Banaz Wirya Ali

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is to focus on the students by showing them how to be independent and responsible learners for the future. In my classes, students are engaged and motivated to express their experiences and articulate their ideas. Above all, the activities inside the class are designed in a way to help them grow intellectually and psychologically. Thus, the students are predicted to be open-minded and flexible and respond with a positive attitude. All of these is to inspire and encourage them to participate in the learning process, and experience a better sense of being a learner.

*Research Interests
Literary and Cultural Theory, Contemporary British and American Literature, TESOL, Postcolonial Literature and Critical Studies.
 
*Teaching Style
My teaching style is a mix of two styles aiming to focus on desired learning outcomes for students and to meet their learning styles. Therefore, in some class session I may use the demonstrator model from the teacher centered approach in which I act as a role model by demonstrating skills and processes and then as a guide in helping the students to develop and apply these skills and knowledge. This approach encourages the students to participate and to be responsible for learning. It also encourages them to ask for help when they don’t understand something.  In other sessions, I use the facilitator model from student-centered approach, in which more responsibility for learning is placed on the students to take the initiative for meeting the demands of various learning tasks without undermining the role of the teacher as a facilitator. By doing this, I try to find an appropriate balance to minimize faculty- student distance.

*Assessment
In order to make sure that the aims have been achieved, continuous assessment takes place during or after my lessons through applying different types of assessment as formative, summative and diagnostic assessment. This allow me to determine whether or not my goals of teaching are being met and based on that I can make adjustments in my teaching methods and techniques.