Teaching Philosphy

Abstract

I am a firm believer that “teachers possess the power to create conditions that can help students learn a great deal” (Palmer, 1987). Over the past seven years I have worked to create a learning environment that helps students gain a deep understanding of course material, develop critical thinking skills, develop persuasive written and oral communication skills, and to consider the ethical dimensions of business decisions. In large (>150 students) upper division marketing classes I have developed a system to use interactive lectures and active learning to achieve these goals. The active learning components include case analyses, exercises, projects for non-profit organizations, and service learning. My active learning activities are done in small-groups which would be constituted as cooperative learning; a special case of active learning, for it involves the use of small groups of students who work together with the goal of maximizing both their own learning and that of the members of their group (Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991). In these activities, students are required to think about the content of their course and to apply it to complete the work of the group.