Teaching Philosophy

Xinyu Gu
A few years ago, I would never have imagined myself being an English writing class
instructor in a place that is hundreds of miles away from my comfort zone and using a language
that is not my “native language”. However, the past almost two years of teaching experience at
the University of Arizona has brought me practical teaching experiences where I was able to put
my knowledge into practice and further develop and shape my teaching philosophy and
methodology.
One of the critical aspects I always keep in mind is the teacher-student relationship and
roles within the classroom. As someone who walked through the path my students are currently
taking, I am fortunate enough to see potential struggles my students might experience from both
the instructor's and former students' perspectives. Thus, instead of seeing myself as a
“traditional” teacher, where students must obey everything the teacher says and asks within the
classroom. I treat my relationship with my students as if I am their friend who is here to help in
general during the class or in one-on-one meetings. I also hope my students can see me as an
example to show that they can be as fluent and advanced in using English both within and
outside of the school settings. In addition, I don’t believe there is a “solid” definition of who is
the student and who is the teacher in terms of the mindset. As I try to teach and help my students
understand different academic writing genres, accents, or situations, I am also consistently
learning information from my students. I use the information I learned to modify my lesson plans
and teaching styles to meet students' needs and interests better.
My students come from different languages, cultural, and educational backgrounds in
many other places of the world. Thus, it is very common for me to find students with varying
learning styles within my classroom. Even though many of my students come from places where
the lecture is the dominant method of learning, within my two years of teaching, I realized that
lecturing is not the best way to teach or to receive reactions/feedback from students. Many
international students don’t feel comfortable or confident speaking in front of the entire class. So,
I consciously minimize the amount of lecture time within each class session and provide students
opportunities to work with their classmates or on their own to further process and understand the
information presented during class and develop skills like critical thinking and problem-solving.
Allowing students to work on their own or with their classmates gives them opportunities to
exchange their understanding and realize the gaps within their knowledge in a low-stake
situation. For example, one in-class activity I designed required students to work in small groups
and to collaboratively find key features an online News article contains, and how are these
features similar or different from the academic essay.
I try to integrate real-world materials within my class, so my students are not learning
skills and knowledge in isolation. By doing this, students get plenty of experiences seeing and
working with these materials within real-world situations beyond the school settings. For
example, one topic I always teach my students at the beginning of the semester is how to write a
proper email to different audiences. Students always find these kinds of topics and materials
beneficial in their school lives and outside of school settings. I also incorporate various types of
assignments within my class to help scaffold the material and enhance students’ understanding.
For example, in addition to major writing assignments, I also created discussion boards as
“informal communication” for students to share their thoughts on course topics every other
week. I also try to provide topics related to extra credit opportunities for students to motivate
them to practice their understanding of the material further.
I just started my journey as a teacher, and there is still a long way to go. I want to
continue getting to know my students as individuals and create an open-minded and engaging
classroom environment. I also want to consistently learn, grow, and improve my teaching styles
and materials developments within the class, using countless new knowledge in areas that I have
never stepped foot into before to better meet my students' needs and interests.