During the first day of the Academic and Professional Pathway for postgraduate students, focusing on teaching in higher education, I was asked to put my teaching philosophy into images. Not being an artistic person, I wondered if I could really present such a concept using only visual elements; more than that, I wondered if I knew what my teaching philosophy really was. However, I decided to just draw what came to mind when I asked myself “what are the key things that describe how you want to approach teaching?” or “what do you strive for in yourself every time you walk into the teaching room?”. The result, in the end, was this:

They are really only five different elements, although not necessarily isolated from each other. After the first workshop of this teaching pathway I feel that my teaching philosophy might well change in the future but nevertheless I think I did a decent job at defining it in images, as it stands for now. For the sake of reflective practice, however, I will explore the different elements of this exercise and reflect on the discussion that ensued with the other participants of the workshop.

• Me and them: who’s more confused?

This figure was the one that automatically came to my mind as soon as I was introduced to the task at hand. Me, in line with my students, feeling more lost than them.

The fact that I was an undergraduate student not long ago gives me the privilege of still remembering how it was to be in my student’s position. I think it helps when you can see things from the students’ perspective and I hope I can maintain that ability (or at least try my best to) throughout my teaching career. However, if it is true that being a student meant having many doubts about a lot of things, being a teacher has brought with it a whole new world of questions. Being a postgraduate student myself I often don’t feel confident that I know the things I should or need to know myself – the so called impostor syndrome, so I hear – so how could I possibly be teaching someone else? In addition to that, and even though it might sound simple enough on the face of it, how does one teach? How do I approach students? And the subject? How much can I assume they’ll know? Do I ask questions? What if they ask something I don’t know the answer to? What if they’re clearly bored and the teaching session is going drastically wrong? Will they respect my authority (and why should they)? Did I do it right? Did they learn and/or like the session? How can I improve? Is their feedback honest?... And this long line of questions could go on and on and on, which is why I have represented myself having a bigger questions mark over my head.

Finally, I would like to draw attention to the fact that I’ve drawn myself in line with my students. I think this is a crucial part of my teaching philosophy: students are not my inferiors in any way; they are my peers. I have as much to learn from them as they might have to learn from me. I respect, take into account and reflect upon their opinions, their input, their perspectives and their feedback, even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. During the workshop, someone pointed out that they did not agree with this, because they thought the teacher needs to have some authority in order to be respected and for order to be maintained during teaching (at least this is what I understood, and apologies if I am oversimplifying the matter here!). While I can see that teachers need to be in a position where students will listen and recognise their authority, I personally found that I am more likely to respect someone if I can relate to them and if I feel I can approach them. That being the case, being an approachable teacher and recognising I have as much to learn from students as they from me is the way I want to position myself when teaching.

• All minds work differently

This element of my “artwork” is deeply connected to something else I strongly believe in – all minds work differently and it is all about finding the right method that will light up that bulb. Sometimes, it ight seem that someone is taking longer to understand something, but it might just be that the teacher simply has not struck the right chord, we haven’t found the switch that will get those brain gears going! The ideal situation would be to find an analogy, a method, an example or case study that would work for all, but I think it is important to bear in mind that, occasionally, the “go-to” teaching methodology will not suffice and that is no reason to give up on a student or to place the blame on them (“they simply don’t/can’t get it”). Instead, it is the teachers role to adapt and innovate, finding new ways to reach the students thinking mechanisms.

• Passion <=> Knowledge

Once again drawing from my personal learning experience, things always came easier when the subject was interesting. While this likely sounds like common knowledge (or even common sense), keeping students interested and engaged is often one of the biggest challenges of teaching. A teacher who is passionate about what they teach may be able to inspire their students and transmit some of that enthusiasm such that the students genuinely enjoy and make the most of the learning process.

Or course, this is the idealised case, and sometimes being passionate is not enough to keep students interested. Especially at early stages of their education, when there might be a wider scope of topics to cover, things can be even more difficult. For example, a student who is more interested in history might struggle with science topics they need to cover in order to successfully complete the academic year (but which they are not as interested in). In this type of situation I believe it has much more to do with making the subject relatable, rather than aiming for passion. Students might not find science intrinsically fascinating, for example, but might be interested enough to learn about it if they know how it is used in their day-to-day lives. Someone else might feel they have no interest in the origins of law, but might find useful to understand how certain laws apply to them and how they protect them or what the law expects of them as citizens. In fact, this is often one of the main complaints regarding science teaching – the teaching methods fail to impart how the content is useful to anyone, in any way. Things get even worse with maths, where students often complain that it is too abstract to understand, to vague to apply. Therefore, I feel delivering content in such a way that the students can relate to it is key to maintain engagement.

• A two-way conversation

Closely linked to the idea of having students as my peers is the belief that it is important to keep a strong feedback channel open going both ways – from me to the students and vice-versa. During my teaching experience so far it has always been stressed that I should give clear and detailed feedback to students at all times. The need for more thorough feedback, on the other hand, has come to light from feedback given by students, who had found themselves struggling with not knowing how to improve their academic performances due to lack of guidance. To me, there is a clear cycle here, whereby students can improve their performances when guided and teachers can meet students’ needs more effectively, when the conversation is kept going both ways. That is, the teaching staff needs to listen to students just as much as they expect students to listen to them, and then development towards excellent teaching and learning can happen. 

On this note, I would like to add that feedback has recently sparked my interest in a teaching context, mainly due to my own experiences regarding this matter. Even though feedback is always given anonymously (as well it should be), I wonder if students with not so positive comments shy away from giving feedback anyway. Moreover, I wonder if education institutions do enough to get constructive feedback, i.e. the kind that students expect from said institutions, with comments and guidance, rather than simply a number on a satisfaction scale, which can only help so much. How many students actually take their time to help their departments improve their courses for the years to come? And how do we encourage them to do so?

In any case, giving and receiving good, constructive feedback, remains very much at the core of my teaching philosophy.

•  Evolution

Finally, and after drawing what were the most immediate responses to “who am I as a teacher”, I ended up thinking about “why do I like teaching” instead, which, in my opinion, is also a vital part of a teaching philosophy. The result – a butterfly emerging from its cocoon – might come across as cliché, perhaps (or even silly), but it represents what really drives my teaching: watching students achieve their full potential. Throughout life I have witnessed way too many cases of students who were lead to believe they couldn’t achieve certain academic goals for whatever reason, and of teachers who gave up on these students. I saw them in my class room when I was a student myself, and I knew that, if I could do it, then anyone else could and there was no reason for these people to believe otherwise. To this day, and now that I teach, I see some students struggling with certain things, ready to believe it is not for them, and I refuse to let them be brought down by those thoughts. I know they can do it, because I too have done it and what I really enjoy is showing them what they can truly achieve, all on their own. I try to do this not by giving them the answers but by guiding them on a path where they can use the knowledge they already have (and complementing this when needed) to lead them to new conclusions and concepts. Helping students in this learning journey towards their full potential truly is what I find most rewarding in teaching.

These points, I believe, sum up my teaching philosophy as it stands now. As a teacher, I strive to always be fluent in the subject I am teaching, be prepared for each session and continuously review and improve my teaching methods and style. I recognise the value in listening to students - their struggles, opinions, complaints and ideas - and, importantly, I recognise that I have a lot to learn from them and that they are the driving force for my development and improvement as a teacher. My final goal is to help as many students as I can to achieve their goals and fulfil their potential.