Samantha Andrea Kahts-Kramer Teaching Portfolio

As stated in the about section, my teaching philosophy is:

 

‘Through following your PASSION, taking RESPONSIBILITY for your own learning, ENGAGING with the content and EXPERIENCING the application thereof in the REAL WORLD, whilst REFLECTING learning emerges’. 

 

So what does my teaching philosophy actually practically entail in my classroom:

• PASSION: facilitating students in finding out if they are passionate about Human Movement Science and if not to ensure they reflect on how this impacts their learning processes and or career choices

• RESPONSIBILITY: facilitating students in creating a culture of self-directed learning and reflecting on their ability to be self-directed and the implications thereof

• ENGAGING: facilitating students in participating in active, authentic and collaborative activities so that their employability attributes can be improved

• EXPERIENCING: facilitating students in finding part-time jobs whilst learning the content and valuing the practical experiences provided in class due to the employability attributes developed

• REAL WORLD: facilitating students to constantly reflect on what is happening in the real-world setting and how this impacts their learning

• REFLECTING: facilitating students in learning how to reflect on the content and pedagogical experiences in class and their own personal development

  

As a teaching philosophy evolves and changes during a lecturers career path, this philosophy has evolved from my experiences over the 2013 to 2016 years. To understand my journey and how this teaching philosophy has evolved refer to my:

• Interrogation and reflection cycle (introduction to unpacking years 2013 to 2017)

• 2013: Humble Beginnings

• 2014: Learning the Hard Way 

• 2015: A New Start 

• 2016: Certain Habits Die Hard

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Reflectively (after reviewing my teaching journey) it becomes clear that my teaching philosophy is additionally my teaching vision. On my journey to embracing my teaching philosophy I had to consider systemic situational factors and my personal goals. These personal reflections of my journey to achieving my teaching philosophy are shared by fellow colleagues and researchers in the field of Higher Education. Refer to Ranasinghe and  Logendra (2015) draft version of developing employable attributes of students within Higher education in developing countries.  

 

In accordance with Ranasinghe and Logendra (2015) research I feel the systemic situational factors I had to consider whilst aiming to embrace my teaching philosophy between the years 2013 and 2016 were:

• The education-based culture of the department I worked in and the need for the department to include curriculum reform and a community of practice approach to merging employability attributes with the content presented

• The absence of a metorship program and structures in place to share my teaching ideas with and to help me reflect on my transitioning from Undergraduate to Masters to Doctorate research whilst developing as a lecturer

• Large classes which augmented my administrative load

• Lack of financial resources to support authentic-based activities, especially with large classes

• Lack of human resource support for the administrative load of attempting to implement authentically based classroom activities

• Primary and High school education which does not prepare students for Higher Education Institutes, hence making it difficult to implement real-world scenarios into the classroom setting

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Personal goals which I feel affected my ability to fully embrace my teaching philosophy between 2013 and 2016 were:

• Improving my content and pedagogical approaches needed for my undergraduate and post-graduate modules

• Improving my  Continued Professional Development in Higher Education Institutes teaching methodologies

• Improving my experience in the real world setting of the modules I was expected to lecture

• Transitioning between a Masters to Doctorate whilst transitioning in improving my lectures. The workload demands were overwhelming at times.

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With the above in mind what does this mean for the future then and getting closer to achieving my teaching philosophy/vision in the year 2017 and on wards? Refer to innovation in teaching to see what the next chapter of my lecturing will be.