Teaching
TEACHING STATEMENT
I believe knowledge is a common value shared at different levels in different human beings. Knowledge belongs to all of the humankind no matter who its owner is for a specific time. Therefore teaching is one of the most important professions because it allows for this knowledge to be transferred and shared among all individuals, enriching all humankind and facilitating life all over the globe.
While I try to make my modest contribution to sharing knowledge, I want my students to be aware of the subject matter they are being exposed to, in the context of a given situation to which they have to offer a solution. Their ability to understand what I have taught in my class starts right from the moments before I enter the class while I am preparing my lecture. I figure practical ways my students can relate to that they can easily understand and use in their daily life.
My objectives as a teacher involve fundamental concepts and the development of life-long skills and problem-solving strategies due to the mere nature of the subject I teach. This means that after a class or series of classes taken from me my students should be able to identify areas where their skills can be applied. This is an actual necessity in Albanian society since even the job market doesn’t clearly indicate job positions. Somehow our students must figure out applications of their skills themselves and offer those to this market.
In my six years of experience in teaching in university I have had the opportunity to teach undergraduate and graduate students. I have applied different techniques to different types of students trying to help them in ways that are most beneficial to them. However, something that always remained the same for all students in my methods was my consistency to be present and listen to their needs and trying to figure out a way to overcome obstacles together.
All students are encouraged and assisted in participating in project preparation. All lessons I teach involve preparing projects where they must show that they can apply real life skills. The projects are mainly prepared individually but group work is also highly encouraged and welcome. Machine learning as a subject, for instance, requires students to collect and analyze real data sets available either from local companies or online. The students must apply and test the algorithms they see in class to the data sets they collect. This way they can see a concrete example of how algorithms work. The lessons are mainly conducted in class and laboratories. When data sets analysis works the students show they have successfully understood the subject matter and thus they get their evaluation. However, there are presentations, labeled project that sum up to 40% of the total mark, and exams as well which are conducted periodically equal to 40% of the final mark and have a specific wight in the final mark. Once a week there are practical assignments in labs where students apply the theory they learned that week. Their work is then uploaded and evaluated. This makes up for 20% of the final mark.
As far as an evaluation of myself as a teacher is concerned, I use different types of feedback from students themselves as well as their marks. Students are required to fill in a questionnaire on their satisfaction towards the teachers and their teaching methods. During lessons from time to time I stop and discuss the teaching method with the students asking if that is clear enough and whether anything should be altered to meet their needs. Marks are important feedback when I plan my syllabus because they indicate which topics of the subject are difficult to understand.
Teaching is my life, literally. I have had a great passion for teaching right from my bachelor days and I have been teaching for 25 years which is more than half of my life. I have had different age groups, different nationalities, I have taught or been part of the leadership in different schools (primary up to doctorate studies) and most importantly I have enjoyed every moment of it.