Paste your essay in heChemistry is a subject that I have enjoyed studying, practicing, and teaching over the last 14 years. My teaching philosophy is to encourage active learning and real-world connections for students, while providing a firm foundation in chemical concepts and learning. In my opinion, as a teacher my biggest challenge is to offer the delight of learning and researching by using different methods and approaches and furthermore, it is to conduct student logically and systematically through new knowledge. To reach these goals it is necessary to assume a position of respect towards the students at the same time that they are invited to participate actively in the lectures expressing opinions and sharing responsibilities. This approach overcomes the traditional role of the teacher as exclusive withholder of the knowledge and supports a better interaction student/teacher and student/student.
Teaching involves time, dedication, and patience. Chemistry may be difficult to some or most of the students in the classroom. Students will make mistakes, but it is my responsibility to properly guide them so that they learn from their mistakes and, in the end, get rewarded by their efforts and chemical knowledge acquired. I may have students from different backgrounds, e.g., nonscience majors and/or students returning to school after a number of years of absence. This was the case in one of the classes, C103-Introduction to Chemical Principles, I taught at the Chemistry Department of Indiana University. The task was challenging as those students clearly needed an extra amount of time in the office hours and an additional number of homework assignments to keep them in pace with the class. The peer teaching in the classroom was found to be very helpful for the students who were unwilling to attend the office hours. The aim of my teaching has been to provide each student every opportunity to do her or his best in learning. It is my job to teach students problem-solving skills in the lectures and labs. This prepares students, challenged with a scientific problem, to generate and evaluate a hypothesis, deduce logical conclusions, and communicate those findings. This approach allows students to deal with the challenges they will experience far beyond the classrooms, and is absolutely critical for the next generation of leaders.
I believe that I should present myself with enthusiasm and passion for chemistry while respecting and understanding each and every student in the classroom. Students generally arrive in the classroom thinking of a plethora of distractions. My first task is to focus their energies on the lesson for the day. Students are often confused with the question “What is the point of today’s lesson and how will I know when I have learned it?” Therefore, I prefer to tell students the objective of the lesson at the beginning of the class, e.g., “by the end of today’s class, you should be able to identify the strong and weak acids based on the type/number of electronegative atoms they have.” I feel it is also necessary to help them recall what they already know from previous lessons and connect new concepts and information to pre-existing knowledge. Students often approach studying for a course as though each lesson is discrete and separate. However, a well-designed course is a complex web of interconnected concepts. I continue to seek ways to connect the lesson to future lessons and provide additional opportunities to students to practice their learning. I find that well-designed homework assignments and semester long projects are essential in that regard. I believe that an active learning approach is essential to teach critical thinking and I use techniques like interactive lecturing, demonstrations, teacher-/student-led discussions, debates, role playing, writing a summary of a lesson identifying and connecting the central concepts, flipped classroom models, and other methods effective for active learning. Active participation by the students is an integral part of true learning. I continue to strive for a classroom where students are rewarded and encouraged for their contributions, and widespread engagement as well as out-of-class assignments are regularly used to prepare students for active learning. Involving students in lectures through instantaneous anonymous feedback on in-class problems using clickers or similar technology is a key feature, as I have found from my teaching experience at Indiana. The goal is to identify logical flaws early on and to have students who solve problems correctly teach their peers in small groups. I used this method in one of the general chemistry courses, C117-Principles of Chemistry and Biochemistry, at Indiana and observed significant improvements in conceptual understanding and problem solving skills.
It is well known that chemistry is present in every aspect of our everyday life. I believe that teaching chemistry becomes effective and fun when students can connect the chemical principles taught in the classrooms/labs to the events happening in the world around them. In that regard, one of my favorite approaches is ‘Mini-Case’, which is to begin a lesson with a realistic, brief question that requires the use of a key concept that will be discussed that day. For example, a question like “Have you ever wondered why you can smell a candle all throughout the house?” is appropriate for the students to work on and develop their ideas before they are introduced to the concept of perpetual motion of atoms and molecules; the kinetic theory of gases. From my personal experience as an associate instructor for five years at Washington State and Indiana Universities, I found that the moment when classroom chemistry is connected to day-to-day examples, the enthusiasm of the whole classroom changes and students learn something that they understand and remember.
What approaches will I take to teaching?
I continue to look for new learning forums for my students. I am a strong believer in applying “chemistry in everyday life” assignments when possible. Students will be encouraged to identify and summarize applications of course topics that they find in internet articles, newspapers, and magazines. This allows them to be aware of the multidisciplinary aspects of the present day world affairs. I will continue to follow the approaches that I often find valuable for active learning. These are discovery learning, experiential learning, peer teaching, case studies, open-ended instruction, etc. In addition, student learning will be evaluated in the traditional ways: exams, quizzes, and homework sets, which will be designed to emphasize understanding over memorization. For upper level classes, I will have oral presentations and written reports on the end-of-semester projects, both of which will include constructive criticism by myself and peers. This will be necessary for the students to demonstrate their advanced concept mastery. Project-based learning is essential for team-building skills, and projects designed for small group of students help improve their understanding of the advanced materials in the course. As a computational chemist, I have a profound interest in using computational chemistry tools, e.g., Spartan Student Edition and WebMO, to design chemistry assignments that help students with hands-on discovery and reinforcement of various chemical concepts, while removing the technical difficulties of running the calculations. I have hands-on experience of using a web-based learning tool, Computer Assisted Learning Method (CALM), while teaching as an associate instructor at Indiana. This tool was very useful for general chemistry classes of large size (about 300 students) and smaller (about 60-80 students) honors-level classes like C360-Introductory physical chemistry. For self-evaluation, I would like to provide students with a mechanism to comment anonymously on my teaching approaches throughout the semester. This will help me adapt my teaching methods to maximize their interest and comprehension and will contribute to their personal and professional growth, which is ultimately both the goal and greatest reward for an instructor.