Teaching, like serving in the Peace Corps, is a form of public service, entailing both personal and public benefit. I have been teaching formally since 1984: the first two years in the Peace Corps and since then in various educational settings. During this time, I have taught a range of courses in the humanities, from classes in English as a Foreign Language, remedial through advanced composition, and technical writing to courses in medieval epics, African oral poetry, and the history of the English language. In the case of every class I teach, my fundamental approach to teaching was forged in the crucible of my Peace Corps experience. The methodology itself is an alloy of pragmatism and mystery. Its guiding principle is simple: as a teacher my job is to motivate the student to take the first steps from the realm of the known into the regions of the unknown.
In its practical implementation, this methodology involves three processes: analysis, synthesis, and application. Analysis involves the student in the process of identifying certain salient features of a problem, whether it be a piece of writing, a mathematical equation, or an ethical choice. This process of analysis provides the student with a body of information which he must then attempt to order in such a way that it makes sense to him. This ordering takes place in the synthesis stage. In this stage, a student fits together the data he's gathered into a conceptual paradigm. This paradigm allows the student to draw accurate conclusions about the nature of the problem, to which he applies his own knowledge and experience of the world. In this final stage, a student finds that he has discovered a solution to a problem by using critical thinking skills. This three-fold process of analysis, synthesis, and application, then, enables a student to navigate successfully the treacherous shoals of the unknown. The teacher's role in this process is that of facilitator. By presenting a series of focused questions, he provides the student with the necessary tools to chart his own course through the unknown. According to my methodology, then, the teacher is no more than an informed moderator of discussion and purposeful questioner.
The advantage of this approach is that it empowers a student to become an active agent in the evolution of his own intellect by stimulating his curiosity and nurturing the development of a critical mind. It is ultimately this well-disciplined mind, capable of thinking critically, analytically on a subject that a liberal arts education strives to foster in a student. For a student who is capable of thinking critically, analytically is likely to become an active and socially responsible citizen of the future. He will value his own thinking and judgment, which will in turn foster a respect for the beliefs of others. This philosophy of teaching is grounded in the belief that critical thinking (the processes of analyzing, synthesizing, and applying) is the foundation of a free society.
Thus, according to my teaching philosophy, the principal role of a teacher in the development of a student's capacity to think critically is that of an informed moderator, suggesting and directing rather than informing and dictating. The main purpose of a student's education, after all, should be that he learn to find his own way in the world of ideas, that he examine his own life and live it to its fullest potential.
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