My original motivation for returning to school to be certified for teaching began with the realization, upon beginning classes as a freshman at UT Austin in 1970, that my then vaunted high school science education had not been very good.  What I had thought was a good preparation for studying engineering turned out to be third rate compared to that enjoyed by many other students in my freshman classes.  I realized I could have had a much better science background.

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My second motivation was discovering some truly superior teaching talent in the person of Dr. William T Guy.  ( http://endowments.giving.utexas.edu/page/guy-william-exc-end-math/5360/ ) He taught the ‘engineering honors’ math sections that I could not get into as a freshman, but I stayed for summer school to take his M427L class, and it was a revelation. Here was someone who really understood his subject, and could tell whether the student as ‘getting it’ at a glance. He also has several ‘nested’ alternative explanations that he could switch to until he saw the understanding dawn in a student’s eyes.  I was struck by how much more I could have learned so much earlier (and more easily) if all teachers were like this.

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I had never heard the term constructionist back then, but I knew how it worked.  I had read about Piaget in PSY101 my first semester, but Skinner made a bigger impression then.  But as I began EDC365C my earlier instincts were reinforced, and I had a robust model to work with. Many of my previous experiences in school and in my subsequent career endeavors suddenly made sense and fit into a pattern.

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The classes I had liked the least were behaviorist with a big dose of authoritarian control.  The ones that helped me the most were on a project based or inquiry based model, whether they called it that or not.  In the behaviorist classes I rebelled, but in the others I got interested and involved. I learned more science from my after-school job in middle school and high school (working for an electronics distributor and installer, as essentially an apprentice) because it was all project based and all required testing and validation before anyone (including me) got paid.

 

My goal is to produce students with the skills to be highly successful in further schooling and in life, and to help the US compete in an increasingly global and Schumpeterian economy. 

 

I believe I must do five things to accomplish this.

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First, I want to learn as much as I can about the individual student, to assess their capabilities and understand their situation and motivation.  I believe that each student has great potential, but I do not believe that all students have equal ability, so I should work to understand their backgrounds and their individual strengths and weaknesses to teach them as much as possible.

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Second, I want to teach the students what I call emotional intelligence skills – working with groups, reading non-verbal cues, and understating other people’s motivations and emotions as well as your own.

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Third, I want to build a fundamental understanding of, and reliance on, the scientific method, not just for science experiments, but for many other aspects of life.  They should be able to think critically and logcally.

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Fourth, I want my students to understand at a minimum enough math to be competent decision makers, rather than easily shorn financial sheep.

 

Finally, I want to make sure that common and easily identifiable misconceptions about physics, math, finance, and biology do not survive  contact with my class.

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