Exemplary Teaching Practices and Philosophies
Donna Brown
Download Dr. Brown's biography
"My priorities as a teacher are primarily to see growth in each student, both personal and professional/academic, during the time they are in my classroom and in the program. I believe I achieve this for most students, largely by setting high standards of achievement for them, while also providing support, encouragement, and opportunities to be successful.
I firmly believe that even the most creative student must have a sound background in the technical aspects of their craft, and I work diligently to reinforce this through assignments and detailed feedback on projects and assignments. This often requires many additional hours each week spent in the classrooms working with students outside scheduled class hours, but if a student has the desire to improve, I believe it is worth the time.
I frequently mentor graduate students by providing them with opportunities to assist with classroom teaching, so they can work with me and observe. It also gives me the opportunity to observe their strengths and weaknesses and work with them to improve. Rather than simply assigning the graduate students the task of completing grading for my classes, I prefer to have them work with me as I grade, so they can learn what to assess as they grade student projects, as well as terminology to provide students first with reinforcement of what they have learned and ways to provide positive and helpful criticism and ways to improve. Some of these graduate students have been so responsive, that I have mentored them as they have taken the step to teach some of the lower level undergraduate classes on their own."