Mastery of subject matter
Statement: I believe that I can make some improvement here. I plan to participate more actively in the regional professional organizations of which I am a member (NYSCSS and CNYCSS). I believe that there are also some professional development opportunities available both through these organizations and the SUNY system of which I should avail myself. I also think that this semester I should be observed more by my colleagues, so that I can get feedback on how to improve my teaching.
Formal Preparation:
Highest Degree: PhD.
Year: 2018
Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Major Area: Educational Policy Studies
Status of Degree: Completed
Licenses, honors, awards, certifications and other examples of recognition related to subject area:
Gates Millennium Scholarship/Fellowship 2002-2014
- Administered through the United Negro College Fund
National Merit Special Scholarship 2002
Administered through the Georgia-Pacific Corporation
Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) Scholarship for Study Abroad 2004
- This scholarship supports foreign students studying in Japan as well as Japanese students travelling to other countries for the purposes of fostering cultural understanding in an age of globalization.
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship 2014
- Fellowship administered through the US Department of Education to support the study of less commonly taught languages. I won this fellowship twice, once for Portuguese and again for Turkish.
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division B (Curriculum Studies) Most Outstanding Dissertation Award 2019
Effectiveness in teaching
Spring 2023-EDU 375: 608/609* The in-line evaluations for the 608 section of this class are uncharacteristically negative and hostile. I feel that the evaluations are retaliatory and their claims are implausible, especially in light of the enthusiastically positive comments from the other section of the same class from the same semester.
Fall 2023-EDU 375: 603/604/605
Score Summary:
| Mean/Adjusted Mean/Med | ||||||
| Semester/Year | 603 | 604 | 605 | 607 | 608 | 609 |
| Fall 2021-EDU 375 | 4.45/4.56/5.0 | 3.08/3.10/3.0 | ||||
| Spring 2022- EDU 375 | 4.51/4.52/5.0 | 4.98/4.98/5.0 | ||||
| Fall 2022- EDU 375 | 4.58/4.61/5.0 | 4.93/4.96/5.0 | ||||
| Spring 2023-EDU 375 | 2.97/2.95/3.0 | 4.68/4.72/5.0 | ||||
| Fall 2023-EDU 375 | 4.64/4.71/5.0 | 4.76/4.79/5.0 | 4.42/4.56/5.0 | |||
CTE Reflection:
Overall, I think that my end-of-semester course evaluations are positive and encouraging. There are some points of concern, however. Particularly, EDU 375-609 in the Fall of 2021 and EDU 375-608 in the Spring of 2023. In the former case, I have good reason to suspect that the low scores were the result of brigading by disgruntled students who I had reprimanded for their in-class behavior. In the latter, I suspect that a similar situation occurred, since on each item only 2 or 3 students gave ratings of “strongly disagree”, while most of the ratings were average. The evaluations from the other section during the same semesters are also diametrically different from the negative reviews, and lie far outside my average scores, demonstrating their anomalous nature.
Although most of the online responses from students is positive, there is some important constructive criticism that I should consider. In the 605 section from Fall 2023, one student commented that, while I, the professor, obviously care about my students, this particular student did not feel that social studies pedagogy was effectively taught in the course. Comments like this one also occur in other sections and semesters. I think that, unlike the extremely negative comments cited above, these are genuine criticisms. I have been searching for a way to effectively teach pedagogical concepts while still maintaining the interest of my students, which seems to flag, particularly at the second half of the semester. This semester, I intend to try more kinetic, self-directed research projects which can be completed during one or two classes.
During the last semester, I focused most of my energies on pursuing scholarly publications and research. This semester, I hope to balance that a bit with more focus on developing my teaching methods.