David Keil
October, 2009
Teaching statement
I think of teaching and learning as a contract between equals who have different roles. The student will learn to the degree that she or he is active and curious. Such a student is able to solve problems, think critically and creatively, and explain the material to other students. The instructor starts with expertise, learns at all times, and feeds this learning back into the teaching-learning process.
We call all this collaborative, active learning, and it is in contrast to a hierarchical, student-passive model of teaching and learning. Tools of communication help us collaborate. I agree with the model of learning that pictures learners as constructing their own knowledge by organizing what they hear and see. Thus the teacher has a guiding role and all participants challenge each other and each other's claims in the learning process.
Learning now happens in an environment in which everyone in the whole world may be connected in a single learning community with lots of sub-communities. It has a potential to help us create a single body of knowledge shared by all humans, and to build a form of universal human solidarity, in which everyone can encourage everyone else, and the ideas and contributions of everyone are welcomed. This is my goal in my classroom and in all my interactions with students.
Assessment of learning is part of the jobs of most teachers. I base assessment and grades mainly on evidence of acehivement of clearly stated goals for what students are to be able to do by the end of a course of study.