Teaching
Courses Taught
Introduction to Public Relations
Introduction to Communication Research
Public Relations Writing
Advanced Public Relations Writing
Sports Public Relations
Public Relations Management
Campaign Research Methods
Public Relations Campaign
Student-run Public Relations Firm
Graduate Seminar in Stakeholder Management
Graduate Seminar in Risk and Crisis Communication
Statement of Teaching Philosophy, “Love of Learning”
In the academic world, I truly believe one should love to learn. “Love of learning” needs to be instilled in the University. Since people in the University usually choose to study rather than being forced to study, I think the University needs to be filled with new ideas created by“love of learning.” I also believe a “love of learning” works well in the real world, where one should be welcomed into careers if he or she loves to learn their work and comes up with many new ideas. I obtained my philosophy of “love of learning” from my own experience.
When I graduated from high school, I was familiar with a passive learning style. My job as a student was listening to lectures and having a good score on tests. Passive learning, in other words, listening and memorizing, sometimes leads to understanding of subjects. However, since I was not forced to fully understand fundamental meanings of certain issues and certain formulas I learned, my knowledge, or what I got from the lectures and memorizing that I believed was knowledge, was very easy to lose. Because of the passivity of my style of study, not much knowledge was left from many classes I have taken, even from the classes I took in graduate school.
However, when I loved to learn something and concentrated on certain subject, the knowledge I gained from the learning was retained. Since I passively learned from lectures at school, the only opportunity I could have for active learning occurred outside of school. Having been a baseball fanatic for a long time, I never minded memorizing players’ names, their numbers, and records. Sometimes I was praised by others because I knew so much about baseball.
When I entered the University, I finally could choose some courses that I liked. Of course, I usually did better in the course I chose than the courses that were required. One class I really liked in my master’s program required a series of four probing essays about my area of interest. Namely, I needed to write four essays about sports and its possible application in communication. I enjoyed write these essays, which became the base of my master’s thesis, and will be my research area for the rest of my life.
Therefore, in a real world, I would like to intrigue students to creatively think about materials and come up with new ideas so that they really love to learn. In this vein, I would like to encourage students actively explore their own interest with writing probe style essays in my classes. To fulfill this object, reading, research, and discussion should occur. Ultimately, every student should from a “love of learning,” that is embedded in his or her mind throughout the course.
* This statement was written at the pedagogy seminar I took in my doctoral program at the University of Alabama. I still have the same teaching philosophy.
Chang Wan "Isaac" Woo, Ph. D. 