Being Faculty Statement

It is my belief that being a faculty member should be competent in both teaching and research. Creating a safe, respectful, and welcoming learning environment is critical for teaching and being a faculty member. A safe learning environment allows students to present various ideas and opinions. A respectful learning environment should be equal to every student and without bias. A welcoming learning environment is encouraging and can promote critical thinking. I believe a faculty member should seek to accommodate and fully incorporate the unique needs and experiences of the students whenever possible and maintain open communication with students. A faculty member should engage in constructive criticism with students to let them know that the faculty member care about the students’ learning process.

In order to create a respectful learning environment, the faculty member should treat all the students equally, be non-judgmental, and encourage students to ask questions and avoid using any assumption based on their outlook, behavior, gender, race, or cultural background when communicating with students. A faculty member should answer students’ questions with honesty and do research to the best of his or her ability and get back to the students when he or she does not know the answer. Student suggestions should be implemented to improve the faculty member’s teaching strategy and their learning outcomes. Assignments should be created to improve students’ problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

A faculty member should adapt teaching strategies according to students’ various learning styles and encourage students to give feedback throughout the learning process. Enough resources should be provided for students who want to learn more about certain topics. In order to best facilitate the learning process of the students, I believe that these strategies help students apply their knowledge in their studies and in their future employment. When I become a faculty, I will try my best to help students achieve their academic goals and pursue their dreams.

Research is also a vital responsibility for faculty members. I believe that research should be cross-cultural and multi-discipline. I think the research goal of a faculty member is to build knowledge in the field of his or her research, and then apply the research into the society. For instance, my goal is to build the knowledge in aging, and raise society’s awareness of and concern for older adults living in difficult conditions and to help create a new system that can improve their quality of life.

Last but not least, being a faculty should also serve the community. As I believe that the order of responsibilities of a faculty should be teaching, research and service, I discussed most about my beliefs in teaching in this being faculty statement.