Teaching Statement

When recalling the courses I found most fulfilling as an undergraduate student, three characteristics come to mind: (1), the professors drew from broad sources and related the material back to daily life (2), they were reactive, and often taught to their own research which communicated passion for the subject and (3), their courses encouraged and facilitated student engagement without the threat of sanctions. My experience in these classes shapes my perspective on the learning process and informs three guiding statements I consider whenever I craft a course:

 
  1. Course materials should encourage students to read and think beyond the textbook and empower them examine and critique daily life.
  2. Learning and teaching are reactive; a course should demonstrate the instructor’s passion for the subject and respond to the interests of the students when possible.
  3. In-class activities and discussion do more to foster engagement, facilitate retention, and allow for quicker evaluation than solely relying on quizzes and exams.
 

An effective college course should empower students to critically evaluate arguments in both scholarly and nonacademic contexts. Textbooks provide excellent guiderails, giving students necessary definitions and histories, but they can be supplemented with journalistic and pop cultural sources to convey that given material—when not on its surface scholarly—can be evaluated from a scholarly vantage point. I implemented supplemental material in my second semester as a graduate instructor. While born partially out of necessity as I had several students who could not afford the text at the beginning of the semester, I found that the classroom was more active and responsive as a result. Students noted that they enjoyed the readings beyond the normal textbook and on assigned “applied” activities, they made better use of scholarly terms and definitions as they analyzed their daily lives.

 

A course should be reactive when possible. By teaching to my own research and allowing students to suggest additional subjects through “special topics” modules in my schedule, I pursue this goal. For example, a module focused on my own “vigilante violence” research demonstrates to students the research process, theoretical and methodological synthesis, and how to interpret findings. In these sessions students raise critical questions about academic work and develop their evaluation skills, contributing to greater classroom engagement in subsequent course modules. The same can be said of student-suggested modules such as my additional crime and deviance session, in which I encourage students to ask critical questions about common myths and misconceptions about crime and how we might address it as a collective, social problem.

 

Each of these principles is informed by a broader “discussion first” approach in my course design. Classroom engagement is key to retaining information and appropriately using it later, I facilitate this through warm-up activities at the start of class and periodic checks for understanding throughout the lecture. This allows the students and I multiple moments in time to clarify confusion, debate points, and critique the arguments presented in course materials. While engaged discussion has always been a goal of the courses I teach, I find that students perform better on written and oral assignments after implementing these discussions more frequently throughout the class. Specifically, students use scholarly terms and definitions properly and with greater frequency on end of semester “movie review” assignments as well as short-answer exam questions.

 

These three principles together shape how I facilitate learning in the classroom; my approach emphasizes critical thinking beyond the textbook, offers an environment reactive to student needs and interests, and places its focus on engaged discussion between myself and students alike. This creates a classroom that encourages critical and creative problem-solving and facilitates group engagement without the need for tightly structured group activities. My approach emphasizes meeting the students where they are at while learning together through a conversational and respectful process. I find that this approach lends my classes an accessible structure that assists the students in finding their own niche within the discipline or topic we survey.

 

*Example teaching materials available upon request