Statement of Teaching Philosophy Dr. Chad L. Davies Over the last several years, as I have begun my full time teaching career, I’ve had a chance to investigate how students learn and how I like to teach. As a result of this process, I have developed a few guiding principles to assist me in my efforts at teaching. While the specific implementations of these principles may vary somewhat, I have found that they have served me well in my attempts to get students to become a part of their own education. The first of these principles is that in science, whenever possible, physical phenomena should be introduced experientially in an active way. Students, through guided inquiry, should be allowed to investigate the physical world with an eye to discerning what relationships might govern it. This exploration, as I mentioned previously, must be structured and focused by instructor participation that helps to illuminate the important aspects of the phenomenon being studied to be effective. The second principle is that for students to learn material in sciences, they must be exposed to the material in a number of different representations. The experimental representation, as discussed above, should be augmented with a strong physical representation followed by an appropriate mathematical representation. By having the student work between different representations of the problem, the student more thoroughly understands how each of the representations relates to each other and to the phenomenon as a whole. An historical example of this is the work of Faraday and Maxwell in electrodynamics. Faraday started with physical observations from which he derived a physical representation, namely the field. From this, Maxwell was able to provide a mathematical framework that allowed for deep insights into the systems of interest. I try to use a similar process in teaching my students Newton’s Second Law. The students begin the investigation by examining systems moving under the influence of various forces, arriving at an understanding of the relationship between force and acceleration (I actually never have to put Newton’s Second Law on the board). From this, I introduce them to the physical representations of the Free-Body and Force Diagrams. Using these, they are then able to work to a mathematical relationship that is strongly tied to their physical experience. The third principle I have is that students learn the greatest amount of material and develop the greatest level of self-confidence and esteem when they are respected for who they are and asked to meet high standards of personal performance. I have found that when a student has to work hard in an environment of strong instructor support, the student is almost always able to rise to the challenge. Additionally, the student develops a deep level of confidence in his or her ability to approach difficult situations and resolve them. Eight things I believe about teaching physics:
To Dr. Davies'
Professional Page Copyright
© 1999 All rights reserved. |