clash of cultures that can occur when discussing issues in a course on marriage and
family. I encourage students to interact with the content of the course and the opinions

2. of their peers in a civil fashion. One of the latent objectives of my teaching style is to
help students understand how different value orientations and racial/ethnic and
socioeconomic backgrounds shape how we interpret the social world. In doing so,
students will appreciate diversity not for the novelty of diversity but for its ability to
understanding the world holistically.
I approach teaching sociology as a ‘debunker of social myths’, as sociologist Peter
Berger suggests. I strive to move students beyond ‘pro’ and ‘con’ arguments to a
synthesis of different accounts of reality that transcends dichotomous thinking about a
topic. I believe that the most rewarding part of teaching is the ‘a-ha’ moments that
teaching affords, moments where students see new light on issues that were previously
resolved in their minds. I seek to move students in my classes from mere receptacles
for my knowledge to individuals whose evaluate and synthesize ideas, articulate their
beliefs and engage the beliefs of others, and integrate of new perspectives with pre-
existing beliefs. I strive to make students aware of their intellectual potential through my
teaching and encourage them to go beyond a superficial grasp of the course’s content.