Hi everyone I'm applying for a faculty position and I wrote this teaching statement, can you plz help me by reviewing it, today is the deadline for applying I really appreciate it if someone can help me. Plz give me your comments and suggestion.
Thanks
"Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime" Chinese proverb
Teaching is an art. It is a creative way of transferring knowledge and of instigating a feeling of inquisitiveness and curiosity in the students. The amount of knowledge transferred during the teaching process is not the only evaluative criteria of how successful a teacher is but it goes much beyond that. An ideal teacher will be able to foster the love for knowledge into a student and a course will no longer only be a step towards fulfilling the academic credentials.
The chances to teach and work with students and to develop new educational materials and techniques are my primary reasons for seeking an academic career. My academic background, teaching experience, and career as a software developer make me well-prepared to teach introductory programming and Computer Science courses as well as more advanced courses on operating systems, databases, software engineering, and data structures and algorithms.
MY EXPERIENCE
My first official teaching experience dates back to 2003 when, just a few months after receiving my B.S. Degree in Computer Science, I taught Introduction to Computer classes at a high school. The first impact with a classroom setting was definitely inspiring, and teaching Computer Science topics to such a diverse audience opened my mind to a different way of presenting the subject.
At King Hussein bin Talal University ,after finishing M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering, my responsibilities as assistant lecturer included grading assignments and exams, teaching classes on selected topics, running lab sessions, and advising students. I held regular office hours, and advised several master students on their theses. During my years as a teaching assistant, I had the opportunity to interact with a large number of students. This invaluable experience showed me that each student learns differently, and each student has a different goal when studying Computer Science. Some students learn best by doing, through hands-on experience, others by attending lectures, completing assignments, or asking face-to-face questions to the instructor.
After joining the University of Bridgeport as a Faculty Research Assistant in 2010, I had the opportunity to teach and develop CpE 460 Introduction to Robotics, the course offered a preface of the technologies and issues underlying the use of Robots, and covered topics including mechanics, control, and programming of robotic systems.
I presented different artificial intelligence topics to freshmen by drawing on students' mathematical background and real-world experience. This gave students context for what they will go on to learn in other programming-focused courses, and motivated some students who may otherwise have dismissed computer science. I hoped to show the students the power of viewing computer science as a problem-solving field, in which a new problem may be solved by an insight from a seemingly unrelated problem.
My enthusiasm for introducing computer science problems and techniques to novice students, particularly those who may not be attracted to the field through traditional routes, means that I would enjoy teaching introductory courses, whether as a computer science survey or a programming class, or intermediate classes in data structures and algorithms. Of course, I am equipped and enthusiastic about teaching any of the computer science core courses. My research background strongly equips me for teaching upper level courses in artificial intelligence, particularly in natural language processing, as well as logic, proof theory, and related discrete math topics.
Among the challenges that I have faced as an instructor, several stand out: engaging non-majors who are taking computer courses because it is required; challenging students who have a deep background in a topic while not neglecting those students who are novices; and persuading students who are reticent or disengaged to actively participate in discussions. There is nothing quite as unsettling as a prolonged silence during a discussion or witnessing a vapid expression on a student's face. My answer to these challenges has involved active inquiry, problem solving, and small group activities.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My goal as a teacher is to prepare students to be thinkers. Today's fast-paced society puts students at a high risk of becoming good test-takers rather than thinkers. The principles that guide my teaching are respect and clarity, and the tools I employ to achieve my goals are an interactive classroom environment and hands-on experience.
It is important to teach students how to approach the subject. This is especially true for introductory- level courses. Introductory Computer Science is somewhat unusual in that we expect the students to learn general concepts such as abstraction, functional decomposition, and object-oriented design, while at the same time requiring that they internalize the syntax and often archaic details of their first programming language. It is the responsibility of the teacher to balance and differentiate these two tasks, so that the students always understand that the programming language they are learning is merely one of many ways to express the higher-level concepts. New language constructs or programming techniques should be introduced to illustrate and implement higher-level concepts, and never vice versa.
In higher-level courses, I think that the emphasis should be on cooperation, planning and design, and critical review. Complex scientific and engineering projects are rarely the work of an individual; students must learn to organize and work as teams as early as possible. Similarly, planning and design are essential elements of any large project, but are difficult skills to master. Finally, the ability to intelligently and objectively critique the work of others is a necessary precursor to being able to accurately evaluate one's own work.
Research and teaching are two complementary aspects of the humankind's endless pursuit of knowledge and an academic environment provides an opportunity to integrate them in a way not possible in any other setting. My goal as a teacher is to foster critical thinking, facilitate the acquisition of life-long learning skills, and prepare students to be competitive in today's society.
