JOE LOVE

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching methods stem from my belief that as an instructor I am a facilitator for learning rather than a depositor of knowledge, or writing judge for my students. My goal is to enable them to discover their own writing style and voice through both various essay genres and modes of communication (discussion, group work, pair work, oral report, research, media, visual stimuli) to help them discover their writing self. I encourage them to take risks and to grow through their mistakes by structuring failure as a means to improvement. Other cooperative learning exercises such as group peer-reviewing constitute a big part of our class because they encourage students to create their own problem-solving methods and strengthen their self-management skills. Ideally, this results in my students accepting responsibility for their own learning, which turns them into active learners instead of passive observers.  

My students develop the skills of critical analysis and convincing argumentation by trying to make sense of their own experiences or issues that they can relate to instead of trying to digest and reformulate an abstract structure. They work with issues that pertain to their campus community, such as evaluating food options in their residence halls, or with problems they see in their future professions, like arguing for a more race-conscious treatment of patients in Physical Therapy. These learning perspectives—grounded in reality—allow my students to apply their knowledge to new situations they encounter in other classes as well as non-academic settings. By having my students conduct interviews and analyze writing that was produced in their specific fields, they are able to incorporate learning through experience which promotes an eagerness to become scholars in their chosen fields, to dedicate themselves to the advancement of knowledge, and to prepare them for advanced study, for their careers, and for lifelong learning.

In addition to incorporating students’ interests and experiences on the content level, I use technology on a regular basis to accommodate the different ways in which student learning occurs. My students and I work with a wide range of technologies, such as discussion boards, blogs, and videos, as they offer new ways of responding to student work and give students a sense of authority by having them work with writing practices that they perform every day. This kind of feedback sticks with my students better than a lecture, and they feel validated in their work, which in turn encourages them to exercise more responsibility in terms of their own active learning.