Philip M. Jankoski

Teaching Statement

I believe that people are born learners and knowledge is gained when students have the adequate environment and space for deep thinking and reflection. My role as a teacher is to facilitate an inclusive and stimulating environment and provide the space for this to occur. I strive to convey my own personal connection and passion to the material and ideas for students to make the learning experience engaging, energetic, and passionate.

Students will learn when they are engaged in material germane to their own human experience and when concepts reinforce their previous understandings of the world and their place in it. To do this, I underscore the importance of dialogue and inquiry among students in lieu of lecturing. I interlace core material into the discussion for students to bat around and ask critical questions that keeps the process fluid.

As a teacher, I believe it is important to assess and get to know each student personally. My goal is to start where they are presently and connect learning objectives back to their unique perspectives and experiences. I find by linking the material to students personally, it allows them to expand off their existing intellectual foundations and venture into new territories. This promotes reflection and more nuanced understandings of previously held views.

Like myself, I hold students to high standards and expect a commitment to learn, strong work ethic, and respect and kindness for and to all fellow students. It’s paramount that a classroom is an inclusive and accepting environment for everyone but ideas and convictions can be respectfully challenged and there is a shared understanding that being uncomfortable or unsettled may be part of the learning process.

Academia is an incubator and students must understand how material learned applies to life, career and most of all provides purpose, value, and meaning. Activities are important vehicles to present core concepts and material in new ways but also prepare students for life after their degree. Within my toolbox, I prefer debates, presentations and idea sharing, projects, sketching and mapping, ideation and prototyping, break out discussion, writing groups to be the most effective learning activities. These are tangible skills that students must master to succeed.

In a thriving classroom, students are congenial and emotionally intelligent. They are able to articulate and sell their ideas through logic, reason, and empirical research, citing evidence on why they believe what they believe. They are opening to new perspectives that challenge their assumptions and bias about the world. They speak confidently and illustrate their understanding of the subject at hand.

Students and teachers are partners in intellectual pursuit and must hold a social compact in the learning process that focuses on mutual respect and gain.