Teaching Research Service
SUMMARY STATEMENT ON TEACHING, RESEARCH AND SERVICE
TEACHING
All my childhood recollections point back to one thing, teaching. I have always loved sharing what I've learnt with others - my friends, my younger siblings, my nieces and
nephews and, generally, anyone who comes within my sphere of influence. As a result of this love, it has always been my quest to develop all my talents to the best of my ability, so that I would be better equipped to effectively help others. My love of sport, music and other artistic endeavors provide testimony to this.
Underlying this love of teaching has been an analytical nature. I have always sought a scientific, measurable way of solving problems. In my course preparation, content matter to be taught is constantly revised and analyzed to arrive at the correct sequencing of, not only one lesson to the next, but also, the matter to be covered within the lesson. This may change each semester depending on the nature and needs of the students in the class. Each class begins with the stated objectives, reviews concepts previously learnt, explains new material in well-sequenced sections, and provides students with activities at the end of each section to test their understanding of the subject matter introduced.
The philosophy, which provides the foundation upon which my teaching strategies lie, is constructivism. There are three major tenets of constructivism: (Saunders, 1992, p.137138).
- Knowledge, meaning or sense making, results in the formation of schema, and is constructed in the mind of each learner. As such it cannot be transmitted from a teacher to a learner.
- It requires great effort or mental exertion to generate these mental constructions.
- Once formed, mental frameworks remain very resistant to change or alteration.
I believe that an individual constructs more and more complex and flexible schemata as he engages in new learning experiences. These schemata or networks of interlinked and inter-related concepts are elaborated during learning through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. In assimilation, he/she fits a new experience into his/her existing schema when an explanation of it is consistent with his/her previously held ideas. Such an element of knowledge is well learnt since it is accessible via multiple routes in the network. In accommodation, he/she alters or adjusts his existing schema to accept a new understanding of a situation previously regarded in another way. Numerous examples of this element of knowledge, in a wide variety of contexts, allow network paths to it to become so well traversed that the knowledge becomes as easily accessible as assimilated knowledge. Periods of accommodation are preceded by periods of disequilibrium, when the learner experiences a feeling of tension and unease because of the lack of fit of the experience into existing schema.
With an introductory programming course, for students who have never been exposed to any computer programming techniques, such periods of disequilibrium can be quite often and may even frustrate quite a few. To help deal with this problem, I tend to build my lessons around concepts and principles. I believe that when one's schemata are organized around a central set of ideas, the knowledge becomes more stabilized and accessible. For example, in my programming classes, the more general principles, of decision-making by statement selection or of statement repetition, are stressed before implementing them using java syntax.
I do not believe in the teacher-centered lecture approach that is so common today in many University environments. Such an approach is based upon the traditional transmission approach to teaching and the absorptionist approach to learning, which views students in a passive role as accumulators of material. Students listen during lectures, then read and perform prescribed exercises. With the present organization of the course, programming concepts are taught in a lecture environment and programming activities are performed weekly in a laboratory environment. I do not think that such an
arrangement will maximize learning by the students. If the learner is constructing webs of experiences as developing schemata, then knowledge - P10wledge connectedness, knowledge-context links and context-emotion links become very important at the point of learning. Students need to learn programming in a programming environment at all times. It should be totally hands-on to facilitate transfer of what is learnt in the University environment to the work environment. To achieve this end I am presently working on developing a proposal for a grant that would allow a restructuring of the introductory course around the constructivist philosophy.
RESEARCH
At present I am researching the issues involved in developing a programming environment for students of the Introductory Computer Programming course based upon the Constructivist Approach to Learning. I am also engaged in extensive reading to develop a better understanding of Computer Forensics and Information Assurance issues such as network security, virtual private network development, system security and organizational security. I have explored University options in this region that offer a doctoral degree in Computer Science specializing in Information Security. I hope to begin these studies in the Fall semester 2004.
SERVICE
In being of spiritual, mental and material service to others one finds one's own needs fulfilled. As one forgets self in service to others, one finds that, without seeking it, one's own cup of happiness will be full. These words, simply stated by a great Indian mystic, provide the pivot around which my life revolves. Selfless service to all, whom I encounter, with the knowledge that, in serving each one, I serve a higher being that created each one of us, has always been my goal.
Service is a seed which, when watered daily in the garden of one's activities, genninates into the tender young plant of one's life. As my life changes due to service to self, where I always ensure that there is balance and synergy between the spiritual, mental and physical aspects of my life, I become stronger and am capable of giving daily efficient service to my little family. I finnly believe that balance and synergy is necessary for harmonious development, for, wherever imbalance occurs, negative repercussions are sure to follow. With service to my family, the example of my actions, not my words, influences their lives. The tree of my life now blossoms and bears fruit, shedding new seeds of service, in the hearts of each family member. These seeds of service are now capable of genninating anywhere my family goes. With the strength gained from the microcosm of my little family circle, I am better able to serve my community, nation and world.
However, before there is service there must be serious reflection on what needs to be done. Too many times I have seen plasters applied to sores in our society. These sores
later fester and erupt more virulently than before. In Trinidad and Tobago, the country of my birth, where the pulse of the people is an integral part of me, service to my fellowman was simply a response to a call of my larger self. Here, in America, where a different ethos prevails, it has become necessary for me to pause, acclimatize myself to the needs and mission of the people so that when I do act, and serve, I can do so decisively and unwaveringly with a finn belief in my goal. Thus, sometimes it is important to pause, study, and reflect before one attempts to find solutions to problems or engage in any major undertaking. Many may misconstrue this as laziness or inaction. In fact this is a period of intense mental and spiritual action, a period of readjustment of one's schema to accommodate the new ways of doing and viewing things, wherein one lays the foundation upon which his service will be built.
This has been my method of operation. When engaging in service to others I always seek inner guidance. At Hampton thus far, my service activities have been at the level of the students. I generally have an open-door policy and am always willing to provide assistance to students even beyond my office hours. I believe in one-to-one tutoring and always encourage my students to seek me during my office hours. At such times I am able to use teaching strategies that are more appropriate to the particular student's method of learning, something that is not always possible in the classroom environment. Service to students in my care has expressed itself in my careful preparation of course syllabi and materials including assessment tools.
To improve the programming skills of the students, my involvement in the Hampton University Chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery (HUACM) has led me to act as coach to teams of students that participate in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), sponsored by IBM. In the Fall of 2002 and again this Fall 2003, Hampton University students have participated and will again participate in the Mid Atlantic Regional competition in the US leg of this contest. I know that exposure to a programming competition amongst other Universities in the region, will widen the web of programming experiences available to the students and will eventually strengthen the programming skills of all our students.
I love Hampton University, and in reflecting on its mission, on the unique role it plays in American society, and on the niche it fills in the world arena, my sphere of service is gradually expanding outwards from the department in which I have started to the larger Hampton community and the nation at large.
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