Teaching is a passion and responsibility. I both love it and recognize its weight. In my classes, I emphasize five goals, all of which, I hope, create an open-communication environment that allows for the full explication of complex ideas and an effective learning experience. These goals are sharing complicated material clearly, creating a supportive classroom environment, facilitating student-to-student interaction and discussion, mixing different teaching modalities, and eliciting feedback. 

First, many of my classes deal with subtle or multifaceted issues that do not offer simple solutions. In my International Communication class, these include the multiplicity of different national media systems, the contradictions of globalization, different international flows, and the importance of historical understanding. My first goal, then, is to organize material in logical ways and pair them with readings and assignments that are both pertinent and accessible.

Trust is also an issue that I cultivate in my classes, and I look to provide an environment that makes my students more confident in approaching me with their questions or about the issues holding them back from participating, completing assignments, or concentrating in the classroom. My priority in the classroom is to provoke curiosity about the subject, foster a safe environment for the students to be able to do so, and understand the challenges they may be facing. In these conditions, students know they can come to me to solve these problems together. I am committed to facilitating mutual respect with my students, and treating each other as humans first, then student/instructor second is essential.

I work hard to create a learning environment where students can learn not only from me but also from their classmates. Asynchronous discussions engage students with the class topic and reward them for generating their own real-life examples to illustrate their arguments with their peers. Collaborative approaches to in-class discussions/activities and final projects let students explore more about the topics they learn in ways they find engaging. Once, in my International Mass Communications classroom, I asked my students to think about different examples that technological determinist or social constructivist approaches could use to support their arguments. Thinking through those questions with a classmate made them more comfortable in answering them in front of their other classmates, and that was one of the most participatory lectures I had during the semester. Such activities also strengthen the students’ ability to apply the given information to real-life situations and understand the subject matter more effectively. Moreover, studying contradicting arguments, like in the mentioned example, contributes to their critical thinking and debating skills.

I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all solution in teaching. I witness each semester that not all students in my classes effectively learned in the same ways. I, therefore, incorporate different teaching modalities, such as using PowerPoint slides, showing documentary videos and clips, and taking notes on a blackboard/whiteboard during in-class discussions with students. In the mid-semester surveys, I received positive feedback from my students for implementing these different visual materials and the various participatory learning opportunities. Online discussions benefit those who may need to spend more time on the subject before sharing their arguments, who may feel shy to talk in front of a classroom unless they are prepared ahead of time to do so, and who may hesitate to speak due to having English as their second language. In addition to the collaborative activities and assignments, in-person discussions in the classroom, and asynchronous discussions online, I also incorporate memes – one of the topics of my research –as a learning tool. I apply them to my lecture slides to enhance learning and my assignments as a memorable and unique way for them to spend more time thinking about the course concepts and theories. For example, my students created memes about different media systems, media markets, globalization, and international mass communications theories. They also wrote a short description of their thought process for creating them and explaining how they are connected to the class. This assignment helped students to practice how to illustrate concepts and make them accessible to others.

Finally, I consider student feedback to be crucial for assessing how my teaching methods fit their learning styles. Via anonymous surveys throughout the term, I receive feedback to ensure I meet the needs of those who perhaps hold back during in-person discussions. By implementing asynchronous discussions, I create a space to include those students and have them participate in-class discussions and engage with their peers; in these writings, they may also offer hints about how the class is going and what concepts they struggle with. Adding alternative ways for the students to participate in the subject matter improves their engagement in critical thinking, analyzing information, and asking questions to me and their peers more confidently.