Teaching Philosophy for Dr. Jane Southworth

As a teacher, I teach my students how to develop problem-solving strategies in the classroom. I envision myself as a facilitator, encouraging students to make connections between their experiences and the subject matter. I develop independent thought in each student. My students must be able to form independent ideas in order to solve problems (both in the classroom and in the real world). I often answer a question with another question in an attempt to invoke interest and to develop critical thinking techniques. Through the use of this informal Socratic method, I make my students realize that knowledge is not finite, but rather that questions lead to more questions, and that this process builds knowledge and ultimately guides research. My goal is to stimulate active learning, to give my students a real appreciation for the art of questioning, and to create an environment in which my students are comfortable with being wrong, as they understand this is simply a part of the learning process. In addition, my teaching style reflects that group interaction is also an essential part of learning. Students must be able to share their ideas, discuss, validate, or defend these ideas to a group, and to thrive in the teamwork environment. Teamwork is very important to a student’s social and mental development, and is also more representative of a real work environment. I see technology as a very important instructional tool, which acts to enhance the learning environment, but it is a tool and not generally an end in and of itself.  Hence, my teaching style mixes lectures, discussion, and group activities, and I use active learning techniques in all of my classes.

Skills I teach my students include learning how to be effective communicators in both written and oral discussions, as writing is one of the most important skills a student can develop. One of my strategies to make teaching more fun is to link my teaching materials and my research materials directly, and thus allow them to nourish one another. For example, a lab exercise in the GEO5134C Remote Sensing course, utilizes a Honduran dataset which I created and from which I have published, thus allowing the students to have a hands on lab with real world data, and also for those interested in taking it to the next step, a research article for them to review. I show the students how it is possible to take what I teach, use this type of methodology in their own research, and then publish the results. In addition, by using actual research examples in the classroom it challenges, excites, and makes the issues more pertinent to the students.