Teaching Philosophy Statement
Sanjib Gurung, Ph.D. student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of South Florida
“Learning is a process pursued by one interested in refining one’s intellectual and psychomotor skills. And teaching is the career pursued by one interested in facilitating student’s learning using ingenious ways.” Sanjib Gurung
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As a teacher, I guide them the way, assess their progress and give supportive feedback for improvement. But before that, I help them clarify their goals and explain how my courses and classroom experience can align with their goals. I train my students to enable them to be independent explorers, effective team members and influential presenters through rigorous coursework assignments, group projects, classroom discussion and presentations. In that pursuit, I do not accept low-quality works in which students are not showing their best. I train my students to develop their higher level of thinking like planning, creating, analyzing, evaluating and revising to produce high-quality works that are rich in concept, content and crafting. By the end of my courses, students will have developed not just the knowledge of the contents but the confidence in their hard work, creativity, teamwork and presentation skills.
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I view learning as the process of training and refining yourself through conscious effort to get the best out of you like getting gold out of its ore. It is a key to success in career and life. But the key to learning is motivation. And motivation comes from clearly identifying one’s goals, passion and self-reflection on one’s actions and results.
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A competent mechanical engineer should be able to comprehend complex concepts, develop a variety of technical and interpersonal skills and apply them to solve real-world problems. I use different teaching methods and assignments to assist students to develop a variety of skills. The assignments in my courses include numerical problems, design projects, proposal writing, mathematical modeling, mechanical analysis, case studies, report writing, and classroom presentations. I give clear guidelines on assignments and I expect students to come across many technical problems. This helps students develop problem-solving, critical thinking and communication skills to find out the best solution.
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I use flipped classes where students are required to complete reading assignments and online quizzes before coming to class. My lesson plans include clarification of student learning outcomes, preview, questions at the beginning of content to initiate brainstorming, lectures using whiteboard and powerpoint, audio-visuals, student presentations, group work assignments, whole-class discussions, review and flex activity for refreshment. The content is delivered in the chunks of 15 minutes and students are given short questions and think pair share activity to recall what they have just learned. This makes students attentive to the class activity.
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In my classes as a teaching assistant, I have observed students performing below their potential, skipping the process of learning, and staying passive during discussion and activity. They end up getting average grades or miss important skills even if they get good grades. I believe the deficiency for these students has been in motivation to honestly follow the process of learning. Their perception that their progress is not being monitored by the teacher inhibits them to push out of their comfort zone. I want my students to give diligent effort in completing the process of learning rather than just focusing on end results. I do not expect my students to be perfect from the beginning, but I want them to be enthusiastically working towards improving themselves. And I believe the teacher’s attention to individual students’ progress and supportive feedback is necessary for this process of learning. I have observed that the use of a supportive and empathetic tone help students to follow our directions. In addition, students learn best when they engage in active listening, active participation, sharing of their knowledge and reflection on one’s mistakes to improve.
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I assess students’ comprehension of the content through quizzes and summative exams. Also, the design, writing and presentation skills are assessed, and grades are provided in the percentage scale. I encourage students to consult me to get feedback on their performance and suggestions for improvement. Moreover, I use formative assessments to gauge the effectiveness of my teaching methods.
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Teaching has lent me unique opportunities to grow. I am continuously working to develop the professional qualities required to step up from the stage of a teaching assistant to a professor. It inspires me to be a role model for young students, a mentor to help them overcome their challenges and an inspiration to achieve academic excellence and create an impact in industry and society. I plan to develop my pedagogy skills by attending teaching workshops, getting feedback from students and faculties and visiting major universities around the globe. Finally, I will know of the effectiveness of my teaching methods when the students achieve the goals stated for the course and show progress in their level of knowledge and skills.