Teaching—especially in the Health sciences (Dialysis) —should always strive to move beyond the simple divulging of facts and knowledge or even the training of certain skills. Instead, teachers in science department have the broad responsibility of serving as guide and mentor on an intellectual journey, opening and broadening curious minds by exposing them to new thoughts and ideas. As liberal education helps expand the student’s horizon and forces them to critically examine their values, goals, and ideals, they learn to sympathize and empathize with others of different backgrounds. This, in turn, enables them to come fully into their own as human beings who can share the common bond of humanity with other world citizens as they retain and value their distinguished and separate identities. This mandate of creating self-aware, self-reliant, and self-governing citizens is the underlying philosophy in all my teaching.
I believe that each student is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It is my desire as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites a sharing of ideas. There are three elements that I believe are conducive to establishing such an environment, (1) the teacher acting as a guide, (2) allowing the child's natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, and (3) promoting respect for all things and all people.
When the teacher's role is to guide, providing access to information rather than acting as the primary source of information, the students' search for knowledge is met as they learn to find answers to their questions. For students to construct knowledge, they need the opportunity to discover for themselves and practice skills in authentic situations. Providing students access to hands-on activities and allowing adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson being studied creates an opportunity for individual discovery and construction of knowledge to occur.
Equally important to self-discovery is having the opportunity to study things that are meaningful and relevant to one's life and interests. Developing a curriculum around student interests fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn. One way to take learning in a direction relevant to student interest is to invite student dialogue about the lessons and units of study. Given the opportunity for input, students generate ideas and set goals that make for much richer activities than I could have created or imagined myself. When students have ownership in the curriculum, they are motivated to work hard and master the skills necessary to reach their goals.
Helping students to develop a deep love and respect for themselves, others, and their environment occurs through an open sharing of ideas and a judicious approach to discipline. When the voice of each student is heard, and environment evolves where students feel free to express themselves. Class meetings are one way to encourage such dialogue. I believe students have greater respect for their teachers, their peers, and the lessons presented when they feel safe and sure of what is expected of them. In setting fair and consistent rules initially and stating the importance of every activity, students are shown respect for their presence and time. In turn they learn to respect themselves, others, and their environment.
For myself, teaching provides an opportunity for continual learning and growth. One of my hopes as an educator is to instill a love of learning in my students, as I share my own passion for learning with them. I feel there is a need for compassionate, strong, and dedicated individuals who are excited about working with students. In our competitive society it is important for students to not only receive a solid education, but to work with someone who is aware of and sensitive to their individual needs. I am such a person and will always strive to be the best educator that I can be.
Accordingly, not only do my classes teach the students various ways of acquiring, analyzing, and evaluating information, they also afford them the opportunity to confront new ideas and different points of views, all the while increasing their ability to discuss and defend their own positions both in discussions and in writing. In my composition class this translates into an interactive, group-oriented classroom that focuses in equal amounts on the three components of critical thinking, reading, and writing. As such, I emphasize peer workshops, group work, and the use of student essays as reading material in an attempt to sharpen the students’ critical reading skills and create a more comfortable class environment. My Renal Dialysis course syllabus highlights different approaches of interpretation as it trains the students to generate and defend their own critical readings of Hemodialysis texts. Alternating informational lectures, student-driven class discussions, and guided work in small groups produces a learning situation in which the students can comfortably share and discuss their ideas and literary interpretations.
My composition class is a mixture of argumentative theory which presents students with the vocabulary to discuss their methods of argumentation, critical essays that open debates among the students, and student essays, both as examples and to train critical reading. By reading and debating current articles, the students are forced to address controversial topics, analyze their opponent's arguments and logically defend their own position. By analyzing their peers’ essays, they learn to detect rhetorical structures and logical fallacies in order to teach them to become better readers of their own work. By continually writing, revising, rewriting, they learn to translate their thoughts into a reader-friendly argument that is coherently structured, well-argued, and aware of its audience. Furthermore, through interrelated paper assignments and revisions, I allow students to rework their own arguments and improve their writing skills. Specifically, I incorporate earlier assignments, such as position papers, into the research paper assignment in order to emphasize the importance of extending and improving one’s own ideas and to ward off the danger of solely relying on secondary research. Since the students have already thought about the topic and have developed a claim of their own, they usually are less intimidated by the overwhelming amount of information that confronts them during research. Finally, I emphasize group workshops to create a class environment in which the students know, teach, and help one another in their writing.
My approach to literature courses is somewhat similar to composition classes as I teach students to read closely, analyze, and interpret so as to learn reading literature as a skill rather than simply see it as a body of information to be imparted by the teacher. Through a mixture of lectures, close readings (at times via group work with specific assignments), and general class discussions, I introduce the students to important authors and texts within the context of larger literary movements. My use of directed group work gives the students the opportunity to engage with the text on their own as it forces them to interact with one another. This also allows me to observe the quieter students at work and creates a class situation in which the students feel comfortable with one another and are less hesitant to speak their minds. My overall goal is to situate the specific literary texts in a historical, philosophical, and social framework and to show the interactions between literary culture and society at large. To do so, I give brief historical overviews, expand the classes with social and political background readings, and relate the literature to other art forms such as paintings or film.
One particularly helpful recent addition to teaching composition and literature has been the World Wide Web. In the classes I have previously taught in a web-based environment, I welcomed the students' opportunity to interact via email and learn how to conduct and evaluate research on the World Wide Web, culminating in the creation of a webpage related to their research papers as a final project. In so doing, the students not only interact more with me and one another, but also become active participants in a community larger than the classroom itself. Moreover, they are able to envision an audience for their work other than their teacher or classmates. With the increasing availability of literary texts and scholarly materials on the Internet, I believe a web-based course would be effective for Dialysis Technician classes.
- Dr Sharif Zahooruddin
I believe that each student is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It is my desire as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites a sharing of ideas. There are three elements that I believe are conducive to establishing such an environment, (1) the teacher acting as a guide, (2) allowing the child's natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, and (3) promoting respect for all things and all people.
When the teacher's role is to guide, providing access to information rather than acting as the primary source of information, the students' search for knowledge is met as they learn to find answers to their questions. For students to construct knowledge, they need the opportunity to discover for themselves and practice skills in authentic situations. Providing students access to hands-on activities and allowing adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson being studied creates an opportunity for individual discovery and construction of knowledge to occur.
Equally important to self-discovery is having the opportunity to study things that are meaningful and relevant to one's life and interests. Developing a curriculum around student interests fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn. One way to take learning in a direction relevant to student interest is to invite student dialogue about the lessons and units of study. Given the opportunity for input, students generate ideas and set goals that make for much richer activities than I could have created or imagined myself. When students have ownership in the curriculum, they are motivated to work hard and master the skills necessary to reach their goals.
Helping students to develop a deep love and respect for themselves, others, and their environment occurs through an open sharing of ideas and a judicious approach to discipline. When the voice of each student is heard, and environment evolves where students feel free to express themselves. Class meetings are one way to encourage such dialogue. I believe students have greater respect for their teachers, their peers, and the lessons presented when they feel safe and sure of what is expected of them. In setting fair and consistent rules initially and stating the importance of every activity, students are shown respect for their presence and time. In turn they learn to respect themselves, others, and their environment.
For myself, teaching provides an opportunity for continual learning and growth. One of my hopes as an educator is to instill a love of learning in my students, as I share my own passion for learning with them. I feel there is a need for compassionate, strong, and dedicated individuals who are excited about working with students. In our competitive society it is important for students to not only receive a solid education, but to work with someone who is aware of and sensitive to their individual needs. I am such a person and will always strive to be the best educator that I can be.
Accordingly, not only do my classes teach the students various ways of acquiring, analyzing, and evaluating information, they also afford them the opportunity to confront new ideas and different points of views, all the while increasing their ability to discuss and defend their own positions both in discussions and in writing. In my composition class this translates into an interactive, group-oriented classroom that focuses in equal amounts on the three components of critical thinking, reading, and writing. As such, I emphasize peer workshops, group work, and the use of student essays as reading material in an attempt to sharpen the students’ critical reading skills and create a more comfortable class environment. My Renal Dialysis course syllabus highlights different approaches of interpretation as it trains the students to generate and defend their own critical readings of Hemodialysis texts. Alternating informational lectures, student-driven class discussions, and guided work in small groups produces a learning situation in which the students can comfortably share and discuss their ideas and literary interpretations.
My composition class is a mixture of argumentative theory which presents students with the vocabulary to discuss their methods of argumentation, critical essays that open debates among the students, and student essays, both as examples and to train critical reading. By reading and debating current articles, the students are forced to address controversial topics, analyze their opponent's arguments and logically defend their own position. By analyzing their peers’ essays, they learn to detect rhetorical structures and logical fallacies in order to teach them to become better readers of their own work. By continually writing, revising, rewriting, they learn to translate their thoughts into a reader-friendly argument that is coherently structured, well-argued, and aware of its audience. Furthermore, through interrelated paper assignments and revisions, I allow students to rework their own arguments and improve their writing skills. Specifically, I incorporate earlier assignments, such as position papers, into the research paper assignment in order to emphasize the importance of extending and improving one’s own ideas and to ward off the danger of solely relying on secondary research. Since the students have already thought about the topic and have developed a claim of their own, they usually are less intimidated by the overwhelming amount of information that confronts them during research. Finally, I emphasize group workshops to create a class environment in which the students know, teach, and help one another in their writing.
My approach to literature courses is somewhat similar to composition classes as I teach students to read closely, analyze, and interpret so as to learn reading literature as a skill rather than simply see it as a body of information to be imparted by the teacher. Through a mixture of lectures, close readings (at times via group work with specific assignments), and general class discussions, I introduce the students to important authors and texts within the context of larger literary movements. My use of directed group work gives the students the opportunity to engage with the text on their own as it forces them to interact with one another. This also allows me to observe the quieter students at work and creates a class situation in which the students feel comfortable with one another and are less hesitant to speak their minds. My overall goal is to situate the specific literary texts in a historical, philosophical, and social framework and to show the interactions between literary culture and society at large. To do so, I give brief historical overviews, expand the classes with social and political background readings, and relate the literature to other art forms such as paintings or film.
One particularly helpful recent addition to teaching composition and literature has been the World Wide Web. In the classes I have previously taught in a web-based environment, I welcomed the students' opportunity to interact via email and learn how to conduct and evaluate research on the World Wide Web, culminating in the creation of a webpage related to their research papers as a final project. In so doing, the students not only interact more with me and one another, but also become active participants in a community larger than the classroom itself. Moreover, they are able to envision an audience for their work other than their teacher or classmates. With the increasing availability of literary texts and scholarly materials on the Internet, I believe a web-based course would be effective for Dialysis Technician classes.
- Dr Sharif Zahooruddin
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