Throughout my teaching, I have adopted Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning framework which engages students in a cycle of active experimentation, introspective reflection, and interactive feedback. This particular student-centered approach develops autonomous scaffolding and conceptualization learning skills.
My teaching has been informed by the following principles:
- I utilize both material and human affordances to create an environment of sociocognitive collaboration, a significant booster for fueling team research projects and the writing process.
- I mentor my students on how to ask questions, make conversations, observe and evaluate, then provide and invite feedback.
- I grant my students autonomy and agency after they learn teamwork.
- I model the recursive nature of research and composing by walking my students through the process in an interactive manner where my students are simultaneously users and researchers.
- I invest in students’ cultural repertoires and prior literacy experiences as capital to promote responsive pedagogies and build inclusive curricula.
- I rely on reflective writing to create dialogue, stimulate cognitive awareness, and promote transfer.
- I do not provide ready-made scaffolds, rather I enable my students to design, build, and customize their own scaffolds based on identifying and evaluating needs.
For a full length narrative, please download my Teaching Statement.
Hadi Banat 