Teaching Philosophy: Jeff Casello

from the SAS Center for Teaching and Learning 
at the University of Pennsylvania
 
When you serve as a Teaching Assistant,  you have two sets of people to whom you must be accountable.  First, you have to be sure to fill the expectations of the professor for whom you're working.  Having exams and home works graded on time, serving as a first line of response for student's questions, or performing simple administrative tasks keep the instructors from being overwhelmed by the demands of the course.  It's no a hard job for the TA to keep the course in order.  It can be very hard on everyone when things get out of order.  This is the business side of the job.

The second group to whom the TA is responsible is clearly the students. There are several things, I think, students need from their TA's.  First, as a teaching assistant you must have a solid understanding of the course material.  For undergraduates, especially in engineering, some course work might be extremely challenging, and in some ways seem completely unrelated to their plan of study.  If the TA doesn't thoroughly grasp the material, he or she has no chance to convey the key points to the students.

Furthermore, as soon as the TA seems unsure when answering questions, confidence will be lost, and students will begin to look to other, often less reliable, sources of information.

I think it is equally important that a TA be available to the students. Office hours and recitations should be scheduled for both the student's and TA's convenience.  These hours should be designed to supplement the time that the professor is available during the week.  I think it's also important to note that availability isn't only measured by time.  It has been my observation that students want to, but often don't, feel comfortable approaching their TA.  If students don't feel as though they're welcome to call upon you, they simply won't turn to you for help.   While it is probably the least enjoyable facet of being a TA, grading may be the most important.  Without over emphasizing the importance of grades, there can be no question that the majority of undergraduates are greatly concerned  with their academic standing.  For the most part, the TA is the primary evaluator of a student's performance in a course.  I consider this to be a very serious responsibility.  Consistent and fair evaluation of a student's work is imperative.
 
If I were to characterize my teaching philosophy, I would say that I try to bridge the gap between the professor's and student's mind set.  For the professor, there is wealth of material, with vast theoretical foundation which has been developed over years of studying a topic.  For the student, depending on the interest level in the course, the approach can range from matching the professor's interest, to a sort of bottom line approach: ‘How do I do my homework, what will be on the exam, and what do I need to know to succeed in this course?'  I think  a TA must be able to understand the theory and the students well enough that he or she is able to teach the topic in a way that matches the student's interest level. 

For the most dedicated students, I must be able to nearly match the professor's ability.  I must be able to explain even the most complicated theoretical issues, or at least know when to say ‘I don't know', and seek the professor's help.   For students whose interest lies elsewhere,  I must discern what the professor expects the students to take away from the course.  I try to emphasize these critical issues by, for example, presenting the most important derivations as I solve homework problems or identifying the material to be covered on exams. It is my intention that students in my courses, regardless of their interest level, will always have the opportunity to be well prepared for exams, and reach their desired level of comprehension.  The faculty for whom I work are generally  content because we provide students with, as a minimum, some level of competence, and at the other extreme, the tools to pursue advanced studies in the area.

I am truly honored to have been nominated for this award.  It's somewhat of a cliche to say I've always tried to be here for my students, but I believe they've never hesitated to ask me questions personally, by phone or via email.   I can say with certainty that no student has ever left my recitation or office hours feeling like they had been unwelcome.  

I also think that I'm at a pretty good station in life to be a TA.  I'm old enough to relate well to the faculty, and their needs, but I'm also young enough to relate to the students. I make the effort to get to know the students personally, sharing common interests not only during the semester, but throughout our academic careers.  I truly enjoy the friendships, and it makes all the students more comfortable approaching me for any reason. I would be foolish to lose sight of the fact that my job is  to spend time with some of the world's brightest, most creative  and most entertaining young people. It's important to try and have a few laughs while your solving systems of second order differential equations.

I think I was nominated for the award because I genuinely cared about the students' success in the course, and I conveyed my interest in a way that students could relate to.  I take my students' grades  as a personal reflection of my work in helping them understand the material.  More importantly,  I take my students' happiness and success to be a measure of how much they're gaining from being at the University.  The professor for whom I worked this semester is fond of saying that we are working with the people who will make the decisions that shape our futures. I hope this nomination means that for at least some of my students, I might be helping to define which decisions they'll make.