Description
TEACHING STATEMENT I am Dr. A.MOHAMED SIKKANDER is working as a Assistant Professor in chemistry, Depertment of chemistry,Velammal Engineering College,Chennai,INDIA. I am passionate, innovative, enthusiastic and curious to teach Inorganic chemistry, Organic chemistry Electro chemistry, Analytical chemistry, and polymer chemistry. At present in my college, I am teaching Engineering Chemistry-I, Engineering Chemistry-II, Environmental Science and Engineering and its practical’s for my Students and produced best results in my career. I believe the most important thing I can do to help my students learn is to come to every class with enough creative preparation and organization so that I may present an engaging, coherent and intuitive lecture. A very important aspect of teaching science, and one that is too often neglected, concerns the development of communication skills that enable students to interact efficiently with their colleagues and to publish their results. I have taken various steps to develop the communication skills of all of my students and they have demonstrated excellent presentation skills at a variety of regional and national meetings and several of them have won best presentation awards on several occasion. Conference activities, collaborations, and speaking tours also are critical to raise the level of recognition of our research program within the chemistry community and help in placing students after their graduation. A clear emphasis in the development of the Micro teaching programs has to be placed on modernization of the laboratory courses and on the development of computer-assisted teaching. Building on my expertise in the area of computers in chemistry, I hope to contribute to the identification of suitable software and its implementation in the curriculum in the coming years. My approach to this will be quite conservative: Just because something can be learned using a computer does not mean that this is the better way. For example, even the fanciest computer modeling program cannot substitute the value of molecular models. I hope to contribute to this area through the design and publication of Multimedia Teaching Materials. It’s all about students. My approach to teaching is rooted in what serves my students best. Effective teaching requires not only mastery of the material but understanding the students and the way they learn. In addition, clearly communicating objectives and expectations and encouraging interactions with the students in and outside of the classroom are also critical in teaching. The courses I teach are infamous among science students. In particular, organic chemistry is considered one of the major hurdles a science major must overcome in order to advance forward. It’s an extremely difficult course for the average student. It’s heavy with course material and although exciting and fun for me, it is typically considered very “dry” and viewed as “foreign and abstract” for students. Therefore, a majority of the students usually dread taking the course. With this as the background I would like to describe my teaching philosophy When I started teaching, I reflected on the positive experiences I had as a student and worked towards integrating these experiences into my teaching. I enjoyed courses that: 1) Were organized with a clear sense of direction; 2) Were taught by faculty with enthusiasm, energy and passion; 3) Had a friendly classroom environment; and 4) demonstrated real-world applications. These elements are at the core of my teaching. 1) I strive to clearly present the lecture material at each class session. This requires that I have mastered the material and can see the big picture. Each lecture is well organized. I start each class by writing a lecture outline for the day. This helps me to keep track of what I’ve covered and where I am headed. Each lecture begins with a brief overview of the major points from the previous class to help students recognize that content in chemistry is by nature cumulative. Since there is always less lecture time than I would like, I make certain that every class period is used effectively. I provide extra handouts with content outlines, extra problems, and additional information to help students with the course material. 2) My love for chemistry makes it easy for me to teach with enthusiasm. Early in my teaching career I assumed that if I taught with lots of enthusiasm and energy this would “rub off” on the students. I naively thought that students would run to the textbook and solve all the problems and learn the material. The reality is that no amount of enthusiasm for the subject by the instructor will ensure “learning” by students. Students may enjoy the lecture more and stay alert longer but the learning of the subject is a different issue. I admit that I fooled myself into thinking that my passion for science and my competence in the subject was enough to make me an effective teacher. I now realize that to achieve excellence in teaching, like excellence in research, requires continual reflection, learning, and openness to new ideas and methods. I think my passion and energy make the course more enjoyable for students but it’s important to motivate students to claim ownership in their own learning process. So, I am continually seeking and implementing new techniques for effective teaching to promote better student learning of chemistry. I have tried many different teaching techniques. Some of these methods failed miserably, but some I found (and students reported) to be very effective. These techniques range from a simple question posed every 10 minutes to reestablish contact with students who are starting to lose focus, to a group problem-solving session, to a complex capstone group activity. Do I have data to prove that incorporating various teaching techniques has translated into better understanding of chemistry? No. However, I have found that students are visibly engaged during lectures (fewer sleepers) and very interactive. From my experience, as students become more actively involved during lectures, they begin attending more effectively. When I am more open with students and share with them a bit of my personal life and history, students become less intimidated by my position as a faculty member. Thus, students are less intimidated in class and more likely to participate. 3) I work hard at creating an encouraging and friendly environment for learning in my classes. On the first day of class, while taking attendance, I may ask each student to say something about themselves that will help me to learn their names. It’s great fun to hear their responses. I also think the students really appreciate the opportunity to be recognized. It doesn’t matter whether I have a class of 100 or a class of 10; I learn all my students’ names by the end of the second week of class. Attendance in my classes is excellent every semester. I always know who is missing and will call out the name of the student by asking where is so and so today. My lectures are very interactive. I pose many questions to students to encourage them to participate and be fully engaged during lectures. It’s great to see the hands go up every time I ask a question. It’s Rare when I don’t have more than half the class participating in a given lecture. In order to establish a friendly environment, I come to class at least a few minutes early so that I can “chitchat” with students. I find that students enjoy these pre-lecture conversations and many arrive early for lectures as a result. These small efforts, I think, create a classroom environment that helps decrease the level of anxiety that often accompanies science courses. Again, although these efforts do not necessarily translate into better learning, they do make each class session an enjoyable experience for the students and me. 4) Recognizing the application of chemistry to the real world increases students’ interest and performance. The challenge for an instructor teaching chemistry is to make this obvious to students. At first glance, chemistry texts are filled with very “dry” facts, equations, and structures, but, with better understanding of the material, students recognize the power in understanding the concepts and their applications. I make every effort to introduce examples in class that reflect application of the material.
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