My Teaching Philosophy

The first tenet in my philosophy of teaching is the use of creative teaching methods.  I believe it is an educator's responsibility to teach classes that are educational, while at the same time interesting and engaging.  I have taught pre-professional athletic trainers by using a myriad of creative teaching techniques.  The theory behind creative teaching strategies is that education can get stale if the same pedagogical techniques are used repetitively.  If educators use many different teaching strategies, students will be excited to come to class, and greater learning will take place.  I fully subscribe to this theory, and once again, my teaching evaluations indicate that students enjoy and benefit from this practice.

The use of creative teaching strategies is based, in part, on the theory of multiple intelligence, which illustrates the second tenet in my philosophy of teaching.  I feel it is of the utmost importance to teach with an awareness that all students learn in different ways. Therefore, I make a point to provide students with varied opportunities to demonstrate their academic ability.  In addition to the midterm and final, each course has a variety of additional assignments students can complete to demonstrate proficiency in the subject area.  Assignments are not merely traditional writing requirements, but a combination of participatory, applied, and reflective learning experiences.  Since some learners have a hard time absorbing auditory directions, I clearly outline all assignments in the syllabus.  I also utilize rubrics to assess writing and other course assignments.

Students are not simply different in the ways that they learn.  Nowadays, educators are challenged to work with students who are different from each other in many ways, including, but not limited to race, culture, and socioeconomic background.  I have had the opportunity to teach at two institutions of higher education, one in the Long Island area and the second in the Greater Boston area. Since education is not divorced from community, the third tenet in my teaching philosophy is related to cultural competency.  As a faculty member I believe it is of the utmost importance to: (a) be sensitive to the diversity among my students; (b) actively seek greater levels of personal cultural competence and try to have that competence reflected in my teaching; and (c) inspire pre-professionals to be aware of multiculturalism in our society and seek greater levels of cultural competence for themselves. I make every effort to integrate diversity into my course curriculum. I often plan learning experiences that force students to question personal beliefs about tough issues, such as sexual orientation, racial differences in academic achievement and their responsibility to teach to the community they work in.  I try to foster acceptance of others though affective, interactive learning experience in the classroom.

The fourth and final tenet in my philosophy of teaching relates to maintaining a current knowledge base in the field.  I believe it is the responsibility of educators to stay abreast of, and participate in research related to education in general, and their field in particular. For example, current pedagogical research indicates that skills-based learning, curriculum integration, parent involvement and service learning that have proven to have an impact on health behavior.  I have integrated all of these topics into my course curricula and continue to follow the literature to ensure that I am informed of new advances in the field.  In addition to following research trends in pedagogy, it is essential for the athletic training and health educator to stay informed of general research in the field of health, wellness and trends in pathologies related to athletic medicine.  Athletic Training Educators and Health Educators work in fields that are constantly evolving and it is their duty to maintain a current working knowledge of these disciplines.  If educators working in pre-service professional programs maintain current knowledge of the field, they are in turn, modeling another important behavior for their students, which relates back to the initial tenet in my philosophy of teaching.

One of the most recent examples of maintaining a current pedagogical knowledge base relates to the integration of technology into education.  As technology has begun to play a greater role in society, educators have begun to capitalize on technology, not only to reach students, but also to effectively impart knowledge.  With this in mind, I have been able to take advantage of technology to enhance my course curricula.  I often utilize PowerPoint and other multimedia technologies to make my lectures more dynamic.  In the past few years, my students and I have had the pleasure of transitioning to the Blackboard system.  The ease of posting on-line course materials and grades have made my courses more efficient, but I believe the on-line communication tools are the features that have best improved the course.  The students and I communicate on a daily basis now, instead of waiting to see each other once or twice a week. I am now exploring the use of Twitter, Adobe Connect and blogging in the classroom setting.   Technology has allowed for communication and learning to occur literally, at the touch of a button.