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My Teaching Philosophy (T.E.A.C.H.E.R.)
I am very grateful for a wonderful learning opportunity the academic career provides me. I enjoy discovering and
also sharing my enthusiasm for learning with my students. I engage in the process of discovering new knowledge to share
with my students, and also reflect on how to share it with them. The process of learning and more importantly unlearning
and relearning applies so much to the teacher within me, as it applies to the subject knowledge itself. For this matter, I look
forward to engaging myself with discussions with
other passionate teachers to reflect upon my own
teaching. Over time, as I have grown as a teacher, I
have found myself naturally gravitating towards
Palmer’s philosophy and his approach: "[g]ood
teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good
teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the
teacher".
Deep learning happens when the students
are passionate about the subject matter (Ken Bain),
and the level of challenge is just right for the “flow” to
happen (Csikszentmihalyi, M.). Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as “the state in which
people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will
do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” If the task is difficult, or if the ability level is high, we do not
perceive flow moments. I believe that deep learning can happen if the students are actively engaged and are provided with
the right challenging, and supportive environment. My teaching philosophy thus centers on the notion of flow – creating
and sustaining lasting learning moments.
For this effect, I follow a multifaceted approach towards teaching which I have named T.E.A.C.H.E.R. The approach
focuses on T-Technology; E-Engagement; A-Alignment; C-Community; H-Humor; E-Enrichment; and R-Reflection along with
4-way feedback and evolution. The figure above reflects my teaching philosophy in a nutshell.
Technology: I couldn’t agree with more with David Warlick when he says that technology is considered as the pen
and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world. I love teaching about technology,
and also using technology in my teaching. I try different technologies and experiment with different ways of using it for
engaging my students more creatively. I recognize the fact that not every technology out there is effective in making the
learning happen for everyone, and that technology needs to be carefully integrated with the content and cannot be just
used as an add-on or an afterthought.
Engagement: Student engagement is critical in any learning environment. I believe that for proper learning we
need to have an engagement at all three levels: between student-instructor, between student-student and between
student-course content. I am firm believer in the fact that engaging students in a positive way is highly associated with
learning and academic success. Instructor’s’ enthusiasm and passion can be the glue that can bind the engagement at all
the levels.
Alignment: To create flow moments, I tend to emphasize the alignment – between the course learning objectives
and the content, and also between the content and the assessment activities. Clear goals and aligned learning and
My Teaching Philosophy by Gaurav Bansal, Ph.D. – 11/20/2015
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assessment activities help students understand what it takes to succeed, and that in turn builds their efficacy and
motivation to succeed. To put it in a lighter vein…with proper alignment one would find it very difficult to escape without
learning what the instructor intended one to learn.
Community: Learning gets enhanced and the pressure eased when it takes place in a community setting. Students
feel more comfortable when they feel that they have a community of learners to fall back upon. The community keeps
them motivated, positively oriented and provides support system as well. According to Palmer (2010) “[n]o matter how you
slice it, the basic mission of the academy – knowing, teaching and learning is, at bottom, is communal. That mission cannot
be pursued successfully in the absence of cultural support for community.” I make efforts to create a community of learners
in the real as well as online environment so that the students can have a support network both in and outside the class.
Humor: Humor has been known to make learning difficult things easy. I believe that the best way to learn is to
make the topic enjoyable and to create an environment in which students can have fun and a good time while they learn. I
try to inject humor in a subtle way so that the focus remains on the learning and the humor becomes the lubricant that
makes learning more efficient and effective. Humor changes the dynamics of the whole class, lowers the perceived
difficulty, and enhances the students’ efficacy to deal with the challenging content. In all I find it to be a very helpful
ingredient in creating the “flow” moments.
Enrichment (Efficacy, Practice, and Research): I tend to increase my students’ efficacy level, particularly the
undergraduate students, by using multiple mechanisms. One of them is involving them in research projects. Such
experiences motivate the students, help them learn the concepts better, and at the same time help them realize that they
can be a partner in the knowledge creation. It is beyond doubt that such experiences are essential for our students in
experiencing and sustaining the “flow” moments.
Reflection: One of the cornerstones of my teaching philosophy is a reflection on my experiences. John Dewey once
said, ‘we don’t learn from experience, we learn about thinking about experience”. The idea is further supported by Ken Bain
who further elaborated that people learn deeply by learning to think about the experiences that they have, by comparing
them with other experiences, framing them in multiple ways, questioning them, by asking what they mean and what
implications they have. I find participation in the scholarship of teaching and learning activities to be quite helpful in
assisting me to reflect on not only my own experiences but experiences of other teachers and scholars as well.
4-way Feedback: l believe in four-way feedback – student to instructor, instructor to student, student – student,
and also instructor to instructor. While as instructors most of us engage in first three feedback processes, I believe that the
fourth is equally important as well. I believe that we have can learn so much so from each other, not only about the content
knowledge but also about our own selves as teachers. I find that peer-evaluation of teaching is a very helpful exercise in
that regards. Citing the importance of the feedback process Palmer noted in his book: “The feedback helps us to see
ourselves more clearly: When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are. I will see them through a glass
darkly, in the shadows of my own unexamined life—and when I cannot see them clearly, I cannot teach them well”.
Evolution: With changing technology, business needs, and student requirements, it will be difficult to engage the
students with a teaching philosophy that is not flexible enough to adjust and evolve. Parker Palmer explains it nicely in the
following quote – “the subjects we teach are as large and complex as life, so our knowledge of them is always flawed and
partial.” --- and add to this the dynamics of changing environment and we realize that we have no choice but to continue to
adjust and evolve. I believe that we as academicians are in for life-long learning - learning about the content and learning
about the learning – nonstop and without fail!
My Teaching Philosophy by Gaurav Bansal, Ph.D. – 11/20/2015