For user ease, I have divided my teaching into two sections: College Teaching and EC - 12 Teaching. You can jump to either section by clicking on the linked section title or using the main course menu. Below you will find my research statement in order to frame the scholarship presented on this website.
Teaching Philosophy
Teaching is rooted in profound care for learners and a deep respect for the reflective, constructive, and liberatory human activity that is learning. My teaching is orientated toward assisting learners to come to know themselves and others as active, autonomous, and interdependent beings capable of questioning and shaping their world through their understanding, application, and creative adaptation of course concepts. I draw on social constructivist and critical pedagogical theoretical perspectives to inform how I understand the roles of learners and teachers as they engage in dialogical learning.
I see learners as knowledgeable, active participants who independently and collaboratively engage with new information in light of prior understandings in order to continually construct and reconstruct themselves and their conceptions of the world. Learners come into learning spaces with diverse perspectives and deep reserves of knowledge. I to value this diversity and these reserves while I help all learners explore new concepts and take different perspectives in order to construct new ways of knowing. Thus, I rely upon hands-on, multimodal, problem-based learning experiences and projects that make use of technology and artistic practices in ways that allow learners to negotiate and enact course content.
I view a teacher as an experience designer, a model, and a questioner. First, a teacher artfully designs complex learning experiences in which learners approach concepts and perspectives in ways that allow them to challenge ideas and wrestle with multifaceted, real-world problems. In these experiences, learners encounter concepts, each other, and the world through hands-on exploration and theoretical deliberation. A teacher also acts as a model, demonstrating processes, skills, or concepts and facilitating reflective discussions that help learners to understand, problematize, and adapt what they have seen modeled. Finally, teacher acts as a questioner as a means of assisting learners in reframing experiences, concepts, and other content. Questions, when created and situated thoughtfully, allow learners to experience education as a process of inquiry rather than as an act of memorization and training.
I believe that learning exists through dialogue between learners and teachers, learners and other learners, and learners and concepts. In dialogue, all parties collaboratively meet, explore, and struggle in the process of knowledge construction. Deep learning through inquiry occurs in spaces where learners feel welcomed and psychologically safe to engage in idea sharing, perspective taking, questioning, problematizing, and action. Within this dialogical process, a teacher must be able to provide guidance as well as be willing to take on the role of student of their students. Often, I attempt to listen and follow the lead of learners in order to understand their perspectives so that I might pose powerful questions. Other times, I enact my role as a teacher more directly though modeling or structured discussions as a means to suggest routes toward more fruitful educational destinations. Yet, I know that the roles of teacher and learners can be transitory and reciprocal through experiences and entire courses. As such, I encourage learners to be teachers and I, as a teacher, to be a learner.
In summary, I view teaching as ethically grounded upon a sense of care and respect for learners and learning. I see learners as knowledgeable and active collaborating participants in the constructive process of learning. My role as a teacher is to design deep learning experiences, model course content and inquiry, and question learners while navigating a role that embraces structure and learner agency. Through the dialogical process of learning, I seek to help learners come to know themselves, others, and their world in new ways. I enact these beliefs so that learners might develop deep understandings related to course concepts that will empower them to be agents of change in their communities and in their lives.
I see learners as knowledgeable, active participants who independently and collaboratively engage with new information in light of prior understandings in order to continually construct and reconstruct themselves and their conceptions of the world. Learners come into learning spaces with diverse perspectives and deep reserves of knowledge. I to value this diversity and these reserves while I help all learners explore new concepts and take different perspectives in order to construct new ways of knowing. Thus, I rely upon hands-on, multimodal, problem-based learning experiences and projects that make use of technology and artistic practices in ways that allow learners to negotiate and enact course content.
I view a teacher as an experience designer, a model, and a questioner. First, a teacher artfully designs complex learning experiences in which learners approach concepts and perspectives in ways that allow them to challenge ideas and wrestle with multifaceted, real-world problems. In these experiences, learners encounter concepts, each other, and the world through hands-on exploration and theoretical deliberation. A teacher also acts as a model, demonstrating processes, skills, or concepts and facilitating reflective discussions that help learners to understand, problematize, and adapt what they have seen modeled. Finally, teacher acts as a questioner as a means of assisting learners in reframing experiences, concepts, and other content. Questions, when created and situated thoughtfully, allow learners to experience education as a process of inquiry rather than as an act of memorization and training.
I believe that learning exists through dialogue between learners and teachers, learners and other learners, and learners and concepts. In dialogue, all parties collaboratively meet, explore, and struggle in the process of knowledge construction. Deep learning through inquiry occurs in spaces where learners feel welcomed and psychologically safe to engage in idea sharing, perspective taking, questioning, problematizing, and action. Within this dialogical process, a teacher must be able to provide guidance as well as be willing to take on the role of student of their students. Often, I attempt to listen and follow the lead of learners in order to understand their perspectives so that I might pose powerful questions. Other times, I enact my role as a teacher more directly though modeling or structured discussions as a means to suggest routes toward more fruitful educational destinations. Yet, I know that the roles of teacher and learners can be transitory and reciprocal through experiences and entire courses. As such, I encourage learners to be teachers and I, as a teacher, to be a learner.
In summary, I view teaching as ethically grounded upon a sense of care and respect for learners and learning. I see learners as knowledgeable and active collaborating participants in the constructive process of learning. My role as a teacher is to design deep learning experiences, model course content and inquiry, and question learners while navigating a role that embraces structure and learner agency. Through the dialogical process of learning, I seek to help learners come to know themselves, others, and their world in new ways. I enact these beliefs so that learners might develop deep understandings related to course concepts that will empower them to be agents of change in their communities and in their lives.