Teaching Philosophy

Introduction

“By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn”

This is a quote that has resonated with me throughout my years as a student, and more recently as a teacher - it concisely summarises my teaching philosophy.

My teaching philosophy was first sparked from a short exchange with my Supervisor while I was preparing for my first class, ‘Mechanisms and Machines’, a farily difficult course. Seeing that I was stressing out revising the content I learned a few years back, he jokingly told me “You never really learn something until you have taught it”. I did not think much of it at the time, as I was feeling anxious, nervous and almost sick - how could someone like me teach a class full of bright engineering students (serious imposter syndrome..). Lo and behold, after finishing my final lesson for the semester, I felt an overwhelming amount of accomplishment and satisfaction.

What I realised was that teaching solidified my understanding of the content, it gave me confidence in knowing what I know and don’t know, and gave me the motivation to do more. I can now confidently say that the course ‘Mechanism and Machines’ is.. manageable (still not easy..). Now, when designing my classes, I prepare and apply teaching techniques to ensure that my students are not only learning in class, but also have a chance to teach, as this is the aspect where I believe students ‘really learn’ - through solification of knowledge, building confidence and gaining motivation.