Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Brenda L. Swearingin

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Human Performance and Leisure Studies

School of Education

North Carolina A&T State Univeristy

214a Corbett Center

Greensboro, NC

I believe that an informed view of teaching depends upon a particular philosophy for how students learn. In this regard, I believe that students learn foremost when they are required to think critically about the material that is presented in class and they are encouraged to make connections to and expand upon their existing knowledge, much aligned with the major tenets of constructivist philosophy.

Therefore, a responsibility of a teacher is to develop and present lessons to the students that challenge them to engage in the learning process so that they indeed make relevant and novel connections while consistently developing new conceptual frameworks. An effective way of doing this is to design curriculum (lectures and assignments) that incorporates open-ended, problem-solving scenarios in which students must actively develop an applied understanding of the material presented. The role of the teacher in this environment is one of facilitator, helping students to make sense of the material and guiding their problem-solving efforts. In contrast to more didactic approaches in which teachers seemingly “dispense knowledge”, the aforementioned method underscores the idea that learning is something that students must do for themselves, in contrast to having the teacher learn and transmit the material to them.

However, teachers it must be acknowledged that the practice of learning is an intentional act, and in light of this it must be noted that our students come to our classrooms with a range of intentions toward learning. Just as it is naive to believe that each and every student in our class will master the lesson on their own and with great enthusiasm, it is equally (if not more so) pernicious to believe that the teacher should shoulder the responsibility for the student’s learning. The latter view denies the recognition that learning requires a desire to learn. It is not something that the teacher can do for the student. Teachers can only facilitate opportunities for students to take ownership of their own learning.

While it is understood that good teachers must have expert knowledge of the content that they teach, I also believe that the core of teaching excellence is good modeling of continued learning. We must design lessons that provide students with opportunities to think critically and to learn, and we must do our best to facilitate students’ learning by engaging them with the material. We should also lead by modeling passion and enthusiasm for the process of learning itself, which can be effectively facilitated with our concomitant responsibilities as instructors to engage actively in research. Additionally, this underscores that fact that an effective teacher should strive to improve his or her own conceptual and pedagogical knowledge and be willing to experiment with the teaching of their courses as informed by their own professional development.