Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is an invitation to knowledge. My teaching philosophy is based on the belief that nothing I do as a teacher can substitute for, but everything I do can support, the active engagement of my students in the learning process. I view lectures as opportunities to be their guide on terrain that is unexplored and unknown to them. My teaching practices strive to engage students' interest and help them gain knowledge and skills in such a way that they are able to apply what they learned not just in examinations, but outside the classroom as well. These goals guide the way I prepare and present materials in the class and test students. I use homework assignments requiring critical thinking and problem solving skills. I develop and present a large number of examples in my lectures, I ask near and far transfer questions that test students' ability to apply what they learned in one context to other contexts, and I proactively encourage students to come and discuss their difficulties with me. Beyond technical knowledge, I believe a teacher must convey fairness, integrity and trust.

Harnessing new instructional approaches and technology to support student learning has been a major focus of my research. I have used my observations of difficulties undergraduate students have in learning as a driving force for research on technologies for learning. My research on the design of effective algorithm visualizations illustrates this. A course I have taught almost continuously at Auburn is the design and analysis of algorithms. This course introduces students to fundamental algorithms of computer science, helps them learn how to think "algorithmically" and provides them with mathematical tools for analyzing algorithm performance. It is the third in a series of three core courses that computer science, computer engineering, wireless engineering and software engineering majors take. It is the most abstract and mathematically oriented among these three core courses, requiring students to understand and analyze the behavior and complexity of over fifty algorithms. They have to also become proficient in detecting errors in algorithms, correcting the errors and implementing algorithms. The abstract nature of algorithms and their mathematical and logical aspects make this a difficult course for the average student. As a result of my interest in making this material more accessible to students, I embarked on a research program to develop interactive multimedia explanations and animations of algorithms that learners can use for self-paced study. This research project was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through multiple grants. Research results from this project have influenced the pedagogical techniques I employ in the algorithms course. Students in some offerings of this course have constructed and critiqued their own visualizations, and others have volunteered to participate in experiments to evaluate the efficacy of expert-created algorithm visualizations. The incorporation of student-constructed and teacher-constructed visualizations is an example of how teaching motivated research, the findings from which are in turn influencing my teaching practices.

Since 2007, I have been developing and incorporating a pedagogical technique called Studio-Based Learning (SBL), adapted from architecture education, in the algorithms course. This work is in collaboration with Dean Hendrix of CSSE, who helped develop the technique and implemented and evaluated it in his course, Fundamentals of Computing II. SBL is an approach to teaching and learning computing that emphasizes skills of computational thinking, critical analysis, collaboration and communication by having students solve complex design problems in groups and present their solutions to their peers as well as the instructor for review. Student work is supported by a web-based collaboration support system. At present, I, Dr. Hendrix and Dr. Margaret Ross from Auburn College of Education are engaged in a national effort to field test this instructional technique in a variety of computing courses at fourteen institutions in eight states. In summary, I strive for balance in research and teaching by integrating the two, and use research to make difficult subjects comprehensible and enjoyable to students. This symbiosis of teaching and research is an aspect of my academic career that will continue to be a focal point in the future. 





(C) Hari Narayanan; All Rights Reserved; Last Updated 7.14.2010