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Teaching Philosophy
“Management’s job is not to see the
company as it is but as it can become.”
John
W. Teets,
CEO
Greyhound Corp.
If I could restate this as “A
teacher’s job is not to see the student as he/she is but as what he/she
can become”, it would convey my teaching philosophy perfectly. This quote best exemplifies what I feel
every educator should be trying to accomplish with respect to his/her
students. It is his/her
responsibility to challenge the students so that they extend their limits
and learn to think outside the box and achieve their full potential.
In order to accomplish this very challenging task it is
imperative that the environment in the classroom, be
safe and comfortable so the students feel free to share, yet challenging
in a constructive and supportive manner so that the students learn to
think critically. Only through a
free flow of ideas and sharing of experiences can the classroom
environment become synergistic. It
is also important that the learning be a two way process, if I am not
challenged as an instructor while I am in class, then I have failed at
achieving this synergy in learning.
I see my self as a guide or a facilitator on this journey of
learning.
In addition to classroom learning I strongly feel that it is
my responsibility to challenge the students and to set an example for them
so that they develop not only as a manger but also as a person. This belief I feel is a product of the
beliefs I was brought up with. In
my home country of Pakistan
and in my religion, teachers are accorded great respect and I feel with
this respect comes additional responsibility. Even though I am a long way from that
culture and environment I still hold strongly to this belief. I try to develop a relationship with my
students in order to succeed at this goal.
If I am successful in implementing my objectives, then a
student who has completed my course should have the ability to think
critically and to integrate knowledge from different areas into their
decision making process.
As a teacher and a researcher, I also feel that there needs
to be a balance in between these two activities. The following quote best conveys my
feeling about the balance between these two equally important roles: "Don't think of them [teaching and
research] as independent. Make them interact. If you stress teaching per se, you will
deplete your intellectual capital in about five years. After that you
will be teaching other people's ideas; other people's work."
Maurice Moonitz
on teaching & research [in Demski et. al., Accounting
Horizons, June 2002)
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