My Teaching
Philosophy
Many people throughout history have weighed in on
what teaching and learning are all about, and I rather like Galileo=s perspective.
To paraphrase and modernize him a bit, Galileo said: You cannot teach
people anything; you can only help them to find things out for themselves. I believe that this is true. I will do my best to serve as a guide for
students in the courses that they take with me.
However, ultimately, I cannot control how well students learn; this
decision is up to each individual student.
The more students are dedicated to the process of learning, to coming to
class and participating in our discussions, the more students are committed to
reading and engaging in the material, the more they will learn; this I
promise. Should anyone, in the process of
learning, have questions or need help, I=m willing to help you in whatever way I can. See me inside or outside of class, ask
questions, ask more questions, challenge my answers. Be an active participant in your own learning. This teaching philosophy results in my belief
that whatever grade students receive in a course is the grade that they have earned;
it is not the grade I have bestowed upon them.
Students should be both proud of what they accomplish throughout this
semester but also be able to accept responsibility for those times where they
have not fully engaged in the process of learning. Both of these situations are learning
processes as well.
My Grading
Philosophy
It is also
important for students to understand my grading practices, specifically with regard
to papers, and my policy with regard to academic integrity. I strongly believe
that paper grades should reflect both how well students address the content of
the paper assignments and the quality of their writing. Thus, both content and style are graded equally. With regard to content, I will grade on the
following aspects of students’ writing: (a) Organization--is the paper
well-organized given the nature of the assignment? Is there a thesis statement with adequate
support throughout the paper?; (b) Logic/coherence--does the paper make sense
logically? Does the writer address all
relevant aspects of the assignment in a coherent manner? With regard to style, I grade on the
following aspects of students’ writing: (a) Spelling/punctuation--is the paper
free from misspellings, typos, and punctuation errors?; (b) Fluency--does the
writing flow well without awkward and incomplete sentences? Are verb tenses consistent throughout and do
you keep parallel forms in your writing?; (c) Is your paper appropriately
referenced (where applicable) using proper citation format? It is important to be an articulate writer as
well as thinker in my opinion. If you
can’t express yourself well, it is hard to appreciate what it is you are
saying.
Statement on
Academic Integrity
In order to learn, you must engage in the process of
learning. Thus, it is not only the
outcome that matters, but what and how you=ve learned along the way. I recognize that there are pressures to have
a good outcome, to do well, to get a good grade; and these pressures seemingly
increase in college. Sometimes, these
pressures can result in the temptation to bypass the process of learning to get
the good grade; and, when this happens, plagiarism can result.
Plagiarism is a serious offense for many
reasons. First, when you have used
another=s work and represented it as your own, it is
impossible for you to be evaluated on what you=ve learned.
The product you turn in does not reflect your contribution to the
process of learning in any way (and, in fact, you may have bypassed the process
of learning altogether). Second, the
principle of academic integrity holds that, ethically, one should not present
another=s work as if it were one=s own as this is the equivalent of intellectual
robbery.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated by myself or the
other members of the Psychology Department.
Students are sometimes unsure of what constitutes plagiarism. Therefore,
to avoid any confusion, I’d like to explicitly state what plagiarism
entails. Please refer to this section as
you write papers. The following are
considered instances of plagiarism.
Any time one reproduces
another’s words or ideas without giving proper credit, this is
plagiarism. Thus, even if one
paraphrases the ideas of another author without using the author’s own words,
that author must still be cited.
Citations are needed any time one makes a statement
of fact which was discovered or reported by someone else and isn’t common
knowledge, even if this statement of fact is paraphrased from the author you
read
If another author’s words are used verbatim, these
must be in quotation marks and be properly cited.
Any time one presents
an idea as an original idea which is not, this is plagiarism. Thus, “borrowing” an idea from a classmate, representing
an already existing theory or conceptualization as one’s own, or reproducing
someone else’s paper or assignment and presenting it as one’s own are all
examples of plagiarism.