Colin McKenzie Clark Griffin | Teaching Philosophy Statement

You can, you should, and if youre brave enough to start, you will.
-Stephen King, excerpted from On Writing
My approach to basic writing instruction is indicative of a teaching philosophy
that is grounded in social epistemic pedagogy and united around three interrelated
notions: perspective, community, and relevancy.
The first aspect of my philosophy, perspective, can itself be broken down into two
distinct components. Firstly, I focus on developing a sense of authority in the views and
beliefs of the individual student. The assignments that I create for the first few weeks of
instruction are centered on the self, focusing largely on narrative and reflective writings.
These introspective types of assignments guide the student towards developing a sense of
confidence in regards to his or her value as a source of knowledge. Secondly, perspective
also refers to the ability to adapt ones own ideas upon considering those of others. I hold
steadfast to my belief that each student, along with his or her background and
experiences, are significant to academia. It is these bases of knowledge that allow
students to discover completely new ways of thinking, and also to approach familiar
concepts in previously unfamiliar ways.
This last understanding of perspective transitions into the second notion of my
philosophical designcommunity. Once the student has developed a sense of ownership
and value as far as his or her own beliefs are concerned, that student will be sufficiently
prepared to begin expressing those ideas to others in public forums. It is at this moment
when students can truly begin to learn from each other, creating a foundation for the
social construction of knowledge that is an essential element of my pedagogical
grounding. I begin to incorporate activities and assignments that encourage more
collective work; routine peer-review sessions and collaborative class presentations are but
a small representation of the types of group-focused work that I implement in my writing
classroom. These types of activities take that sense of self-authority the student has
developed and apply it to the views of others as well. I believe that this immersion into an
academic community allows students to understand the interconnection between their
individual ideologies and the analysis of those of others.
The final element of my philosophy, relevancy, is an overarching concept that
plays into the other aspects of my methodology. The idea of relevancy pertains to the
designing and constructing of instructional materials that the student can readily observe
as being pertinent to his or her life and interests. I feel that relevancy fosters immersive
and engaging student attitudes toward their academic endeavors, as students are able to
form practical applications to the work with which they are being tasked. This
connectivity helps to establish a non-restrictive learning environment in which personal
views are championed and a true sense of growth and learning occur. In other words, the
student has the ability to take the critical thinking and analytical skills he or she has
learned throughout the writing course I instruct and apply those concepts to both their
future courses and their lives as a whole. I work to not only prepare students for academic
learning, but to equally prepare them for what lies ahead as they continue to develop and
grow as human beings.
References
Berlin, James. Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories. College English 44.8
(1982) 765-777. Print.
Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations. 1. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1977. Print.