I enjoy teaching. In helping students become empowered, I feel empowered too.
In my teaching, I have always tried to create a learning environment that is
both engaging and challenging to the students and can help students to learn
constructively and achieve to the fullest of their potential.
Maintaining an appropriate level of challenge is critical to constructive and
productive learning. When students are challenged and make efforts to overcome
limits (sometimes set by themselves), they are generally rewarded with a greater
sense of authentic achievement. One of my most cherished approaches to helping
students push themselves forward is the application of Vygotsky’s zone of
proximal development (ZPD).
In my teaching, I usually avoid strictly procedural teaching and discourage rote learning. Instead, I encourage logical, critical, and creative thinking. Among the three, logical thinking may be relatively easier to develop; it is more procedural than the other two. Critical thinking is usually more difficult than logical thinking because it requires one to find the logical fallacies and weak points in others’ and one’s own thinking. Creating thinking is generally the most difficult to come by because it requires one to break away from one’s habitual ways of thinking.
A prominent component of my teaching philosophy is the embracing attitude
toward technology. Unlike some people that treat technology as a tool only, I
see technology as an embodiment of human intelligence and reflection of human
wisdom. In learning and using technology, I can always find traces of human
efforts to advance civilization, to better our understanding of the world and of
ourselves. In encouraging students to see technology from a more humanistic
perspective, I feel students would be in a better position to embrace and cope
with technology advancement which is likely to become increasingly part of our
life in the future.