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Philosophy of Teaching

Education and Experience

Courses Taught

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Special Awards and Recognition

Sigma Theta Tau International

Xi Rho Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International

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Philosophy of Teaching

I began my academic teaching journey in 1993, when I was hired to teach in the Clayton Junior College’s Associate Degree nursing program. I am privileged to have been part of an evolving institution of higher learning for the past fourteen years. It is within this ever-changing environment that I developed my skills as an effective educator and a sound philosophy on teaching and learning. With the addition of its baccalaureate programs in the 1990’s, I came to realize the impact of Clayton State University’s (CSU) general education courses on my own discipline, nursing. This realization influenced the way that I designed my course lectures and learning activities to encourage students to transfer their previously learned knowledge of other disciplines to learn essential nursing concepts. It also improved my advising strategies. I began to inform pre-nursing students and freshmen about the necessity of gaining a strong general education foundation prior to entering the nursing program since nursing draws upon many disciplines, including science, psychology, and mathematics. This strong foundation would help to ensure student success in the nursing program and graduates who are well-rounded, civic-minded, and competent.

Often, nursing students work in addition to attending college; some are single parents while others have language or cultural barriers. Despite these challenges, I believe that every student can succeed given the right tools and strategies. An expert educator has the ability to determine what strategies may be most useful to ensure success. I am flexible and accommodating in the classroom and am able to change my teaching strategy on the spot if it helps students to learn the content, rather than having students struggle to adapt to my teaching style.

My main goal as an educator is to ensure student success. Embracing CSU’s mission to produce successful graduates, I have developed into an effective educator through seeking ways to actively engage students in the classroom. Selecting the best teaching strategies has required extensive research and exploration. Having received two CSU Student Success and Faculty Development grants, I have been able to research a variety of active learning strategies. Through implementing two classroom research projects, I determined the positive impact on students’ critical thinking using concept mapping, case study analysis, and human simulation. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive about these learning methods. The results of the classroom research projects have been presented in learned societies at the regional, national, and international levels.

My special research interest is exploring the experiences of international nursing students and those with English as a second language. I have published in this area and presented at many national and international conferences on this subject. This research led to the School of Nursing receiving two federally funded HRSA Nursing Workforce Diversity grants that enable the school to develop a faculty/student mentoring program for nursing students, establish a summer academic enhancement program for pre-nursing and nursing students.

It is an honor to work in an institution that encourages faculty to explore teaching and learning. Its positive impact is surely to be realized by the nursing students as they enter into a workforce to provide exemplary care to diverse patient populations.