Andrew Packard Professor, Chemical Engineering B.S., University of Illinois, Urbana and Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is very simple. First, I strive to be well prepared and enthusiastic for each lecture. Second, I try hard to be kind, patient and respectful with the students, regardless of the other problems I am dealing with during the day. 

Being kind to and respectful of the students is a simple act that promotes trust in the relationship. It leads, potentially, to better two-way communication between the students and myself. 

I believe that patience is the most important virtue one could have during office hours. The students who come to office hours come for a variety of reasons, some with a clear understanding and a simple question, others with deeper problems. In either case, I will spend as much time as necessary to clear up the questions. Since the student has taken the initiative to come to my office, the least I can do is reciprocate with my time and honest effort. By being patient, I get important information out of the interaction as well. Indeed, if I listen carefully to the questions asked, I can get a better understanding of what difficulties the class is having with the lectures. For this reason, I strongly encourage all the students to come to office hours. 

My wife thinks that my preparation for classes is terrible. This is because usually I am up late the night before, getting ready for the next day's lectures. She thinks that I should be better prepared in two ways-finish the lecture notes ahead of time, and make more use of the previous year's notes. That approach has some merit, but it doesn't work for me. I truly feel that the quality of my lecture is improved if I do not rely on notes, but rather move cohesively from concept to theory to example in a natural, and unbroken manner. Usually this gives more credibility to my lecture, since it shows that I am deeply interested and involved in the topic at hand, promoting enthusiasm in the students (a requirement in the 8:00 A.M. classes). This is a goal that I strive for every lecture, but I cannot accomplish it without the guerrilla preparation technique of waiting until the last possible minute to plan a lecture. That way, the lecture material is absolutely the only thing on my mind when I walk into class. I experience an excessive amount of pre-lecture anxiety with this strategy, but for me, and for now, it is the most effective technique. The few times I have relied on a past year's set of notes and a cursory short preparation have led to poor lectures which leave me with a feeling that I have let the students down.