TCR 5060 – Week 4 Post – Teaching Philosophy/Philosophy of Composition

Teaching Philosophy

[“IT IS TIME ONCE AGAIN TO RECONSIDER THE SOCIAL CONTRACT BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY AND THE NATION” (DUDERSTADT, J.J., 2000B, P. 37). ]

Many have asked the question of whether teachers’ beliefs influence how students perform.  When teachers believe students are intellectually gifted, student performance improves.  Teacher behavior changes students.  Because the role of teacher carries with it authority and power in contradistinction to that of students in most institutional settings; therefore, as instructors, we owe it to our students to:

• Empower them.
• Believe beyond what even students themselves can believe about themselves.  “Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” –Einstein
• Recognize that not every student learns the same way; therefore, we must teach dynamically.  Dynamic teaching practices require we attend to the various learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners.  “I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” –Einstein
• Educate, not through the instilling “of facts, but the training of the mind to think” (Einstein) innovatively, creatively, divergently, and in an emotionally intelligent manner.
• Equip them for success in the 21st century hyperconnected world.

Globalization inevitably leads educators to consider how higher education prepares students for success in the current hyperconnected, technologically charged global dynamic.  Technical communication instructors should seek to transform education by seeking “entirely new paradigms” (Duderstadt, J., 2000a, p. i).  Education must situate itself in the hyperconnected world by cultivating creativity, divergent, and innovative thinking (Friedman, T.L., 2005; Pink, D., n.d.; Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J., 2011).  Academic preparation should recognizes the complexities of literacy in the 21st century.  Six core literacies (basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical) are critical.  

References

Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. (2011). The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Duderstadt, J. J. (2000a). A choice of transformations for the 21st century university. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 46(22), B6-B7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214692413?accountid=8593

Duderstadt, J. J. (2000b). New roles for the 21st-century university. Issues in Science and Technology, 16(2), 37-44. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195918602?accountid=8593 

Friedman, T.L. (2005, May). The world is flat. MIT.  Retrieved from http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-world-is-flat-9145/

Pink, D. (n.d.). Dan Pink video series on a whole new mind. Board of School Superintendents.  Retrieved from http://ym.askaboss.com/?page=Dan_Pink_Video

My Brief Philosophy of Composition

Composition is a messy.  Composition is a process-driven practice.  What sparks the process may be an assigned prompt, observation of the world, interest in a subject, research question or any number of reasons; however, the author determines when the work is finished.  Some might argue that audience determines when a work is finished.  One can hold both of these views even when they are in direct opposition to each other.  Authors should conduct their work with passion and purpose.  

Composition should always have a purpose. While ars gratia artis can serve for any creative process, composition should have a focus, communicate a message, accomplish something. (Please excuse the advertisement before the following video).

                                          

Composition is creative, or more accurately, co-creative.  Voices, memory, knowledge acquired over a lifetime all speak to the composing act.  Heteroglossia is a term used describe discursive practices as a “matrix of forces” or voices which speak to the occasion (Fiske 89).  This is one aspect or characteristic of composition.  

Voice in composition expands beyond author, and author held heteroglossia.  In our hyperconnected world, composing may include many authors each with his or her own internal voice and values.

Audience is bigger than we imagine.  New contexts and connectivity make it near impossible to imagine or understand audience.  We must explore audience in a much more dynamic and expansive way.

Composition take more than the form of pen to paper.  Composition can engage with any kind of media, especially in our hyperconnected world.

References

Fiske, John. Introduction to Communication Studies.  New York: Methuen, 1982.