Teaching is exhilarating. I never feel more energized than after a class that has gone well. The first time I became a teaching assistant, I was very nervous, but unexpectedly welcomed by students’ warm faces and encouraged by their curious eye expressions. Teaching also gives me self-accomplishment as I gradually become more able to handle classes with ease and explain concepts in more understandable ways. Now I definitely fall in love with the feeling of seeing students responding to my demonstrations, it is like hearing my voice echoed in another person’s brain. Over the three years of my teaching experience, I have developed my own philosophy of teaching, that is engagement and inspiration, interactions, and learning.
The world of economics is intriguing. As an economics teacher, my first priority is to engage and inspire my students. The important thing is not simply to teach, but to give them the wish to learn. I use several ways to achieve this purpose. First, diversification in my way of teaching. Students differ in their motivations, learning styles, skill levels and culture backgrounds. I adopt a teaching pedagogy to engage different students. For instance, I would use graphs to assist my explanations to accommodate both visual and auditory learners, at the same time, I write highlighted points and algebras on the board for those with writing preferences. Students learn more thoroughly through repetitions and different channels. Meanwhile, I also encourage students to develop their own way of effective learning.
The second way to inspire is analogy. Many of the economics concepts are counterparts of each other. For example, as an everyday word, production is easy to understand, while it comes to utility, most students are confused at first. I would propose that utility is a metaphor for production. An individual consumes goods to generate utility the same way as a firm uses inputs to produce outputs. I also illustrate the concept of indifference curves as analogous to a contour map.
Interactions with students inside and outside class are also important. While I try to interact with students in class to the best of my abilities, like story-telling and computer dynamic programs, I believe teaching and interactions are not confined in the classroom, and also come in other forms like office hours and emails. I hold weekly office hours and also schedule appointments for those who cannot make to regular office hours. Every time students email me, I would promptly answer their questions and also encourage them to email me whatever questions they have. I want to leave them an impression that the instructor is always approachable and helpful. Interactions with students during office hours and emails are not merely answering questions, but also building bonds with students and showing respect for even naive questions they raise, because this is exactly the learning process everyone would encounter while learning a new subject. Down the road, students will not only ask questions about class material, but also questions like recommendation of good books in the area, consultation on career or higher education pursuit.
Teaching always goes together with learning. It is a process of perpetual learning and refinement. I learn from students, the questions they raise, and the comments they give me through evaluations. Being a teaching assistant, I learned a lot from the instructors. I am also inspired by my colleagues and their philosophy of teaching. Furthermore, I learn through self-reflection. Every time after a discussion, I would recall the materials I explained and conceive in what way I could improve, and try to do better next time.
Finally, to be a successful teacher, one must be knowledgeable. For my future teaching career, I will unceasingly keep on enriching myself and polishing my teaching skills.
·Undergraduate: Principle of Economics, Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Introduction to Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Managerial Economics, International Trade, Statistics for Economics, Introduction to Macroeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics ·Graduate: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Advanced Microeconomics
Teaching Experience
·Instructor Managerial Economics, University of California, Riverside, 2014 Summer ·Teaching Assistant Intermediate Microeconomic Theory I, University of California, Riverside, 2011 Fall Intermediate Microeconomic Theory II, University of California, Riverside, 2014 Spring, 2014 Winter Intermediate Microeconomics, University of California, Riverside, 2012 Fall, 2012 Winter Managerial Economics, University of California, Riverside, 2013 Fall Intermediate Macroeconomics, University of California, Riverside, 2013 Spring Introduction to Macroeconomics, University of California, Riverside, 2012 Spring Statistics for Economics, University of California, Riverside, 2013 Winter Forecasting for Economics and Business, University of California, Riverside, 2013 Summer ·Tutor Chinese Tutor, the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, China, 2008-2009