My desire to teach is come from my passion to share ideas and knowledge with others in a learning environment. To me, teaching is not only lecturing to students. It is about presenting theories, acquiring, giving and sharing knowledge, skills and experiences, understanding situations and responding rationally to students in a way that they can integrate this knowledge into their own life experience. I believe that classroom is a place for all students to feel comfortable and a free marketplace of knowledge in which all students develop their critical thinking skills by actively contributing to that free marketplace. I also believe that my role as facilitator demands that I be aware of developing class dynamics so that I might enable all my students to fully participate in that free marketplace.
To put my firmly believed philosophy into practice, there are several principles that I have for my classroom, all of which are based on my beliefs about how students learn. First, I believe that, students learn the best when they feel comfortable. For me, it is important for students to be comfortable in my classroom and feel like they can approach me with any question, knowing that I will try my best to be helpful and available. I always try to create a very friendly, non-threatening and motivated environment in the classroom so that students feel encouraged to participate.
Second, I believe that students will retain more of what they learn in a course when they have some ownership over their learning. Therefore, I focus more on active learning. Students should be actively involved in the teaching-learning process so that they are responsible for their learning and be more meaningful to them. For example, I like to begin my class by asking the students to recall what have been taught from the previous class. I always encourage questions and ask a lot of questions during my class to make sure that the students are alert and attentive.
Third, I believe that, students learn not only from the textbook, but an integral part of learning is from the behaviours of the teacher in a variety of situations. As an educator, I try to develop excellence personal qualities and practice good deeds, which shall display as a role model to the students. I always emphasise on developing student personality by inculcating good values, behaviours and other qualities of successful persons. I also always ready to help students with the subject matter in and out of the classroom even without an appointment. At the core of my relationship with students is honesty and respect.
Finally, in my teaching, I believe that every success can only be achieved through optimum effort. Striving hard and willingness to sacrifice are the roots of success. This means I always try to teach in the best method and try to overcome every problem or difficulties without giving up hopes thus leaves the rest to Allah.