I believe that an instructor’s role in a class is to lead his or her students’ through knowledge as a tour guide through the materials. To be an effective tour guide, one must be thoroughly prepared. Before each class that I teach, I want at least three hours of preparation for every hour that I teach. To prepare, I reexamine the material and determine the best way to present the information to my students. Sometimes, this is in the form of a lecture. Most of the time, I try to use a series of interactions to allow the students to become a part of the in-class learning experience. It has been my understanding that lectures when used repeatedly, can lose the students’ attention and can make them disinterested in the material. I try to avoid full lecture classes whenever possible.
I also believe in my courses that students should have a minor capstone experience. To this end, I typically assign a few small projects that led to a final project. I use smaller projects are to reinforce lessons taught in previous courses. Also, they will be the foundation for the final project. For example, during the “Broadcasting” course that I taught, I had the students first record their voices to hear how they sounded. Then, I gave them a section of text to read into a tape recorder for evaluation. The student and I would discuss the tape, and I would offer suggestions on how to improve their performance. The next step would be an exercise in how to turn raw news feed into a story for broadcast. The final project is a group news production, with each member of the group read several stories “over-the-air.” I believe that these experiences enrich a student’s collegiate career.
My teaching style has evolved in the past decade. I prefer to be the “guide on the side” as opposed to the “sage on the stage” (King, 1993, p. 30). I find that my classes go better when I incorporate the four aspects of Kolb’s Learning Cycle. I will use short lectures to help the students conceptualize the key learning objectives for the daily class. The students will typically perform a small group discussion/activity to help those students apply what was discussed during the class. Students will then work by themselves on an activity to understand the facts presented and try to use those facts toward a concrete experience. Finally, there is a moment at the end of the period where the student reflects on today’s lesson.
There is one selfish reason that I teach; I enjoy the art of instruction. I love coming into a classroom or a lab and working with students to increase their knowledge. I live for that look of understanding when I student finally “gets it.” I look forward to when a student comes to me to discuss whatever is on their minds. I believe that teaching is how I can serve humanity.
