As a teacher I seek to impart to my students the most rewarding experiences of my own undergraduate education. I began college, as many students do, with a naïve belief in relativism, but when my favorite professor of political theory patiently showed me that relativism must claim for itself an exception to its own rule, my life was forever changed. I began to take seriously the claims about justice from each of the parties. Eventually, under the guidance of his demanding instruction, I was able to undertake the task of seeing beyond the parties. And while I was initially dismissive of the value of a liberal education, the professors I respect most showed me how crucial it was for a satisfying life, and a good part of how they did so was to demand the kind of excellence which every serious subject deserves.
I seek to emulate those professors by imparting to students a hunger to answer, as best they can, the question of how they ought to live, both for themselves and for others. This question is one of the most difficult they will face, but it is also one of the most important, and requires as much patience and diligence as they can muster. It is not my place to offer answers, but to guide their individual searches and to make them aware of the world of possibilities both within and beyond our own horizons. Although a course in political theory addresses this question most directly, it belongs to the search for any kind of knowledge of how best to use it. Any serious knowledge of politics is indispensable in the quest to know how one ought to live. Students may not be aware of just how much politics has shaped their way of life, and the more they know about politics the more aware of this fact they can become. My pedagogical approach has been effective in teaching American Politics and I am eager to put it to work teaching Comparative courses as well.
I seek to hold students to the same high standards they can expect from their future employers, colleagues, and communities. My students may then rightly demand the same standards of me, and I aim to do everything I can to live up to those standards. That said, I am aware that not every student will have the same passion for the subject, and I make sure that students with less interest in politics feel welcome and appreciated. I also make an effort to encourage students to bring their diverse backgrounds and life experiences into the discussion for the benefit of all.
When designing classroom activities, my guiding principle is that true knowledge is knowledge of ignorance. Teaching is not the transmission of information but guidance in a search, and that search starts by expanding the student’s awareness of possibilities they are unaware of. If a student can learn how to ask the right questions, they are well on their way. Knowing how to formulate thoughtful and provocative questions on the basis of course materials shows that they have mastered those materials and gained the ability to see the broader implications and challenges posed by our subject. These questions lead directly to what I have found to be the most productive in-class activity: group discussion. Discussion brings together everything I aim for in the classroom: the sharing of diverse viewpoints, increased student involvement in their own learning, a sharpening of their ability to ask thoughtful questions, and a chance for more reserved students to gain confidence through participation.
For example, in my first Question of Justice course a student maintained in discussion that knowledge of the good is impossible because the diversity in subjective experience is too wide. This led several other students to formulate responses on the basis of what we had studied in the course up to that point. One student brought in a point we had discussed earlier, that what we want for our loved ones is not what they think will make them happy, but what will actually make them happy; try as we might, we cannot give up our attachment to the true good. To see students put what they had learned to use, engaging and learning from each other, was one of the most satisfying moments of my teaching career.
With this in mind, I have adopted as a course requirement the frequent submission of discussion questions regarding the material. Early in my teaching experience, I asked students to provide a short reading response several times throughout the semester. But I found that these responses were not sufficiently enlightening as to exactly what the students were struggling to understand or what they found most engaging in the material. I experimented with allowing students to do in-class presentations. These presentations were on the whole successful, but were of uneven quality. The most successful portion of the presentations was the requirement to include discussion questions, so in future courses I decided to make providing questions stand in for both responses and presentations. This assignment is designed to hone each student’s ability to guide their own intellectual development and multiply the quality of class discussion, and I have found it to be highly successful. In addition, having previously worked outside academia, I know firsthand how useful the ability to write clearly and persuasively is no matter what profession students will enter after college. I therefore assign as much writing as is feasible, knowing that practice in the craft of writing can only benefit students throughout their lives.
As part of my commitment to quality teaching, I completed the Apprenticeship in College Teaching program at the Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College. The program covered topics such as syllabus design, facilitating discussion, handling academic integrity issues, and so on. The sessions were invaluable to my growth as a teacher. I have been able to benefit from the wisdom of experienced and gifted teachers and I strive in each part of my teaching to put those insights to work.
I seek to emulate those professors by imparting to students a hunger to answer, as best they can, the question of how they ought to live, both for themselves and for others. This question is one of the most difficult they will face, but it is also one of the most important, and requires as much patience and diligence as they can muster. It is not my place to offer answers, but to guide their individual searches and to make them aware of the world of possibilities both within and beyond our own horizons. Although a course in political theory addresses this question most directly, it belongs to the search for any kind of knowledge of how best to use it. Any serious knowledge of politics is indispensable in the quest to know how one ought to live. Students may not be aware of just how much politics has shaped their way of life, and the more they know about politics the more aware of this fact they can become. My pedagogical approach has been effective in teaching American Politics and I am eager to put it to work teaching Comparative courses as well.
I seek to hold students to the same high standards they can expect from their future employers, colleagues, and communities. My students may then rightly demand the same standards of me, and I aim to do everything I can to live up to those standards. That said, I am aware that not every student will have the same passion for the subject, and I make sure that students with less interest in politics feel welcome and appreciated. I also make an effort to encourage students to bring their diverse backgrounds and life experiences into the discussion for the benefit of all.
When designing classroom activities, my guiding principle is that true knowledge is knowledge of ignorance. Teaching is not the transmission of information but guidance in a search, and that search starts by expanding the student’s awareness of possibilities they are unaware of. If a student can learn how to ask the right questions, they are well on their way. Knowing how to formulate thoughtful and provocative questions on the basis of course materials shows that they have mastered those materials and gained the ability to see the broader implications and challenges posed by our subject. These questions lead directly to what I have found to be the most productive in-class activity: group discussion. Discussion brings together everything I aim for in the classroom: the sharing of diverse viewpoints, increased student involvement in their own learning, a sharpening of their ability to ask thoughtful questions, and a chance for more reserved students to gain confidence through participation.
For example, in my first Question of Justice course a student maintained in discussion that knowledge of the good is impossible because the diversity in subjective experience is too wide. This led several other students to formulate responses on the basis of what we had studied in the course up to that point. One student brought in a point we had discussed earlier, that what we want for our loved ones is not what they think will make them happy, but what will actually make them happy; try as we might, we cannot give up our attachment to the true good. To see students put what they had learned to use, engaging and learning from each other, was one of the most satisfying moments of my teaching career.
With this in mind, I have adopted as a course requirement the frequent submission of discussion questions regarding the material. Early in my teaching experience, I asked students to provide a short reading response several times throughout the semester. But I found that these responses were not sufficiently enlightening as to exactly what the students were struggling to understand or what they found most engaging in the material. I experimented with allowing students to do in-class presentations. These presentations were on the whole successful, but were of uneven quality. The most successful portion of the presentations was the requirement to include discussion questions, so in future courses I decided to make providing questions stand in for both responses and presentations. This assignment is designed to hone each student’s ability to guide their own intellectual development and multiply the quality of class discussion, and I have found it to be highly successful. In addition, having previously worked outside academia, I know firsthand how useful the ability to write clearly and persuasively is no matter what profession students will enter after college. I therefore assign as much writing as is feasible, knowing that practice in the craft of writing can only benefit students throughout their lives.
As part of my commitment to quality teaching, I completed the Apprenticeship in College Teaching program at the Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College. The program covered topics such as syllabus design, facilitating discussion, handling academic integrity issues, and so on. The sessions were invaluable to my growth as a teacher. I have been able to benefit from the wisdom of experienced and gifted teachers and I strive in each part of my teaching to put those insights to work.