My teaching philosophy evolved from my experience training within a business environment. My professional experience spans hospitality and customer service management, specifically within food service. Much of my work experience has been performed in organizational management with significant time working within the realm of training and development. This experience has contributed to my experience in professional development and adult learning. This experience influenced my academic research related to professional development and the motivational level, or volition, of the worker.
As a teacher and student, I have been committed to higher education. I have come in contact with many styles of learning and approaches to training with one common element, each learner can be characterized as an adult learner. The learning objectives for classes I currently teach are established through experiences within the industry and the relevance of essential competencies, such as service excellence, production, accounting, and controlling labor costs. As a leader in the industry, I have been involved in the training and development of employees as well as leaders.
In the classroom, my aim is to engage students and create learning opportunities through a framework of constructivist learning theory, enabling and encouraging learning based on what students share and demonstrate of their current knowledge and previous experiences. This approach would provide a valued perspective for developing competency-based and problem-based learning content. Though I use the foundation of my life experiences in correlation with general learning objectives related to the material, my primary approach is to ascertain the level of familiarity of the learner with the material and construct their knowledge using their experiences as the foundation with the course material and my experiences in the industry as the scaffolding whenever necessary.
A primary motivation for the learner is their understanding of the return on investment of their time, or simply answering their question of “what’s in it for me”. Answering that question address several principles of motivation and volition, such as curiosity is aroused by a perceived gap in knowledge, knowledge is perceived to be meaningful to the learner, and the learner anticipates a satisfying outcome for learning. Within the constructivist approach, internalization of the course material is facilitated by asking about personal experience and how that experience relates to, supports, or refutes what they have been exposed to in class or research.
Another aspect of education that I have come to appreciate on both sides of the proverbial fence is a sense of community. From participating in web based forums for education, I have experienced the positive impact of the influence of a learning community. That sense of community is what serves as the mortar in constructing learning. Web based learning often utilizes discussion boards to build an atmosphere of a classroom, but the open format for expression of ideas, experiences, and discovery is essential for fortifying acceptance, retention, and learning.