Statement of Teaching Philosophy--Christian R. Weisser

I believe there is a strong connection between writing and critical thought, and I feel that different kinds of writing stimulate different kinds of thinking and learning. Students learn writing most successfully when they learn it in the context of particular situations. Often, this philosophy translates into a focus on critical writing assignments and courses that transcend generic academic communities and address a variety of audiences in different discursive situations. The academy, the workplace, and the community all require students to be familiar with a variety of discursive modes, and I enjoy teaching courses and assignments that connect student to real audiences for specific purposes. In fact, nearly all of my courses have some component in them that asks students to move beyond traditional notions of academic discourse to connect with readers outside of our course or classroom.

Whether students are connecting with some public audience outside of the academy (through service-learning or community-based writing) or if they are connecting with subject-matter in a different discipline (through a writing in the disciplines course,) they need a classroom in which they feel comfortable, stimulated, and free to express themselves. I seek to create a classroom in which I serve as facilitator or guide, enabling students to participate in directing their own objectives, guiding class discussions, and taking an active role in learning. I rarely lecture; in fact, I rarely do any one thing for an entire class period. Instead, I try to integrate a variety of activities into each class, including small and large group discussions, short writing prompts of various types, presentations, and peer evaluation of written assignments.

Guiding my efforts in many of my classes is the belief that writing instruction must account for the degree to which computer technology has changed (and is changing) the sites, styles, and rhetorical situations of communication. I use technology in a variety of ways in my composition courses--including email, web design, multimedia presentations, and synchronous and asynchronous exchanges--not merely because these are the tools that are used by most professional and academic writers today, but also because they provide unique opportunities to examine the changing nature of communication in modern society. Students need to know how to use technology to communicate effectively, but they should also learn to evaluate, critique, and analyze the very tools that are employed in this act.

In short, my teaching philosophy aims to prepare students to read and write in ways that will serve them best as members of society. Students need to learn how to negotiate a variety of audiences in different contexts, and many of these writing situations require both an expertise in and a critical awareness of writing technologies. I have found that when the content of the course is clearly relevant to the students' lives, they respond well and develop their writing proficiency accordingly.