TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

I have as my utmost objective to provide students with life-long skills. I believe instructors need to prepare students to the future by making them acquire the skills needed to function effectively in this competitive world. And this is a process that depends not only on the teaching of the fundamental content of any course but mostly on teaching beyond that, i.e., fostering the development of their problem-solving skills, showing the relevance of basic concepts, helping develop a creative process and critical thinking and incorporating technology.

I believe it is important to provide a solid foundation to any course before starting a creative project. This process starts by introducing the basic elements of any content and having students practice until they are able to concatenate them. In their learning experience, I have them practice the examples I introduce in class prior to having them work on their own designs. Those examples involve the same concepts which will be asked of their designs in the next step but by doing that, the students build upon their confidence and become capable to perform their skills in their best fashion. Considering they begin to dominate the process for this specific assignment, the following assignment will then have in its scope a higher level of complexity until they gradually reach the advanced levels of their skills.

To improve their problem solving and creative skills, constant experimentation is an important element in the equation. I encourage my students to keep their minds open to new concepts and not be afraid of making mistakes and to always try variations for the same idea until they find out the one that fits the requirements better. With that, I am explaining them that an artist needs to keep his eye open all the time and can learn from mistakes and variations as much or even more than from the successful examples. For instance, whenever we have a discussion session for three-dimensional models, I always encourage my students to look at an object with a 360-degree eye and think of other possibilities than the one is that is being asked them to do.

Moreover, classroom discussions have proven to be a method that helps students learn and practice the course topics. By looking at other fellow classmates’ works and providing constructive criticism, they are learning how to assess their own work and others’ as well. These discussions enable the discovery of new ideas, the observation of topics the author might not have thought of at first but more importantly that in a learning environment they should not be afraid of exposing their thoughts. While discussing with a student their work, I am someone who respects his individual expression and guides him without imposing any ideas over them. In that way, a student connects to his or her body of work and not only to a class assignment or something I want them to do. From that, their minds fly to unexpected horizons and they become motivated to pursue the best results for their own ideas.

Also, I always relate contents that are sometimes abstract in students’ minds to real-life examples. Connecting fundamental concepts to tactile objects or to familiar scenes makes the understanding of a topic clearer. For that, visual aids such as slide presentations, books, magazines and most recently the internet have been playing a major role. Magazines and the digital technology have been facilitating bring to class the latest developments in my field of study in order to connect the classroom content and the students to the whole world.

Moreover, I think it is important to teach good technical skills and incorporate technology in the classroom as part of their learning. Good technical skills do not compromise self expression. On the contrary, they help a work be produced in a better manner. To achieve that, I introduce my students to not only traditional techniques such as paper models but also to the latest in Computer-Aided Technology (CAD), including CAD software, CNC (Computer Numeric Control) technology and most recently Virtual Reality. In order to make my students well-rounded and prepared for the future, I believe it is important to show as many modes of art production as possible and explain their advantages and disadvantages and how they can sometimes work together for more successful results.

The use of technology relates to my role as an educator in this field. It is my responsibility to introduce new possibilities and new ways of self-expression and technology is definitely one of them. That is when I put myself in the place of a continuous learner. In order to become someone capable of preparing professionals for the future, research and learning takes a great part of my preparation time. I research pieces of software and materials that are suitable to my field of study and evaluate if it is worth applying them to my curriculum. I always share the information with my students and I encourage them to start their own research to develop knowledge of their own, which can be later shared with the whole classroom, creating a collaborative learning environment.

Furthermore, when I am in a classroom environment, I use my objectives as a measurement to evaluate students’ outcomes. When grading their works, I do not consider just the final work, but the whole process that led a student to achieve a certain result. His interest, his ability to connect the introduced concepts to his creative projects and his problem-solving skills are a far greater component of my grading process than the final result itself. I cannot judge a work without considering how that person reached that result.

Equally important is how I present myself to them. Students should perceive me as someone who knows them by their names, who always believes in their full potential, to whom they can ask relevant questions anytime and who they can count on for advising. Most importantly, I make my students understand the fact I appreciate and take their thoughts into consideration when I am planning the course. I consider the evaluation forms an important method of teaching improvement and I encourage my students to report their honest feedback. In that way, I am capable to measure the effectiveness of my teaching method and make appropriate changes whenever necessary.

To summarize my thoughts about teaching and the classroom environment, I have as one of the greatest rewards a sincere “thank you” or a “I really enjoyed and learned a lot from your class” at the end of the term that is not in an evaluation form but came from a student in person. I believe that is when I made a difference in their lives and that is the main reason teaching is so important. If one does not go to school to reflect and change his mind about a specific topic, there is no point in attending it. And this role I chose to have is what I always remember and what made me want to become a teacher. I am a person who is inspiring my students to become better people who will make the world a better place.

Teaching Experience
Teaching Agenda
Students' work
Lesson Plan sample
Syllabus Sample
Contact

PDF Version
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Back to Index page
Back to Teaching Section