I am fortunate to have a number of years of continuous teaching experience, at BITS Pilani, one of the most prestigious Universities in India, which has enabled me to develop a teaching philosophy of my own.
I believe that it is my duty as a teacher to make students understand ‘how to learn the subject matter’ and not merely to deliver the class material. I also believe that a personal touch is essential for a healthy teacher – student relationship. With the diversity of our community reflecting in our classroom, it is also critical to identify ways to reach out to each individual.
I believe that the students must be treated with respect and the classroom must be free from undue tension and anxiety. Openness, honesty and ability to maintain trust are highly conductive to effective learning. - - - - - - - - I have found that, for higher degree students, it is particularly important to obtain feedbacks about their current preparedness and problems they face with learning in the new system of, in order to plan my lecture material
My teaching style has undergone change as my class size has increased from 35-40 in 1991 to 100-120 in 2007. I have made use of Over Head Projectors as well as Power Point Slides for some of my presentations, but I still rely on Black Board for more than 50% of my contact hours in the class. To judge a large class, questions should be formulated to cater to different level of preparedness. I detest lengthy question papers. I always display a fully worked out solution for the questions along with a marking scheme and stick to it. Although some students brand me ‘very strict’, feedback has shown that largely students are satisfied with my evaluation and awarded marks.
Finally, as a committed teacher, I am aware of my obligations and responsibilities to uphold the reputation of the University I am working for. As a teacher, I ‘preach’ my students to adopt Engineering as a way of life and try to impart sense of responsibility towards the society and our nation.