Prof. Lilian-Rita Akudolu's Statement of
Teaching Philosophy:
I conceive learning as a lifelong process of acquiring new
knowledge, skills, attitude and values through information and
experiences. Students learn not only from classroom interactions but
also from life experiences within and outside the school. Every
student is endowed with a great capacity to learn, to improve and to
become a better human being. It is my duty as a teacher to
facilitate this learning process for my students. I view a student
that is not performing well academically as a victim of learning
deficiencies acquired over the years. Such a student is assisted
through activities that can help him/her evaluate and if possible
modify his/her learning strategies.
I also view within and outside the school learning as one continuum
that shapes the life of an individual. In this regard, School
learning is a continuation of preparation for life that normally
starts in the homes, extends to schools where it is planned and
implemented systematically and is again acquired and practiced in
the society through life experiences. This indicates that a great
percentage of learning that occurs in a person's life does not
result from teaching. Consequently I embark on teaching as a process
of not only facilitating learning for the student but of helping the
student acquire the abilities of learning to learn. Besides, I teach
for transfer of learning. I have learnt over the years that this
transfer of learning is facilitated by the learner's ability to
derive meaning from the learning process. I therefore teach for
meaning.
What first attracted me to the teaching profession is my conviction
that teaching is a process of helping somebody to learn something or
helping another person to acquire the knowledge, skills and values
so as to become a better human being. While the learner is at the
center of teaching, learning itself should result from teaching. In
fact teaching that does not result in learning is a wasted effort.
To ensure a fruitful teaching, I put into consideration the
individual differences of the learners and I do everything possible
to carry each student along through the use of different teaching
methods and materials. The teacher's roles in the instructional
process include among others, delivering of content, motivation of
learner, helping the learner achieve overall self development and
helping the learner develop a lifelong love for learning.
Appropriate teaching starts from where the learner is and takes the
learner where he/she should be. I also consider teaching as an
activity that occurs in and outside the classroom, involving formal
and non-formal encounters. I spend time mentoring students and
discussing their problems in my office, corridor or any other
convenient place. In my university, we use team teaching for most of
the undergraduate curriculum courses due to the large population of
students. I enjoy such team teaching because it gives room for
collaboration and cross fertilization of ideas among lecturers.
Mentoring of students entails guiding them in research activities
and exposing them to internationally recognized modes of research. I
view academic mentoring as a veritable avenue for facilitating the
acquisition of knowledge and skills among young lecturers. Apart
from supervising undergraduate and graduate students' thesis
writing, I involve them in research beyond the university
requirements. Students learn a lot from exposure to international
research. It helps them develop confidence in their research
abilities. I observed this from a group of students I involved in
2010 in the project I did for the African Higher Education
Collaborative (AHEC). Similar observation was made on a group of
young lecturers and Ph. D students I'm mentoring that received the
Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA)
grant for educational research in 2011.
To conclude, my goal as a teacher is to help my students develop
love for learning so as to achieve the maximum development of their
potentialities and be capable of promoting learning among their
future students. To achieve this goal, I endeavour to make use of
every opportunity to learn, to acquire new knowledge and skills. It
is through continuous learning that I can be in a position not only
to initiate a learning community among my students and fellow
lecturers but above all to contribute effectively to the much needed
promotion of knowledge in my country.
Prof. Lilian-Rita Akudolu
27-02-2012
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