Toni Pilcher

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

 

I believe that, as a teacher, I am a guide for and fellow learner with my students. I recognize that my abilities and knowledge are limited, that they always retain the capacity for growth. Thus, as I teach and endeavor to improve the lives of my students, I seek for ways to improve my own life. There are always things to refine and develop, and I learn a lot from my students. I emphasize the power of revision in my writing classes because I know firsthand what people can accomplish by revising not just their sentences and paragraphs, but their skills, experiences, and understanding, as well. Even my teaching philosophy will change as I experience and teach new things.

 

Because I view myself as limited, I shape my classroom lectures more as discussions. In my technical writing class in particular, I present the students with options and ask them to discuss the merits of the different paths they could take in their communications. Many students expect a single correct answer, but I try to show them that there are often multiple correct approaches. Writing is a fluid practice. Rules change, expectations change, contexts change. My job is to prepare writers to make decisions based on the changes before them. I can't foresee every rhetorical situation they will come across, but I can give them tools for adapting and a safe environment in which to practice wielding those tools.

 

I create that safe environment by practicing several principles, including transparency, student-teaching, and ownership.

 

Transparency

I believe that students need to see “the man behind the curtain.” They should know why we’re doing certain exercises or certain assignments; they should know how I’ve designed the course to help them master writing skills. For example, at the end of each semester, I lead a discussion on transfer by first explaining why we should bother with transfer. I ask the students to come up with the benefits of transfer by looking back to key moments of transfer in their lives. In another lesson at the beginning of the course, I pull back the curtain to reveal the learning outcomes for the course and the assignments I created to meet those outcomes. Each assignment description includes a list of the outcomes it meets. My students never complain that assignments are busy work because they can see that I have made deliberate choices.

 

Student-Teaching

I believe that students don’t come to my class as blank slates. They have previous knowledge and experience that they can use in my classroom. Particularly with technical writing, my students often need to assume the role of a teacher and explainer. I encourage them to practice the skill of teaching through discussion questions, paper conferences, and writing prompts. For example, when my students want to discuss their literature review assignment, I ask them questions about their (usually complex) topic. As they explain the topic to me, a non-expert, they are forced to practice skills like simplifying, clarifying, and defining. This practice also gives them the confidence to write in a professional genre like the literature review because they realize how much they know and how much they have to say. One of my favorite assignments is the process description, which I designate as a presentation. I love learning about scientific processes as, one by one, the students teach at the front of the room.

 

Ownership

I believe that students need to draw their own conclusions about the evidence provided by my course. As they come up with answers, they feel a sense of ownership and connection to the subject, a sense that will help them remember and transfer what they’ve learned. For example, on the first day of the course, I explain that one of my purposes is to imitate the workplace so they can be prepared to communicate there. However, I know that there are huge differences between the classroom and the workplace. Instead of lecturing on these differences, I ask the students to identify them. We discuss what can and cannot be imitated, and afterwards, the students are more dedicated to preparing for the workplace despite the limitations of the classroom.