Teaching Philosophy Statement

I like to teach that comparison is the essence of measurement. Everything is connected, and a boundary is a place where connection is weak. As students think critically, deciding how new concepts are connected to their world, I try to be mindful of how I am connecting with my students, how they connect with each other, and how we connect with the material (and immaterial) of the course.

Everything is connected, but one interesting question is, “How?” I am an interdisciplinary scholar who has drawn from theory in Psychology, Education, Music, and Linguistics. As a research methodologist, I strongly hold that comparison is a vital element in the process of inquiry. Therefore, in my teaching, I emphasize the importance of specifying connections, especially where connections might be vague, unexpected, or vulnerable to equivocation. In my teaching experience, hands-on activities are one of the most effective aids in comprehending theory, so I build experiential learning opportunities into my lessons as much as possible. As part of my inclusive practices, I aim to take a student-centered and data-driven approach to interacting with my class by distributing periodic class surveys and explaining statistical relationships between and within class assignments. I believe that fostering a sense of belonging and community is important, even in large classes.