PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING

Phan Dam

In the Fall 2000 Semester, students from The School of Engineering Technology, Centennial College, nominated me for the “Teaching Excellence” award. This article “Principles of Teaching” was initially submitted to the “Centennial College Teaching Excellence Award Committee” as a part of my portfolio. In June 2001, I won the “Teaching Excellence Award” jointly organized by Centennial College, Canada and The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

A few years after gaining teaching experience at Centennial College, I often told my students: “ To me, education is to find out what you don’t know and then learn from there! “ This motto has been with me since then.

From my perspective as a trained engineer, learners should be able to understand then apply the concept and theory of the subject being taught. The learning process should be carried out in a friendly and enjoyable teaching-learning atmosphere where students can be easily motivated to inquire, analyze, synthesize, and apply. They are also to be trained to have confidence, if not enthusiasm, to look for information on their own later on since class time is so limited.

I have been very fortunate to be able to keep myself updated with the ever- changing- technology world by keeping in touch with working graduates and the industry. As a result, I feel more confident about myself as a college professor as well as a professional engineer. I have gained so much experience in communication and up-to-date technological know how thanks to my students and graduates. Because of this, I am better prepared and enthusiastic to teach new technical subjects (I have taught around 33 technical subjects at Centennial). Each time that I teach a new subject, I feel challenged to prepare for the new lessons and to look for good ways to teach the new topics. At the end of the semester, I feel rewarded by gaining more teaching and technical experience and particularly by receiving positive feedback from my students. By teaching more new subjects, I have gained a much better insight to the interrelationship among different branches of Engineering Technology; my students consequently benefit from my eagerness to explore into the challenging world of technological knowledge.
I have been told by some of our graduates that they often refer to my lecture notes in order to look for information while at work. To me, this is a compliment that motivates me more to improve myself in looking for knowledge and better ways to teach.

In my 30 years of teaching at Centennial College, I have witnessed many changes in various facets of life. The most significant change, perhaps in the last decade, is the diversity in the student body. As a Canadian immigrant myself with English as a Second Language background, in a way, I am lucky enough to be able to understand and to have empathy with students having difficulty with their academic lives in terms of language barrier, culture gap, new social expectations, financial constraints, homesickness, family / social problems and future career. In the role of an educator, I also have been a friend, a guide, an advocate, an advisor, a role model, and a teacher from whom students can ask for help in a friendly and open yet very confidential manner. By spending time talking with them, I am able to understand them better and to find a better way of teaching. In return we can accommodate each other better and easier, making the teaching-learning process less stressful. I am grateful to all of my students and friends at Centennial College: my life has been enriched by learning from their experiences, wisdom and cultural backgrounds. I had met with some single mothers who asked me for a favour by talking to their sons in the role of a father to make sure that their sons attend classes regularly and perform better academically. In reality, it was not an easy task for me but, amazingly, after these students graduated from our Civil and Environmental programs, some of them phoned me up to personally say “Thank you” and “My mom sends her regards to you, Sir! “ Suddenly, I realized that I have an extended family that I deeply treasure.

To clarify my principles of teaching, allow me to emphasize the following areas:

1.0 COMMUNICATION:

In my opinion, this is the most important component in the teaching-learning process. Teachers can really turn on or turn off their students’ motivation and ability to learn from the teachers’ lesson plans, lecture delivery, and personal conduct in the classroom. Effective communication depends on:

1.1 LECTURE PREPARATION :

The majority of my technology subjects have the hands-on laboratory component. I have to design and conduct all the experiments by myself first – just to make sure that we have all the required equipments and that these experiments can be carried out by students themselves during the laboratory sessions. These experiments should be significant enough to reinforce the theory. I have noticed that the step-by- step method with the logical- numerical- sequence presentation works really well during the laboratory and tutorial sessions. By means of these numerically structured steps, it is much easier for me to explain the subject matter by referring to the textbooks via the chapters/sections/subsections/page number path. Assignments, projects, tests are designed to motivate and challenge students’ inquisitive minds.

Assignments and projects are given to learners once the topic has been covered. Students are told to do them at home first to find out what they don’t know and what they need to ask me for help during the next period when I will show them how to tackle the problem. They will have to do the rest of their work themselves- according to my motto “Education is to find out what you don’t know and then learn from there”. To prevent copying and cheating during the test/exam time, I prefer to give my students the Open- Book Tests/Exams with papers having the same statement but with different sets of data. In our technological field, technocrats use handbooks, manuals, reference books all the time to look for data and information which they have to know how to apply and synthesize. The Open- Book concept at the college/university level serves this purpose very well. This Open-Book-Test/Exam practice has been helpful for me in dealing with students’ complaints:
“Sir, why did I get zero marks while I have the same answer as my friend”?

Quite often the complainer just blindly copied from his/her neighbour who had a paper with a different set of data. The answers, therefore, should be different! When students realize that they can’t depend on their neighbours , they are forced to study properly on their own in order to pass their tests / exams!

Since text books are not cheap, to help students financially, I have tried my best to use the same textbook for subjects in different semesters in order to reduce the textbook cost for them. Realizing that this has not been the best way for them to learn, I have designed the “Supplementary Lecture Notes and Laboratory Manuals” (to be sold in the bookstore) to cover for the theoretical/practical areas that are not covered in their selected text books. So far, I have not heard of any complaint from students about their selected Textbooks/ Supplementary Lecture Notes / Laboratory Manuals. On the contrary, they appreciate my efforts in saving money for them in this regard.

1.2 IN-CLASS DELIVERY

To start a new topic, I tell my students a simple story relating to the lecture topic in order to avoid their typical questions such as:

“Why do we have to learn this?”
or
“Do I really need to learn this, Sir“?

For example, in Field Surveying, in order to measure or estimate the height of a building, the easiest way is to measure from the top to the bottom of that building by using a Surveying steel tape. But in real life, quite often that method does not work. (I ask them why it does not work and they have to suggest to me how to solve this problem). The practical solution is by using a transit: I set it up at a place where I can easily measure the horizontal distance between the transit and the building, then I measure the vertical angle between the horizontal line of sight and the top of the building. While talking, I neatly draw the diagram and ask them questions so that I can get all necessary details then we use trigonometry to calculate the total height of the building. I also tell them how Mathematics is being applied in their Technology field.

In brief, I want my students to focus on the topic that I am going to lecture: how to level the transit, how to read the angle, how to make Surveying sketches, how to do calculations… I want to give them the opportunity to be more pro-active in the classroom.

Precise and simple English communication together with a loud voice and plenty of body language are helpful in keeping students’ attention. Teacher’s sense of humour would keep students entertained and break down the invisible barrier between the lecturer and the listeners. Neat and well organized handwriting on the blackboard coupled with well prepared overhead transparencies are helpful not only in communication, but they are also good examples of oral presentation and skills that are expected of our graduates in the work force.

I keep asking my students:
“Do you follow me, if not, ask me questions, OK”?
or
“If you have any learning disability, please let me know! “

I treat their questions seriously and I encourage them to ask me questions if they do not understand. My open and direct way of communication and my sense of humour have created an easy-going and enjoyable teaching-learning atmosphere for everyone – myself included.

2.0 NON-CLASSROOM EDUCATION:

Some colleagues and I had noticed that quite a number of students/graduates with good grades had not done well in their lives and careers as expected. At first, we did not understand why. But after many discussions and researching among ourselves, it dawned to us that these students lack interpersonal skills and they don’t seem to have close friends. These interpersonal skills relate to Emotional Intelligence that cannot be taught in the classroom that easily (or at least they are not covered at all in the course outlines) but it can be partially learned, practiced and acquired in the non-classroom situation. I decided to create opportunities for my students to practice and acquire Emotional Intelligence dimensions by getting them involved in the following extra- curricular activities:

2.1 STUDENTS’ CLUBS:

– Civil Students’ Society of Centennial College (from 1980 until 1995 when the department was closed down, Phan Dam as Advisor)
– Environmental Students’ Club of Centennial College (founded in 1991)
– Centennial College Vietnamese Alumni-Students’ Club (founded in 1985, expanded in 1994, Phan Dam as Advisor and one of the Founding Members).

Thanks to these clubs Centennial College has been able to recruit quite a number of students and some recent graduates have been able to find jobs as referred by graduates holding good positions in the industry. Also thanks to these club members my students and I have a good contact with the industry in terms of technical support and job placement. As for the Vietnamese Club, members have been organizing activities such as International Day at Centennial College, seminars, bowling, camping, BBQ, graduation dinner night when all members are invited to a big dinner party since 1995; some members have been successful business people due to networking and connections among themselves. I estimate that there are around 1000 Vietnamese Canadian students attending Centennial College so far – since 1977. They form a good link between our Vietnamese Canadian community and Centennial College.

2.2 EMAIL GROUPS:

The Civil, Environmental and Vietnamese Canadian students/graduates have different Email groups where members- myself included- have been sending/receiving news on jobs, businesses, technological changes, cultural/social activities… Students/graduates are exposed to a much wider world, yet they feel more at ease to communicate among themselves, for once they all attended Centennial College. I learned this experience from my University of New South Wales Alumni Association in Australia and I have successfully passed it on to my students and graduates in Canada!

2.3 AWARDS:

To encourage students to excel in their education while at Centennial College and with the help of some Faculty from School of Engineering Technology, we are proud to have created the following awards:

 Annual Civil Technology Faculty Award (from 1981 to 1995)
 Annual Environmental Technology Faculty Award (since 1994)
 Annual Biological Technology Faculty Award (since 1998)
 Annual Gia Long Award (since1994, initiated by Phan Dam and financially supported by the Toronto female graduates group of Gia Long High School, Saigon, South Vietnam).

The response from Award winners has been so positive, if not rewarding. Maria Campos, an Award Winner, had written to me and I quote:
“The money that I received with the 1999 Biological Technological Faculty Award was used to buy some of my books during Semester 4. I would like you to know that you will forever be part of my success. Thank you and God bless you“!

I cracked my mind to write more about my “Principles of Teaching” but I realized that I already was up to the word limit and time frame limit.

To conclude this article, I can easily say that I enjoy every minute of teaching because knowledge, education and particularly human relationships fascinate me. My students, my friends and my family have been a source of inspiration for me to stay back at Centennial as an educator rather than practicing my engineering profession with the industry. I am so fortunate that I have been exposed to both Eastern and Western cultures and wisdom that I have tried my best to share with my students other than just academic knowledge alone. I have taught from my heart, from my inquisitive mind and to the best of my capability.

Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to write this article. Have a good and safe summer.

Phan Dam, P.Eng
Professor
School of Engineering Technology
Centennial College, Canada
March 29, 2001