Teaching involves a process, just as social work practice involves a process. I never took courses in education, so I have had to teach myself to be a teacher. What I learned about social work, both from the courses which I had and my practice experience, seemed to be very helpful in application to teaching. So I see myself as an educator who teaches like a social worker.
The first main idea from social work involves attention to the student. Students are not clients, but there are similarities in their situations. The most relevant similarity is that both are people who need to be listened to in order to change -- the client to grow and the student to learn. One of the best things I learned early in my social work training was to "start where the client is." Starting where the student is means listening to the student. You cannot start someplace if you do not know where it is. This is one of the reasons class discussions and other type of feedback are so important. It is hard for me to listen to you if you are not saying anything. Of course, I can listen to your nonverbal behavior and I can make generalizations from what I have heard from students in the past, but the process works a lot better when students participate actively, not only because it gives me something to hear but also because it means that we are working together, and all social workers know that the process works much better when we work with clients (or students) rather than doing things to them.
Attending to students involves a lot more than just listening to know where to start. Teaching requires that I continue to stay tuned in: to try not to go too fast or too slow; to use language which challenges without alienating; most importantly, to keep lines of communication open. I think it is unfair and most likely unwise of me to expect you to listen to me if I am not paying attention to you. I want students to see me outside of class: to talk before class starts or while we are leaving the room; to send me a note with questions or comments by email; to come to my office and sit down and discuss things for awhile. Please do not apologize for coming to see me during my office hours. Talking to students is what I am paid to do, and (even more important) the part of my job that I like best.
The second idea involves group process. The class is a group. I learned a lot about working with groups as a social worker. I have never had course work in how to teach a class, but I know how to facilitate group process. People learn from each other in a group, not just from the social worker (or teacher). This is another reason why class discussions are so valuable: not just for me to learn where you are, but also for you to learn about and from each other. Not only do you learn the subject matter of the course through this process, but you also learn about other people's perspectives and about group process itself, two things that are very valuable for social workers to know.
The third and (you may sigh with relief) last idea involves the importance of doing. Social workers know that clients learn how to solve problems more effectively when they are themselves doing the problem-solving. We show them how, we are there as needed for support, we work with them, but they do it. I like teaching courses where students do things. I like "Interviewing Skills" where students do role-playing. I like "Data Analysis" where students work at computers to analyze their own data. I try to include presentations and projects in many courses because you remember better when you have done something and not just sat there and listened all semester. Oh, I do like to talk and I am going to say what I most need to say, but I really get a kick out of helping students do things.
So there are some thought about my teaching philosophy. I got this idea from Prof. Ben Austin's web pages (Thanks, Ben). If any of this raises any questions, well, that will give us something else to talk about.