 Thomas Wu Year Awarded: 2006 |
Teaching Philosophy
It is both challenging and fascinating to be a teacher. In all the courses I teach, I set high standards for myself and prepare carefully for each lecture. Besides teaching technical materials, I train students to have the capabilities to: think critically and analytically; work hard and innovatively; communicate (write, speak and present) clearly and effectively.
Being a teacher I define the term “teaching” as classroom experiences that move students to mastery in an academic content area. The expectations and attitude of a teacher have a tremendous impact on student achievement, so I like to be enthusiastic and motivating with my students. In order to make the student technically excellent, I create a warm, unthreatening, yet competitive class environment.
I have developed my own teaching materials available on my website. I also prepared practical examples to reinforce my teaching of engineering theories. The goal here is to show the students not only that what they are learning has practical applications, but more importantly, how to apply their understanding of the basic principles to real engineering problems that are not directly covered in class.
In my courses, students have assignments and class discussions and are challenged with questions that foster critical thinking. Students are periodically assessed through formal testing and homework. Tests are formulated in a way to measure maximum information about the student’s level of progress; such as factual knowledge, procedural knowledge and thinking skills. To be in pace with the current technological advancements, I regularly revise and update course content, format, teaching strategies, and assignments. Knowing that academic feedback is an integral and important part of teaching process, I get regular student feedback at every stage of the course. From this feedback, I know the extent I met the students’ needs and based on that I enhance my teachings skills. I also take advantage of opportunities to enhance teaching by attending professional development activities. |
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Teaching Excellence Awards
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