Gurpreet Kaur

Teaching philosophy of Gurpreet Kaur

I like teaching since my childhood. For the very first time time I taught students elder then me, in an open school during my undergraduate studies. This was a wonderful experience, which nurtured confidence in me.
My first year of teaching, I focussed on honouring the lecture notes, managing decoram and conduct of lecture and a command on the syllabus. This hardwork paid me off. My evaluation of teaching behaviour and styles was remarkable , as the feed back given by the students was outstanding. Then I remembered my first lecture, when I was little bit nervous, which was fadened away now.
But in my mind there is always a bucket list of questions on improving my skills and filling the gaps. But the foremost question which comes to my mind is , are the students really learning. As the education means implying the basic concepts to daily life and improving in their life. Were my students engaging in surface or deep learning? How could I measure what kind of learning was taking place? I still wrestle with these questions, but now my decisions about teaching are guided by the statements outlined below that describe my teaching philosophy. Constant learning new techniques/technologies for the enhancing my teaching skills as per the demand of time is my strongest key points.

My teaching philosophy is strongly rooted in student centered and basic life teaching: students need to know why it is important to learn the content, students are responsible for their own learning and take its responsibility, assessment is part of the learning process, and the balance of power is shared between myself and my students.
My decisions about how and what to teach are informed by the research on learning, my teaching experiences and ideas and feedback from my colleagues and mentors (Dr.Niranjan Das). I firmly believe, learning and teaching and human life, society are intricately linked. Learning has occurred when my students have developed new ideas and understandings, have made meaning of the learning experience and have become more aware of themselves as learners. This idea I have got from my schooling, where teaching involved various techniques for example informative tutorial smart video classes, self analysing periods and mentoring classes. Teaching is all about make students independent learners, understand the basics and apply into their life to make them more responsible and contented citizens of tomorrow.
These experiences are ones that enable and empower students in their learning of the course content, and help students take responsibility for their learning. My approach to teaching is built on a model where student engagement and empowerment is the foundation. For engagement, I use formal and informal active and collaborative learning strategies in all of my courses and provide frequent opportunities for practice and feedback. In large first year courses, students do in-class activities and learning assessments in teams. I also set up frequent opportunities for students to get feedback on their learning – small and large group discussions, in-class case studies, and informal quizzes give students and me feedback on their learning that students can use to adjust their study strategies and I can use to adjust my teaching to help maximize their learning. My main strong point of teaching is being liberal while teaching, this allows students to learn more and being stricter towards their attitude and sense of learning.
Positive environments are imperative for open learning:To me the right learning environment is one that empowers students by providing clear expectations, opportunities for practice and feedback, opportunities for dialogue, and opportunities for flexibility. My responsibility is to create and maintain these optimal environments.
Teachers need diverse strategies: To help facilitate learning, I use different teaching
strategies. The strategies I choose depend on the size, focus, and needs of the students in a class. Strategies that I use on a regular basis include small and large group discussions, lecturing, and demonstrations. These strategies must take students’ prior knowledge into consideration and provide students with opportunities to challenge their assumptions and create deeper understandings. I relate experiments with daily life and give the problems based on the life to solve.

Teaching should be informed by evidence: I strive to keep myself current in the fields of
education research. My teaching practice has been strongly influenced by the major research
findings on the basics of subjects . I ask my students for feedback to better understand how instructional activities they experience in my classes affect their learning. I follow the example is better then percept.

Teaching is not a private endeavour: Teachers, like students, benefit greatly from sharing their experiences and expertise with each other. Teachers develop and learn when they work with colleagues. Development of an expert teaching practice comes from receiving feedback from others. I continue to seek out mentors and look for opportunities to work with my colleagues .