College of Nursing teacher of the year
College of Nursing Teacher of the Year, Deborah Popovich, MSN, ARNP, Assistant Professor
1. What do you think your students appreciate most about you as a teacher?
Knowledge; experience; passion for children.
2. What do you appreciate most in your students?
By acquiring critical thinking skills, students can progress to the higher levels expected of them in their final semester and help maintain and enhance standards of excellence in the nursing profession. They will develop intellectual perseverance, autonomy, courage and humility, and understand the danger of intellectual arrogance. When the students internalize these attributes they will be able to admit the limits of their knowledge, ask questions (most importantly WHY) when they are unclear, and change their thinking when they hear arguments more reasonable than their own. In this position, they learn to appreciate, if not enjoy, the uniqueness of every child and family they encounter and to support each developmental stage of childhood. They will be prepared to function independently and collaboratively with other health care professionals, and develop strategies for life-long learning.
4. What is your teaching philosophy?
My teaching philosophy is to use a Socratic approach, which focuses on asking students questions, not giving them answers. As a Socratic questioner, I role-model an inquiring mind for my students, asking probing questions, showing them how to pursue circular rather than linear thinking, posing as the inner, disciplined voice of reason. I want my students to develop an inner voice of their own, and I believe this voice can only develop when I do not give them answers to the simplest of questions but demonstrate, out loud, in front of them, how one thinks through a dilemma using assessment, analysis and evaluation. I want the students to hear me puzzle through a problem, slowly and deliberately so that they can internalize the method. I then engage them, and hold them responsible for the thinking they do.
7. How did you become a good teacher?
Practice