Teaching theory

My teaching theory evolved through learning and acquiring teaching knowledge from my supervisors, colleagues and educational system. I have always been a very good learner and a researcher. These qualities have helped me a lot in my teaching career because teaching also requires certain level of expertise, attitude towards gaining knowledge, and research work for creating an effective material for the related subject.

My teaching strategy is to guide students and provide them content knowledge with understanding. I make sure course lesson objective is clear and transparent to students so that they know exactly what the lesson is all about? And what is expected from them.

Students need to be familiar with teacher’s teaching style and feel comfortable with teaching environment. I try to call each student by their names to build up a good relationship with them. If you know your students by name it makes you more approachable. I always engage students in class conversation, recognize them by their names, and seem to include them in the domain of attention; the subject matter seems more accessible. The nonverbal message goes out that the student is a part of the community of people who can do IT, Business, or whatever the subject is?

My favorite teaching method is experiential learning that focuses on learning by doing. I design and prepare my material keeping direct experiences in mind that include preparatory and reflective exercises. I encourage participation and involvement of students in the class to make them feel good, connected and be part of the class that ultimately leads to motivation. As a teacher, I try to build fun learning environment and draw students attention by keeping the content of the course interesting and practical based on real life examples and experiences rather than overloading them with boring slides and lengthy material. Because once you have the student’s attention, they will be eager to participate and more open to ideas. I believe learning should be hands on experience that the entire class can share. We must let student experience learning that is fun, exciting and interactive. 

I also believe that case studies present students with real-life problems and enable them to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations.  Cases also encourage students to develop logical problem solving skills and, if used in teams, group interaction skills.  Students define problems, analyze possible alternative actions and provide solutions with a rationale for their choices. 

As we all know that motivation is the key to success, so I always try to keep the students motivated by involving them through class participation and rewarding them. I use continuous assessment strategy in my class so that students can have meaningful learning and assess their performance throughout the course. This helps in identifying areas of problem and provides them solid solutions that improve their current learning level. I always try to quote examples from daily life in class and make the topics fun and easy to learn with the help of examples from daily life. I follow different strategies for different course disciplines and different student’s level.

My teaching metaphor is to prepare students not only for the exams but for their future and career life.  

My learning experience

I have many good learning experiences but the most memorable one I had was during my business communication class. I completed my secondary education in Saudi Arabia and at my school emphasis was more on memorizing things rather than learning them practically. Unfortunately the teachers also used to focus more on academic knowledge and very less on student’s personal development. Even though I was a good student but when it came to real life, I was really shy and introvert because of limited exposure and inflexible learning experience. After completing high school, I moved to Pakistan and started my bachelors at IQRA University. I still remember my first day in university when I attended my business communication class. I was so nervous and didn’t have any idea about how I will survive in this course as I never presented anything in front of a crowd before.

My teacher Ms. Fareeda Ibad was very friendly and supportive she always used to make sure that everyone is involved during class. She interacts with students to know their caliber and then try to support them accordingly. She never embarrassed any student in class whereas she always encouraged us to do better. During the first week she asked us to present any topic of our choice in 10 minutes. I prepared my topic well but when I started my presentation I got confused and was unable to convey my idea properly and was repeating same words as I was very nervous and had no confidence. I finished my presentation within few minutes because I was afraid of committing any mistake in front of the teacher and fellow students. I still remember that instead of pointing out negative things, she encouraged me by showing the positive side and helped me learning different ways of communication throughout the semester. She explained to me the importance of effective communication skills and advised me different strategies like practicing in front of the mirror many times or in an empty class room. She taught us that we should be confident and believe in ourselves while presenting and it will automatically start flowing in the right way.

That was the turning point in my life when I decided to learn and face the audience without any fear which ultimately leads to boost the confidence. I kept on trying hard and always used to think positively that if others can do it then I can also do it the better way.

I’m really thankful to her because she changed my personality and helped me acquire new knowledge about how to deal with people using different communication methods that include, Presentations, reports, e-mails and web based communication. After completing this course successfully, I realized that learning a few simple principles that can be applied immediately with great confidence will make you an effective communicator and give you a huge advantage in today’s ultra-competitive business world. And since then I can confidently deliver presentations in the seminars also and communicate with different nationalities on a daily basis. Also I follow the same technique with my students (like my teacher did with me) and always try to motivate them and show them the positive aspect of the subject and encourage them to learn more.

Pre-course reflection

Hi Everyone

My name is Owais Tariq and I am working as IT/ Business Faculty for HCT Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges. I live in Abu Dhabi and drive daily four hours to reach work. I did my bachelors and masters in Information Technology. Recently I finished my second master’s in business administrator. This is my third year of teaching before that I was working as network engineer.

I have expertise in both in IT and Business area. I am teaching courses like networking, programming, databases, accounting, marketing, management, human resource and other IT and Business courses to bachelor level students.

I have experience with online learning both as a teacher and a student. During my MBA some courses were online where we have to do online reading, discussion and assignments. In our colleges we are using BBVista and Pearson Lab to provide online learning to our students. This is very important tool for our college as most of the staff and students are travelling daily for four to five hours and some time we get chance to see students only once a week. One of the biggest challenge we have is that we have to  use video conference class rooms to deliver our lectures as we are teaching in two different colleges which are 180Km a part and sometime teachers are in one college and students are in other college.

When I heard about the PGCTHE I was really eager to enroll in this course as I think it is a great opportunity to learn about teaching theories and get knowledge from experience of our expert associates. An added advantage for me was that this is an online course and I can attend my classes and do my work from anywhere while travelling. I am looking forward to work with all group members and to learn and enhance education practices.

Owais

Welcome

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