Interview with a Professor

Interview With A Professor
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A perfect pedagogical practice depends on either personal philosophy or theory. There are various philosophies of teaching that are applicable to different educators. In personal opinion, academic performance for all the students is not an option, but a mandatory issue. So as to achieve the goal, employment of creativity and insisting on the importance of education are some of the usable tactics. There is also the need to give the students room to reflect and discover knowledge. This happens through allowing the students to ask questions and even criticize because the best way of finding answers is by seeking questions. In psychology class, flexibility is an important philosophy since each student is different from the other (Kasachkoff & Kasachkoff, 2004). Thus, the need to convert the key points into talking points so as to have a effective lecture. It is also mandatory to be creative while preparing lessons by relating them to daily experiences. This enables to enhance the understanding capacity of the students.
In an interview with my former professor at an undergraduate school and currently a lecturer at Brightstar college, I received plenty of enlightenment on issues regarding teaching philosophy and the reasons as to why psychology was chosen as a career. He also narrated on his positive and negative experiences as a psychology teacher. The interview made a positive impact on me especially because the professor accepted our meeting and the conversation was friendly due to the rapport between us.
The professor responded to my question about the teaching philosophy that he employs while teaching his students. He said that his teaching may resist a neat philosophical classification as it is somehow eclectic. In addition, he identifies some themes that emerge from his lectures and allow other people to consider whether the themes bears any logical pattern. His opinion is that teachers may impart more by means of examples than precepts. This would mean, teaching by both words and actions because students are always keen to recognize when a lecturer fails to practice what he teaches. The professor puts in that the values he tries to teach the students through his words and actions include; the significance of preparation, organization, assignments and giving respect to other people and their opinions, among others. The professor added that he prefers to teach in a fashion termed as human and humane. It simply states that there should be a mutual respect climate in the classroom so that the students are able to add to the lecturer’s conversation (Duschl & Hamilton, 1992). The professor says that this tactic has really worked for him while in class, which has been proved by informal students’ feedback as well as formal evaluation. He also adds that teachers and students ought to under...