PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
My philosophy of teaching doesn’t begin with teaching, it begins with learning. By asking what we want our students to learn, we have a better grasp on how we will go about teaching our content. I envisage learning as the process whereby new information is acquired, or old information is assessed and reassessed by new information, and processed through past and future experiences to give students a way to view their world from the outlook of Scripture. My own past reflects that true learning takes place when one can see the affect that knowledge has in the present or a future situation. When teaching intersects with life real learning can take place.
Having defined learning, the teaching aspect can now be discussed. Teaching is the process by which an educator engages his audience to look at their world a different way. Within the Christian context, teaching is a ministry. Here I am engaged in a process of helping students to realize and grow into their God given potential as eikons of God. Teaching and learning are truly human activities and are part of the redemptive process of embodying our humanness as a gift from God.
As an educator in a Christian context, my goals for my students are defined from the onset. My goal for my students is to have knowledge rooted in love and lived out in a life of faithful obedience to Jesus. My students will acquire the skills by which to read scripture faithfully and embody its message as they live out their calling amidst a broken world. Therefore, my goals in class will be oriented around understanding God’s message and mission and the enactment of that message and mission within their socio-cultural context. The students will be able to critically reflect on the message of scripture and critically reflect on the impact of the message upon their culture.
The implementation of this philosophy in the classroom will take the following form of a culturally aware and sensitive professor. This will be implemented through a series of activities and projects whereby we engage the current cultural trends and assess them by the message of scripture. The assignments and projects will engage the student with the content of scripture, i.e. the given book(s) under study, but also the ways in which that content intersects with their life in their world. Each of these projects would be geared towards the different types of learners that enter the classroom. Rather than giving only an exam, which addresses the needs of analytical learners. The projects would be suited so that all learning types would have an aspect of class geared towards them.
Not every professor is a great teacher. Great teaching requires a plan for growth. My plan includes attending educational conferences as well as interacting with colleagues in peer evaluation. The test of whether I have been successful may not be readily apparent. Given the nature of the task at hand, immediate answers are not readily available nor proof of great teaching. The process in which I am engaged is truly tested on the basis of a life lived. However, immediate implications should be seen through a student’s enthusiasm throughout a semester and the student conduct while on campus.
