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Hailey Murdock
Ohio University
April 2017
Teaching Philosophy

I havent always known that I wanted to be a teacher. In fact, if you

had asked me five years ago if I saw teaching in my future I would have
answered no. I can still remember the day that I first contemplated becoming
a professor. During my freshman year of my undergraduate education at
Ohio University, I was sitting in a Deviant Behaviors course and I can
remember being drawn in by not only the information, but also by the
professor. I found myself completely engaged throughout the entire lecture.
The professor was enthusiastic and passionate about deviant behavior. Her
lectures consisted of notes, videos, discussions, and class activities. She
worked tirelessly to always keep us on our toes, so every class was a new
educational experience. When the lecture ended, I can remember
questioning why all lectures were not structured like my current professors.
The course not only made me want to learn everything I possibly could about
deviant behavior, but the course also made me want to excel within
academia. At this point in my life, I had never thought about teaching, but I
began to do toil with the idea. I knew that I could make education interesting
for students who wanted more from a professor than just the PowerPoint
notes.
As a future instructor, I strive to not only be a students professor, but
also their mentor. I believe that having positive student-professor interaction
is imperative to decipher what your students are gaining from their
education as well as understanding what topics to include in my lecture
because of student interest. I also believe that creating a classroom
atmosphere where students feel safe to share their thoughts is vital to
having a conducive learning environment. With that being said, as a future
sociology professor, I plan on covering controversial topics, where I expect all
of my students to treat one another with respect and refrain from using
crude and/or prejudice language when discussing these topics.
I am a strong believer that students learn in different ways, so I make
delivering my material in different ways a priority in order to be
accommodating to my students needs. I believe that all citizens could
benefit from seeing the world through sociological lens. Sociology is an
amazing social science, which allows us to analyze the social world and
uncover social norms and phenomenon at a micro and macro level. Sociology
allows citizens the opportunity to step back from their personal beliefs and
analyze society through an unbiased objective view, wiping our eyes of the
unconscious bias by letting us to see what is really happening in our society.
I intend to use backward design to construct my course plan. The
backwards design method allows me to pinpoint what I want my students to
take away from the course. I believe that students learn more from each
other than from solely listening to a professor lecture, therefore, I incorporate
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a group project in every course that I teach. As a professor of sociology, I

want to foster critical thinking through daily activities, which make students
apply what they are learning to current issues and topics. I want to strive to
create a community discussion because there is a difference between
lecturing at students and being a facilitator of classroom discussion. In a
classroom, I would focus on using sociological theory to frame issues and
topics talked about in lecture and class discussions because it is important to
have a foundation to build off when using a sociological lens. I am also a
proponent of incorporating sociological research methods into assignments
in order to help students develop the skills that they will need to analyze
sociological research questions.
I plan on evaluating students in a variety of ways because some
assignments may not show students grasp of information as well as others.
As I mentioned earlier, I will be using backward design to create evaluation
methods that I believe will best show what students are taking away from
the course. I think that it is important to have learning objectives to guide
every lecture because learning objectives provide a clear road map for
students which shows what students are responsible for understanding.
Throughout my own personal experience and talking with other students, I
have found that students learn best with a mixed method approach to
learning, which may include class based discussions, short in class writing
assignments, lecture, group projects, exams, and written essays. I believe
that sociology can be used to analyze almost any social phenomenon,
therefore, I want to encourage students to research and learn about things
that they are interested in by giving them the opportunity to do so
throughout their assignments. I want each and every student to see how
sociology can be applied to real world issues.
In conclusion, I hope to foster a learning environment where discussion
is welcome and students look to me not only as their professor, but also as
their advisor. As a recent college graduate, I understand what it is like to
maneuver through school. I know that not every course will be a students
first choice, but I believe that if the information is taught by a passionate and
knowledgeable professor who makes the course an experience rather than a
class that will be quickly forgotten, will allow the students to get the most
out of their education. I have learned throughout my own teaching
experiences the things that I need to work on as a professor in order to help
my students thrive. I want to be like the professor in my story who aspired
me to work hard and pass on my knowledge to the next generation.