TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
“There is no darkness but ignorance”
—Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
A graduate of three degrees (BA, MA, and PhD), I understand the value of education in developing skills and character and transforming lives and society. Awareness of critical theory regarding institutionalised education (Foucault 1977) and andragogy research (Knowles et al., 2014) has led me to a focus on facilitating productive, respectful learning that aims to foster curiosity and creativity. At its best, education shines light enabling informed views. I see my role in helping to create a community of critical thinkers, deeply engaged readers, and artist-academics as both a responsibility and a privilege.
Literature makes a vital contribution to society. Creative practice is now an acknowledged mode of tertiary research and knowledge making (Webb, 2012, p. 3). I believe a safe, productive, and warm learning environment is vital to facilitating that knowledge making. These beliefs, combined with my creative practice and scholarly expertise, underpin my pedagogical praxis. I encourage imagination, innovation, and risk-taking. My objective is to create an environment as inclusive and interactive as possible, even when lecturing with large cohorts. Where possible, I build formative assessment work and one-on-one consultation time into my curriculum and class planning to ensure individual attention.
My commitment to teaching excellence and equity ensures I produce positive teaching and learning outcomes across a variety of cohorts. I believe in the importance of giving time and attention to the preparation of interactive, student-centred lectures and tutorial learning activities. I meet all students with respect, warmth, enthusiasm, and a keen sense of my responsibility to facilitate learning at the given level of tertiary study. Beyond that, I aim to help students explore their creativity and their understanding of society through the portal of literature and meet their goals. I take my duty of care regarding student welfare seriously and refer students to services I think may be of benefit.
My passion for reading and writing fuels my teaching and evidence-based education research refines it. I have adapted Miller’s Pyramid (Mrozek, 2014), traditionally associated with medicine, as a theoretical framework for the creative writing courses I coordinate. Setting criteria to an underpinning learning framework aids my assessment of student achievement and helps ensure cognitive alignment in design (Biggs, 2014). I also promote student peer and self-assessment (Nulty, n.d.) as a pedagogical practice that contributes to the development of critical and creative writing skills.
Historically learning has been conceived as an exclusively cognitive process. I bring attentiveness to the affective, social, and relational aspects of learning and teaching. This attentiveness is informed by my interest in affect theory and by Kolb’s experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), which posits a cyclical process that links experience (of a new idea or situation) to reflection, conceptualisation, and active experimentation. This cycle is considered against an axis model of four categories that encompass both cognitive and affective learning styles.
I see learning as a lifelong process encompassing a wide range of experiences. Formal education can build upon, clarify, and enhance this. Teaching also involves ongoing learning. I regularly engage in reflective practice, which compliments educator content knowledge (Sellars, 2017). I am enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching for Higher Education at the University of Notre Dame as part of my long-term professional growth plan, and I actively seek other professional development opportunities. These range from inviting informal student feedback throughout the semester, to reviewing learning analytics and conducting optional mid-term student evaluations. My future goals include extending this to peer direct observations and contributing to learning and teaching via participation on faculty committees and policy review.
“There is no darkness but ignorance”
—Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
A graduate of three degrees (BA, MA, and PhD), I understand the value of education in developing skills and character and transforming lives and society. Awareness of critical theory regarding institutionalised education (Foucault 1977) and andragogy research (Knowles et al., 2014) has led me to a focus on facilitating productive, respectful learning that aims to foster curiosity and creativity. At its best, education shines light enabling informed views. I see my role in helping to create a community of critical thinkers, deeply engaged readers, and artist-academics as both a responsibility and a privilege.
Literature makes a vital contribution to society. Creative practice is now an acknowledged mode of tertiary research and knowledge making (Webb, 2012, p. 3). I believe a safe, productive, and warm learning environment is vital to facilitating that knowledge making. These beliefs, combined with my creative practice and scholarly expertise, underpin my pedagogical praxis. I encourage imagination, innovation, and risk-taking. My objective is to create an environment as inclusive and interactive as possible, even when lecturing with large cohorts. Where possible, I build formative assessment work and one-on-one consultation time into my curriculum and class planning to ensure individual attention.
My commitment to teaching excellence and equity ensures I produce positive teaching and learning outcomes across a variety of cohorts. I believe in the importance of giving time and attention to the preparation of interactive, student-centred lectures and tutorial learning activities. I meet all students with respect, warmth, enthusiasm, and a keen sense of my responsibility to facilitate learning at the given level of tertiary study. Beyond that, I aim to help students explore their creativity and their understanding of society through the portal of literature and meet their goals. I take my duty of care regarding student welfare seriously and refer students to services I think may be of benefit.
My passion for reading and writing fuels my teaching and evidence-based education research refines it. I have adapted Miller’s Pyramid (Mrozek, 2014), traditionally associated with medicine, as a theoretical framework for the creative writing courses I coordinate. Setting criteria to an underpinning learning framework aids my assessment of student achievement and helps ensure cognitive alignment in design (Biggs, 2014). I also promote student peer and self-assessment (Nulty, n.d.) as a pedagogical practice that contributes to the development of critical and creative writing skills.
Historically learning has been conceived as an exclusively cognitive process. I bring attentiveness to the affective, social, and relational aspects of learning and teaching. This attentiveness is informed by my interest in affect theory and by Kolb’s experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), which posits a cyclical process that links experience (of a new idea or situation) to reflection, conceptualisation, and active experimentation. This cycle is considered against an axis model of four categories that encompass both cognitive and affective learning styles.
I see learning as a lifelong process encompassing a wide range of experiences. Formal education can build upon, clarify, and enhance this. Teaching also involves ongoing learning. I regularly engage in reflective practice, which compliments educator content knowledge (Sellars, 2017). I am enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching for Higher Education at the University of Notre Dame as part of my long-term professional growth plan, and I actively seek other professional development opportunities. These range from inviting informal student feedback throughout the semester, to reviewing learning analytics and conducting optional mid-term student evaluations. My future goals include extending this to peer direct observations and contributing to learning and teaching via participation on faculty committees and policy review.