My Favorite Physics Professors in College

Hello! I'm back with my *supposedly* weekly reflection on my online course What Future For Education offered by the University of London through Coursera. Every week, we are tasked to answer some guide questions for our reflection, so here it goes.

Week 3 Journal Entry: Reflect back on the teachers you considered in the first reflection task at the start of this week. (The task we had at the start of the week is to reflect on our memory about a teacher that stood out as a “good teacher”) Reconsider what it was about them that made you consider them to be so good. Would others that were taught by them have the same conclusions?

I studied Physics when I was in college in the University of the Philippines Los Baños and there are few professors that come to mind when I think of what a good teacher is. They include Dr. Anthony Villanueva (modern physics and mathematical physics), Dr. Eduardo Cuansing (electromagnetic theory and molecular dynamics), and Dr. Allan Padama (quantum mechanics and solid-state physics). I could never think of a better trio whom I look up to in my college Physics education. The moment I learned that they will be teaching the courses I enrolled to that semester, I thought, “I’m going to learn a lot this semester” and wore my game face on!

In the course of their teaching, I saw how they engaged with their students in class. They would not simply stand in front, look at their students in the eyes while “delivering” to them, but I felt that they involved themselves in the class, putting themselves in the shoes of students who have zero knowledge about the topic. When they want to solve a mathematical problem in class, they don't just tell that this will result to this particular equation, but rather they solve it by brute force on the white board so we can follow. I appreciate that they don’t skip the intermediate steps so that we don’t get lost along the way. If we do, the lecture materials that they present to us can be easily followed once we study the lesson by ourselves at home. The professors also provide textbooks as references to which they follow the same symbols and conventions that were presented.

Being the experienced teachers that they are, I think the discourse of competent crafts person, as discussed in the lecture videos, was not so much recognised in them. All three of them had years of experience and had already learned their own dynamics and style of teaching, and it was truly effective for us students so I don’t think that they’re on the phase of being competent to prove themselves to others to the extent of not paying attention to the students' welfare. They are actually lenient professors who are concerned with our workload. They give reasonable homework that will help us practice and understand the concepts taught in class. There were instances when they would schedule our exams ahead of time so it wouldn’t cluster within the dates of the exams in our other subjects. I’d say they all have the charisma for their passion in explaining concepts in class, and it is positively radiated to the students to encourage them to learn more. Dr. Alex Moore, Professor of Education at the University of London, mentioned in the lecture video that a downside of being charismatic teacher is that it breeds the idea that anything, even things outside the classroom such as administrative matters, can be sorted out if only you have the right amount of charisma. I have no idea how my professors work with their colleagues, but I would like to believe that they are ready to present strong and objective arguments when dealing with such matters. I also cannot give comments about how they reflect on their teaching methods as this occurs mostly on a personal manner and outside class hours, but I’m sure they’ve gone through a lot of reflection since they first started teaching in their earlier years.

I would say that other people taught by these teachers would share the same sentiments. My classmates and I trust these professors' knowledge and we deem that they give reliable explanations whenever they answer questions raised in class. During group study sessions, my classmates and I would sometimes have random remarks like, “okay I understand this topic now,” and it’s worth reflecting that the knowledge that we acquired was not solely due to our efforts to self-study, but we were indeed aided by the professor’s instruction. I am grateful that I got the chance to be their student in at least one subject in college, and I aspire to be the articulate, well-versed professor as they are when I finally have my place in the academe.