I was more-or-less clueless what to become during my high school days, but when I began my undergraduate education, I knew I wanted to be a college professor. Later on, when I joined graduate school, I was profoundly influenced by my mentor (a Harvard-trained scientist) who taught me teaching and research both are inseparable arms of a true academician. Thus, I would go on to become a professor and a scientist.  My teaching philosophy is based on multiple theories about how people learn. Students learn best by building relationships between new information and their existing body of knowledge. Such relationships provide the context that helps the student understand the deeper meaning behind the facts and cause the information to acquire a degree of relevance. However, students must be active participants in the learning process, either learning by doing or learning by listening. By applying their new knowledge to non-trivial problems, students improve their retention of the knowledge and expand their set of skills. My goal, as a teacher, is to give students the intellectual tools they need to succeed in their profession in this post-genomic era. I love teaching because it also provides an opportunity for me to share my fascination of science (by research) as well as the excitement of better understanding the world both around us and in us. Teaching is the only known instrument to disseminate innovative ideas generated via research, and the curriculum in pharmacy provides ample opportunity to experience such ideas in the classroom.

     The first and foremost thing that I do in a big classroom is to show respect and care for all students, regardless of their diversity and level of interest in the course. My father always taught me that if I ever should become a teacher, “Be like the fruit tree, people throw stones at them and they throw back fruits”.  This philosophy sometimes tumbles during the post-genomic era. Learning is a complex, mutual process of growth and development identified by changes in the behavior of the learner. As an educator, I see my role much more multifaceted than just delivering course materials. On day-1, I make my expectations very clear. Besides learning the course contents, I expect my students to focus on their discipline (#1), respect their colleagues and to develop better time management skills. When I teach, my primary goal is to get the students to think. A core tenet of my teaching philosophy is that I believe students learn best when they feel a sense of ownership in the learning process and enjoy learning. I achieve this by being very friendly and approachable.

     I believe there is no single teaching recipe that is optimally applicable to every teacher; rather, I utilize whatever tools necessary to stimulate the maximum learning in students. This is necessary because the overall chemistry of the students, in general, varies from year to year. Students learn in different manners and at different paces.  It is often difficult to motivate students particularly for large classes when interaction between teacher and students is limited. Motivation occurs when students realize what they are learning is interesting, relevant & useful for their profession. I attempt to make my presentation and lecture vivid with the help of chalk-board, recent technology, audio-visual aids and real-life examples. If I have an experience or a joke about something related to my course, I will share it with the students in class. My jokes might not always be very funny, but they always pull the students' attention back to the lecture and makes them more at ease to ask any questions. I try to create a barrier-free atmosphere in which students feel comfortable in learning. I achieve this by being extremely patient. Some students may require more handholding than others, and I accomplish this by providing extra out-of-class time. I inevitably explain to the class why the course is structured in a certain way so that even if they do not like the course, they will understand the reasons for teaching it that way.  This helps to establish a rapport with the students early in the semester.

     Every student comes to the class with different needs and expectations, hence, each student needs to be treated as a unique individual. For this reason, I make an effort to get to know the names of the students. Usually I accomplish this either during a lab, recitation, or during proctoring an exam. This makes it easier to defuse anxiety to the point where the students feel comfortable asking me questions during the lecture. I try to face the class and make as much eye contact with the students as possible given my lecturing environment. I also stimulate classroom interaction by asking complicated questions. This creates a challenging environment and helps develop synthesis-level/critical thinking abilities. To recognize and reward those students who demonstrate these abilities is very satisfying.

     I also make sure that when I am preparing notes for a particular topic, I am not teaching too much, or that I am not asking the students to do too much, or to perform beyond their expected level of performance.  I understand that this can be very frustrating to the student.  It is better for students to understand in depth on a few topics rather than to cover too many topics that they cannot benefit from at the end.  Students remember their best teachers because their best teachers teach them something profound that they can carry with them throughout their life. The key is the balance; I try to maintain a balance not only in my teaching but also in my grading policies.

     I believe a teacher must be a continual learner in the field of pedagogy in order to constantly culminate new and advanced technologies as well as to develop the best personalized and innovative teaching practices in order to realize his/her educational philosophy within the context of education in the 21st century. One must realize that handling post-genomic era students through pre-genomic era training could be sometimes difficult but not impossible. The research arm provides the post-genomic era mentality and vision. I sincerely believe that research and teaching both are vital to the learning process, and I have used both these skills at the LIU to become a Life-long learner and a good teacher.