We live in a fast changing and complex world and we were not prepared for it. In my learning life journey, I have been fortunate to benefit from some highly advanced teachers and mentors who taught me to not only learn the lesson materials but learn to know, to do, to live, to be, and to transform myself and the society. To pass this knowledge to the next generation of learners, I myself went on a journey to learn teaching and have participated in a number of teaching and learning classes. This has inspired several core ideas and concepts about teaching, learning, and STEM education, shared here.
Recognizing that learning styles are quite diverse for participants, the onus is on instructors to develop materials that cater to every learning type be it visual, auditory, abstract/mathematical, spatial, or lingual learners. Improvement of teaching and learning is a dynamic and ongoing process, just as is research in any STEM discipline. At the core of improving teaching and learning is the need to accurately determine what we have learned. My goal is to be a constructive agent for a learning journey towards success.
In applying a research approach to teaching, one can strive to apply these 8 processes:
(i) learning foundational knowledge,
(ii) creating objectives for learning,
(iii) developing an hypothesis for practices to achieve the learning objectives,
(iv) defining measures of success,
(v) developing and implementing teaching practices within an experimental design,
(vi) collecting and analyzing data from lessons,
(vii) reflecting, evaluating, and iterating lessons,
(viii) incorporating inclusivity, diversity, and equity concepts in lessons and classroom dynamics.
The lessons I have curated for data science can be found here.
The literature that have inspired this teaching philosophy can be found here.
And finally, ending with my favorite quote about learning: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Alvin Toffler