Henry Ford once said, “anyone who stops learning is old, whether at age 20 or 80”. I truly believe that learning is a lifelong process and my role as an educator is to instill enduring learning in all my students. If I had to describe my teaching philosophy, I would choose two words: ‘engagement’ and ‘practice’.

As a lecturer of marketing and management in a business school, I have learned that in order to have a rewarding and satisfying career, one must create a stimulating and engaging learning environment where students would acquire the skills necessary to solve real world business problems. My goal as an educator is to ensure that students understand the implications of what they learn and enable them to effectively apply their knowledge in their everyday lives.

When I teach undergraduate students, I play the role of the ‘fire-starter’ that informs challenges and stimulates learners. Accordingly, I make sure to maximize active participation from everyone, which is especially important in big classes with heterogeneous and diverse student backgrounds. I thus endeavor to establish a classroom climate where students see me as approachable and feel comfortable contributing. I encourage them to dynamically engage in discussions that would move them to a higher level of thinking by helping them question what they read rather than passively accept everything. To better capture my students’ interest and foster a deeper level of engagement, I often split them into small groups to encourage them to fruitfully exchange ideas, make supportive arguments, build new understandings and communicate these to others. After all, knowledge is of limited value unless it is properly shared and applied.

My experience with teaching graduate students has taken me on a slightly different journey where my role changed from being the fire starter to that of the ‘fire keeper’. Striving to make students learn useful professional skills and use critical thinking, I push them to think outside the box by having new perspectives and adopting different approaches.

I believe it is impossible to learn how to swim if you never touch the water. Hence, I have always strived to have students work on projects and real case studies to enhance their educational experience and help them develop their analytical skills that would add value to their daily lives. I incorporate hands-on experience, a vital tool for understanding, as an integral part of my teaching strategy. Such an approach allows students to master course material and, more importantly, become confident and insightful practitioners. Project-based activities along with accountability and collaboration are central to my teaching philosophy.

Over the past years, I have given the following undergraduate and graduate marketing and management courses at different Lebanese universities: Strategic Marketing, Principles of Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Customer Service Management, Integrated Marketing Communications, International Business Marketing, Sales Management, Strategic Marketing, Principles of Management, International Business Management, Business Ethics, Business Law, Introduction to Business World, Introduction to Management, Marketing Management (MBA class), and Strategic Management (MBA class).

Having taught a variety of classes and audiences using an effective teaching philosophy has been a fruitful and fulfilling experience thus far and makes me look forward to more years ahead in positively impacting students and growing further in my role as an educator.