The Graduate School

Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching Program

Reflection Worksheet for the Teaching Philosophy Peer Review

Part I: Describe

Title of the workshop/seminar/event/session?

The workshop I attended was entitled “Introduction to Teaching.”

Give a brief purpose statement for this event (1-2 sentences)?

There were two main purposes for this workshop, including (1) to discuss teaching and the process for
developing materials and (2) to practice developing a lesson plan.

Lead presenter(s)?
Dr. Honeycutt was the lead presenter for this workshop.

Date(s) of the event?

This workshop was on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 @ 03:00 PM.

Location(s) of the event?

This workshop was on campus in Clark Hall.

Approximately how many people attended the workshop?

There was a small group of students at the workshop; however, the small group made it easier to
participate and discuss the practice exercise.

What happened at this event? How was the workshop organized? What presentation styles did you see?
What types of activities did you participate in?
The workshop was organized as a presentation workshop. Dr. Honeycutt talked about the art of teaching
and reviewed the planning process that goes into each class session. However, the presentation was very
interactive. All participants contributed to the discussion during the presentation and were encouraged to
share their ideas during the exercise session.

Part II: Analyze

I learned a lot of things during this workshop. To start, I was able to gauge how long it will take me to
plan for each class session. I learned that every class session does not to include a PowerPoint
presentation. The information about how to include discussions and exercises in class were most helpful. I
think that I had a perception of teaching as a lecture process, but after this workshop I can see how
important it is to give the students time to practice with, reflect upon, and summarize the information
from each class session.

I learned this by listening to Dr. Honeycutt’s review of teaching strategies and then attempting to
implement some of those strategies when we developed our own lesson plans. During this workshop, I
learned about teaching strategies that I had not considered at length before the workshop. More
specifically, I learned about the strategy of integrating discussion or reflection time into a lecture instead
of lecturing for an entire class. That strategy was connected to ideas about active learning and types of
learning, which in turn helped me to consider strategies in teaching that appeal to many types of learners
instead of what I know (my type of learning). When I mention the lesson plan, I am specifically thinking
about the process of dividing your course time into sections. Instead of considering the entire class as an
opportunity to lecture, I am not better able to see how planning for other things (hands-on activity,
reflection, discussion) during the time can both improve student understanding and participation. I think
this will help me to grow away from what I know (using a PowerPoint to share information every time)
and toward new strategies (discussing examples of a topic as a way of talking about the topic; asking for
students to reflect on the information and then discussing rather than ending class with a summary of
points; allowing students to work in a group in order to discuss something rather than asking them to
answer questions as individuals during the lecture).

This learning matters because otherwise, I might not have considered the importance of organizing the
information for each class session. I still have the same ideas about what I’m going to share with the
students, but my ideas about how I am going to share that information have drastically changed. I look
forward to integrating these strategies into my courses!

In light of this learning, I will be able to improve my teaching strategy. Each of my class periods will
include time for the students to interact with and reflect upon the information. I will think more
consciously about the information and the best way to deliver the information as I develop lesson plans. I
will consider different learning styles as I develop lectures, presentations, and exercises. As a result of
this workshop, I spent the summer developing a series of in-class exercises that I could use to go along
with my already created lectures. In some classes, I’ve found that those exercises (rather than the lecture
slides) are what students recall when they’re trying to remember certain class points. I’ve seen how an
exercise involving a group of students analyzing a newspaper advertisement can sometimes help them to
see more about audience in writing than a lecture about using audience in writing. As I’ve seen these
strategies work, I’ve tried to think of other technologies that can assist these strategies. Next semester I
hope to integrate more forums into class so some of the shyer students can participate more during
discussions. I also hope to use a strategy that I’ve noticed in other COAT seminars, which is to show a
video and then ask students to discuss what they saw within a forum space.