Leadership By Encouragement

My Teaching Philosophy and Style

I have 30 years of university teaching experience. In the past three years I have also been trained and now both teach and design on-line graduate courses. Feedback from my on-line courses stresses my content knowledge, my own experience, and my encouragement to the learners. My student evaluations from teaching at Ottawa University are available as a separate document as are supportive letters of recommendation from various university supervisors and graduate students. My scores range from 4.4-5.0 on a five point scale. Two of my scores were 5.0, something that less than 5% of the Ottawa faculty attains. I consider classroom teaching to be one of my greatest assets as an instructor. I bring 31 years of graduate teaching experience to the class. Particularly I am pleased with my experiential learning and cooperative learning models. I use a variety of teaching technologies which I feel are consistent with the theory of adult learning. That includes lecturettes, instruments, questionnaires, case studies, role-plays, and sub-group presentations. I have been very influenced with the philosophy of cooperative learning. I also utilize structured experiences from my outstanding three years of experience as a trainer and consultant with University Associates of San Diego. It was there I learned to use the experiential learning cycle as a way of systematically reviewing learning's. For most of my classes I have developed supplemental notebooks featuring abstracts of journal articles. Also included are inventories to help personalize the content to the students own style. Integrative papers utilize the experiential learning cycle sequence of doing, publishing, processing, generalizing, and applying. To guide the process of sub-group preparation I use the classis management model of planning, staffing, leading etc. to assist them. In an appendix to my syllabus I describe two types of learning from Ravens model. "P" learning involves programmed knowledge, content, theories, and models. "Q" learning is the questions surrounding the process of reflective questioning, the "gray" of the behavioral science theory as it were. I like the cooperative education statement contrasting being "the 'sage on the stage' with being a 'guide on the side.'" I believe I am comfortable in both roles. Being a teacher of adult development has given me an excellent opportunity to explore the role of learning for adult students. "Implications/applications" are an essential final component for practical personal and professional transfer of knowledge from the classroom to the "real" world. Until adult learners make the connection between the theory and their actual lives, knowledge per se is largely irrelevant. My classes are strongly grounded in theory. Structured activities, case studies, and role plays help students gain both the knowledge, skills, and personal awareness of their own style where are three essential design considerations I have in planning various learning objectives. Currently, I am faculty for the Department of Sciences, Eastern Mediterranean University, N. Cyprus. For the past three years I have also taught on-line courses for Capella University, a masters and doctoral program based in Minneapolis. Prior to teaching I went through four developmental courses. I have also designed the following four on-line courses for Capella: group counseling, counseling skills and counseling theories, and school counseling. I design on-line courses with the following learning objectives: knowledge, skills, and awareness. I utilize the experiential learning model of doing, sharing, reflecting, generalizing, and applying as a "failure-free" systematic way for learners to reflect on their experience. The aschronististic "attend class at your time" is a major benefit. I stress four types of postings: student to content; student to student; student to faculty; and faculty to content. I utilize the Adlerian dual technique of encouragement and confrontation meaning I both "catch someone doing something right" to quote Ken Blanchard; I also confront unacceptable postings and ask for re-writes. I frequently post my own research and writings on the various topics. Contact Information

On-Line Teaching

For the past three years I have also taught on-line courses for Capella University, a masters and doctoral program based in Minneapolis. Prior to teaching I went through four developmental courses. I have also designed the following four on-line courses for Capella: group counseling, counseling skills and counseling theories, and school counseling. I design on-line courses with the following learning objectives: knowledge, skills, and awareness. I utilize the experiential learning model of doing, sharing, reflecting, generalizing, and applying as a "failure-free" systematic way for learners to reflect on their experience. The a asynchronistic "attend class at your time" is a major benefit. I stress four types of postings: student to content; student to student; student to faculty; and faculty to content. I utilize the Adlerian dual technique of encouragement and confrontation meaning I both "catch someone doing something right" to quote Ken Blanchard; I also confront unacceptable postings and ask for re-writes. I frequently post my own research and writings on the various topics. In summary, classroom teaching is one of my loves. I take it very seriously and I love it immensely. I trust that gives you additional information of the theory and practice of my classroom teaching. Contact Information