My Teaching Philosophy and Goals

There are common elements between a good film and a course or a lecture; in both there is a message to be given as a result of the whole show, in both there is a flow of continuous lessons to be conveyed, and in both the audience need to enjoy the whole show. I have never intended to make analogy between the teaching process and filmmaking. However, I have to admit that before teaching a class I like to envision the scenario of the whole course and identify the desired end and the final message to be conveyed to the audience (students). Based on the pre-identified end, I get a flashback to design the necessary steps to reach such an end. I do believe that the same approach is also applicable to any segment of the course, even if it is one lecture or tutorial.

From my experience as an engineering student and Professor, I am convinced that learning has to occur in the engineering students. I believe that whatever I do as an instructor, in the classroom, does not make a difference unless it causes a change in the behavior of my students. Learning takes place in the minds of engineering students and nowhere else, and the effectiveness of teachers lies in what they can motivate students to do. In order to develop such a learner-centered environment, I ensure that all students feel welcome and empowered; I prefer to adopt various tools of teaching and switch between inductive and deductive teaching techniques to break the monotony. I also like to motivate my students to apply critical thinking skills throughout the course; needless to say that the importance of critical thinking to engineers cannot be overemphasized.

For my teaching career, I have goals that I can outline hereafter:

• To motivate students to learn the subject and to boost their interest and enthusiasm in it.
• To help students develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject.
• To inspire students and encourage them to go beyond what is taught in the classroom.
• To instruct students in the skills required for a good engineer, such as critical thinking, liberal research, and well-organized communication.
• To present to engineering students the importance of qualitative knowledge; not only "how to do it ? " but also " What does it mean ?"
• To create inside students the often-missing balance between " know it to get a good mark " and " master it for future use "