The goal of teaching is to motivate students to learn. In my experience, better learning is achieved when students are eager to acquire knowledge. As Einstein said “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” This quote is very important in my teaching philosophy, because my objective as a physics educator is to make sure that my students have graduated with at least the knowledge of the basic physics notion. In my belief, education can be achieved by increasing the student motivation with effective teaching. Being an effective teacher not only requires to be motivated in subject but also to have deep understanding of it and be well prepared. In order to add a value to her teaching she should use active learning techniques and give prompt feedback and integrate her research into her teaching. My experiences in teaching have evolved around this philosophy that I will briefly describe below.

The goal of teaching is to motivate students to learn. In my experience, better learning is achieved when students are eager to acquire knowledge. As Einstein said “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” This quote is very important in my teaching philosophy, because my objective as a physics educator is to make sure that my students have graduated with at least the knowledge of the basic physics notion. In my belief, education can be achieved by increasing the student motivation with effective teaching. Being an effective teacher not only requires to be motivated in subject but also to have deep understanding of it and be well prepared. In order to add a value to her teaching she should use active learning techniques and give prompt feedback and integrate her research into her teaching. My experiences in teaching have evolved around this philosophy that I will briefly describe below.

My first teaching experience began as a high school teacher intern in my last year of college education. Since then I have thoroughly enjoyed facilitating the discovery and understanding of interesting physical phenomena as a teaching assistant, individual tutor, and outreach volunteer. One of the main reasons that I decided to pursue a PhD degree in Physics is to gain better understanding in various areas of physics. “The more I learn the more I share”, has become my motto in teaching. In order to share my knowledge effectively, I practice the experiments beforehand, think about the possible questions students might ask and prepare answers to those questions, and check the functionality of the equipment.

A key aspect of my teaching style is active learning. I hope to use this method also in my future introductory physics courses as advocated by Dr. Mazur at Harvard University. In this technique students are provided an environment in which they can do group discussion and work out problems as a group during the lecture breaks. Research has shown active learning is an effective method in teaching physics. They discovered that students tend to be more motivated to learn when using active learning opportunities that are geared toward understanding and applying concepts. This is why I believe active learning is crucial in physics education.

Another important part of high quality teaching is to give prompt feedback to help students in assessing their existing knowledge and competence in problem solving. In our introductory to physics labs, other than my responsibilities to prepare and the lab materials, I graded students’ work at the end of the class based on their overall performances. What I realized with my students was that they were so afraid to even start the experiment because they weren’t sure that at the end they would be successful. They were afraid to try for hours and fail at the end. Therefore, I decided to grade their work after they finished each section and I provided them prompt feedbacks about their results. When they realized they are capable to finish the first section successfully they were more enthusiastic to continue to next section.

Yet another vital condition for effective teaching is to be enthusiast in your research subject area as a professor. Research incorporated teaching helps students to gain insight into a field as well as benefit student learning. In every lab section that I teach, I always tell my students how I utilize the physics concepts that they learned and experimented in that section in our research lab. Sometimes my efforts to bring my research in the classroom works in favor of my own research benefits. For instance, my advisor hired one of my students who is eager to do research. The student not only made great contributions to my research but also acquired a set of skills that cannot be gained in a classroom environment. I will continue to do this in my future teaching experiences as well.
My teaching experiences has also extended to being a physics tutor of Provost Leadership Undergraduate Scholarship Program at Auburn University (AU). In this program I help students on both physics and mathematics homework. I prepare study materials for their exams and I consult them on their possible career in physics. Moreover, I volunteer in outreach activities at AU to design and conduct experiments, and play skits for various science activities for high school and primary school students. In addition, I mentored several undergraduate students in using some experimental instruments and software programs in our research lab.
With my experience and qualifications in teaching, I believe I can teach Introductory Physics courses for undergraduate students in my first year of teaching. Since, I am a condense matter physicist, I can also teach Solid State and Statistical Physics classes in both graduate and undergraduate levels. With my M.S degree on physics education background, I can develop classes on How to Teach Physics. In addition, I would like to develop classes in which students learn how to use specific computer programs such as LabVIEW, Origin, MATLAB in their research. Since I am an experimental physicist, I would like develop a course on Physics Laboratory Skills. I believe, this course can help undergraduate students get involved into any physics research groups and have some experience on graduate level experimentation. My research topic is about electrical and optical characterization of transistors, hence I can offer both undergraduate and graduate level courses about Device Physics. These courses can not only be taught in physics, but also in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering departments when the opportunities are given. I look forward to apply and improve my teaching philosophy and methods at an academic institution.
In summary, I believe my teaching philosophy is established on strong foundations through my B.S. and M.S. degree on physics education, my teaching experiences as a teaching assistant, individual tutor, and outreach volunteer. It continues to evolve through Preparing Future Faculty Program and professional development seminars. With these philosophies in my mind, I am looking forward to educate to next generation physicists and teaching others how to use their physics education in their own study. Back to top