Teaching Dossier

Teaching and learning are the part of life. I have strong passion at teaching and learning new

thinks. Continuing in the academic field is the understanding of the current or new practices in

teaching. I always try to think how to improve my teaching style. By attending other lectures,

workshops, and reading journal papers related to education. I will continue to learn about

teaching practices. Long time ago, when I started my career as a university lecturer, back in my

home country Nepal, the University had organized the one day seminar on Effective Teaching

Strategies for Fresh Undergraduate Engineering Students. I attended the seminar. The seminar

was delivered by a group of professors who has several years of teaching experience. I still

remember, one of the professor focussing his presentation on engineering students with talent

and dedication. He defined dedication as persistence and passion for achieving long term

goals. This philosophical thought helped me to develop a new level of understanding and depth

to my teaching: I feel those students who tried really hard and saw the results should be

rewarded. But in the mean time we need to consider the effort of the hardworking students.

Sometimes, we forget to judge and believe that applied engineering come easy to everyone. We

forget that there are different categories of students in the class. There are students who are

incredibly brilliant and understand things quickly and can produce outstanding results with ease.

There are also the dedicated students, who do not grasp the concepts quite so easily or quickly,

but work extremely hard to produce outstanding results. As an instructor, we need to remember

to recognize and reward both of these types of students. After attending this seminar, I start my

career with a new outlook on student success. In several instances, I made it a point to motivate

and reward students by recognizing all their efforts regardless of the ease by which the results

came. Additionally, I made sure to comfort students by telling them about this idea. Although it

may take them more time and effort to achieve the desired results, the success in the end will be

that much more rewarding to them.

Along with passion, preparation also seems necessary in the development of any skill. I always

prepare at least two hour before giving one hour lecture. It makes me spend less time catching up

in the moment and more time available to help or learn. Through my experiences, I believe that

time is used more efficiently when teachers are prepared ahead of class. Students seem to take

more information in when it is expressed to them in an organized manner than when it is

presented in a random way. I prepare myself for teaching by reviewing materials using text and

reference book, and doing any work (lab experiments and assignments) before the students

attempt it. I usually note any potential problems the students may face and do my best to give

them the tools necessary to overcome such problems. For example, I created or assisted the

curriculum Applied Mechanics for Undergraduate Student of Pokhara University, Nepal. I did

each lab myself to see any possible issues or areas of confusion. For each lab experiment, I

prepared a lab manual, highlighting a lab procedure, and grading guidelines with a protocol for

the assignments. Most of the students are often visual learners, so they sometimes may face

difficulties in understanding a procedure or lecture provided in words. Therefore, it is essential to

provide illustrative figures in the lab and lecture; I usually add illustrative figures to clarify

certain concepts or set-up in the experiment wherever possible. For their assignments, I create a

set of rules before the assignment.

Such rules make clear to the students exactly what my expectations are. I follow the same

procedure, when I work as a Teaching Assistant in North American Universities. By preparing

for class, I provide an organized, atmosphere contributive to learning not only for my students,

but for my friends who are teaching the same course at other class.

At last but not the least, As an Instructor, I always want to understand each student. The best

thing is to read the expressions on my students faces and able to detect when they find

comprehension hard. My philosophy is to always welcome students in my office, if they get any

problem in understanding.I always have energy, passionate about what I teach and always

happy to help my students.