Teaching Philosophy Karl Simon A.

Revelar My goal in teaching physics is for my students to learn how to solve physics problems effectively. It is important that we focus on the problem solving skills of our students if we want them to understand and retain physics concepts. Problem solving skills are also the necessary skills in research, engineering, medicine, experimental and theoretical physics, and other hard sciences. In solving problems, critical thinking is also improved when the student thinks whether the solution he proposes would work. In a bigger perspective, by training them to be skillful problem solvers today, we are creating highly-skilled Filipino scientific manpower which would fuel the progress of our science to its maturity. Problem solving is at the heart of physics. To solve physics problems, students would have to build a certain physical intuition: what method to use to solve the problem at hand, and what the solution should look like. My task is to teach them this insight, by solving problems on the board, showing them the step-by-step solution, and telling them the kind of thinking that they need to solve the problem. By guiding them in every step of the solution, I hope that their fear of solving problems can be eliminated. In return, it is their responsibility to answer the problem sets that I give them. These sets contain easy problems to give them some confidence, and hard problems to challenge them. The classic method of solving many problems as one can is already proven to create retention and understanding of physics concepts in students. With every answered problem set that they turn in, I can know the progress of each student and at the same time, my effectiveness as a teacher as well. Aside from problem sets, I think individual quizzes, group quizzes, and on-the-board solving could also add to monitor their progress, plus, create a competitive atmosphere among them so that they would want to improve their skills. I also think that oral and practical exams are a good way to test students of their conceptual mastery because testing for problem-solving skills could be inadequate, that is, I may only be testing their algebra or math skills. Speaking of math, since not all students have the same or adequate math preparation for university physics, I would review them in the first few classes of the necessary math skills that they need to learn to solve the problems, to level the playing field, so to speak. To further know whether I am effective as a teacher, whenever I would give a quiz, I would add an item where they could write whatever feedback that they feel to write about my teaching style, their frustrations on the exams, whether the problem sets are too hard and why they think them so, etc. I really hope that with my methods they would be able to see the big picture: that the universe has laws, that wherever they may be, they and all of us are trapped within these laws. I hope that they would not just remember the equations but their implications to the reality that we live in. Most importantly, if they gain an appreciation, passion, and a sense of excitement for physics, it would be the highest reward and fulfillment that I could get from my teaching experience.