Asif Al Rasheed Michigan Technological University Educational Philosophy Electrical Engineering Knowledge and critical thinking are the

necessary requirements for any good engineer. I want to motivate my students to learn the principles, aid in their creative process, make them connet what their have learned from varied courses to help them to get a complete picture of how to solve a problem. All of which will hopefully make them better scholars and independent researchers. I also wish to be a part of an enthusiastic group of educators who also share the same passion for research and thirst for knowledge as I do. I see teaching as an important extension of my research work and an important part of my future. As exiting it is to teach, it will be in vain if I cannot communicate and impart knowledge to my students properly. I will build the curriculum according to the recommended course objectives, learning capabilities and expectations of the students. The Learning Management System (LMS) will be an integral part of any course I teach. I will upload reading materials, lectures, homeworks and exam questions and solutions there. It would be the go to place for the students to keep track of what is being covered in class and how to best prepare for upcoming lectures and exams. Of course the students will be encouraged to seek out materials on their own if they wish to extend their understanding. I will also implement Just in Time Teaching (JITT) with the LMS by putting up preview questions from the materials which will be covered in the upcoming lectures so the students will know what to expect and how to prepare. I want to my students to be more involved in their learning process and help each other to learn. I will always be available if they need any help. But I prefer to take on the role of facilitator and mentor. Based on this line of reasoning, I wish to implement "Peer Instruction" advocated by Crouch and Mazur. Students will study the topic to be discussed in class before they come. In class they will participate in small groups where they will explain the same topic to other students. The class will be divided into several segments. There will be short presentations of a topic from the segments followed by a quiz afterwards to check their understanding. After handing in their answers the students will be encouraged to discuss the answers with their fellow students and convince each other. I will listen to the students' discussions and poll students for their answers. There may be multiple polls depending on the question type. I will then explain the answer and move on. A certain percentage of such Conceptest may count toward the students' final grades. All responses of all students will be recorded using clickers. This learning method will also build the students communication skills, which is integral for a good engineer. Assessing student is a vital part of my teaching. The students need to demonstrate an acceptable level in their understanding and problem solving ability. The learning goals of the course, the class size and type of material covered will dictate the type of assessing methods used. I prefer to use conceptual and problem solving questions regardless. There will be a well defined syllabus which will include grading policies and course objectives. I will also construct rubrics which will clearly specify deliverables and criteria for grading different parts of reports or projects and sometimes assignments. For small class size I prefer to take individual quizzes and for bigger class sizes I want to take group quizzes. I will give the students who are lagging a chance to make up by dropping one homework and even give them some extra homeworks within reason. If I teach a higher level course, the students have probably learned enough and developed skills to solve a real Asif Al Rasheed Page 1 of 2

world problem mostly by themselves. I may then assign end of semester projects that can be done in groups or individually. By my assessment methods I wish to document the learning process of my students, which will serve as a good benchmark of their knowledge and my capability as an instructor. I will always have some aspects in my teaching methods I need to improve on. Student evaluations will be a good way I can get feedback from students. I will take two evaluations, one at the middle and another at the end of the term. I will do it using the LMS. The students will login using their credentials and answer some questions that will help me and future instructors of the course on how to approach in teaching the course and where to improve. I think by the middle of the term the students will have a good idea on what they are supposed to learn and how can I, the teacher can better impart to them. Then I can then make some modification to my teaching methods if they are feasible and at the end of the term the students will, hopefully better able to evaluate my accomplishments and any points for improvements. My educational philosophy is based on focused learning, an engaging classroom and continuous evaluation. I will continually work towards improving my students ability as a good engineer and in that process also improve myself.

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