Teaching Philosophy—Anes Karic

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The continual necessity to achieve substantive and collective understanding of information
within a classroom through an instructor’s individual teaching style illustrates the artistic and
professional variability and objective that fundamentally draws me into teaching.

Internal motivation along with periodic reflection is a characteristic and practice that I aim to
incorporate into my portrayal as a professional and as an instructor. In identifying and
demonstrating my internal motivation, I seek to emphasize the importance of continual learning
as a professional within academia and health care. The dynamicity within academia as well as
the clinical and business environments of pharmacy demands professionals to reflect and identify
motivators to promote pharmacy as a high quality and evolving profession. Reflecting as a
student and teacher further illuminated quality and innovation as my internal motivators that
guide my teaching experiences. Ensuring high quality instruction while encouraging students to
be positive innovators will, I believe, help preserve pharmacy as a quality profession that can
adapt in an active environment.

Reflection begins with the student by recognizing it as a valuable exercise and the instructor
identifying the purpose of reflection. The practice of reflection can be universally applied across
pharmacy such as experiential, professionalism, teamwork, and other characteristics and
experiences that contribute to professional development.1 While I have used reflection to assist
me in my professional ambitions, I have minimally used it as a tool during my teaching.
Throughout my tutoring experiences, I have asked students to informally reflect on their learning
and studying strategies; however, this ineffective implementation has not demonstrated the true
effect and potential of reflection. An application of reflection that I will incorporate into my
teaching practice is throughout experiential student rotations. One approach I will take is to
provide the experiential student with a document at the start and end of rotation to identify
growth and opportunities for development. In addition to this, I will recommend blogging as this
is an efficient, simple, interactive, and commonly used practice in health professional training.2
Beginning reflection during rotations by preceptors could further cultivate an acceptance of
reflection by students and instructors.1 Additionally, rotations may provide a conducive
environment that promotes professional growth through reflective practices to form processes for
self-improvement.1 Through reflection learners may identify personal motivators for activities
and professional ambitions. Moreover, the use of reflection during rotations help students and
instructors identify and critically evaluate the purpose of certain actions in practice and establish
novel approaches to better the outcome.2 Finally, the identification for self-improvement and
necessity to continually develop in the professional atmosphere is fostered by reflection which
may help contribute to the maintenance of quality within pharmacy and academia.

Passion and motivation are characteristics that I find to be essential in teaching and learning. As
a student, I have found instructors that have tremendous passion for their disciplines and
teaching as the most effective teachers. Maintaining an engaging learning environment by
portraying a motivation and passion for teaching is conducive to inspiring future learners. My
experience in the classroom with passionate instructors has shaped my approach to teaching and
presenting. I continually seek to demonstrate a sense of motivation and passion regarding my
interests in pharmacy to positively influence learners through information.

Motivation and passion are incorporated into my teaching philosophy based on my experiences
as a student and interactions with instructors. These characteristics are fundamental in my
teaching and presentation of information to learners but also my pursuit of continued learning in
an evolving profession. Through periodic reflection I have identified factors that internally
motivate me which invoke confidence in me to provide quality instruction and critically evaluate
approaches to improving pharmacy practice. As a recent pharmacy graduate and new instructor, I
will seek to cultivate a sense of passion, reflection, and internal motivation in learners to advance
quality in pharmacy.

References:

1. Bouldin AS. Reflection is not reflective. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017;81(9):6832.

doi:10.5688/ajpe6832

2. Tsingos C, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Smith L. Reflective practice and its implications for

pharmacy education. Am J Pharm Educ. 2014;78(1):1-10. doi:10.5688/ajpe78118