Zeeshan Samad | Teaching

Teaching

Teaching Statement

My primary goal as a teacher is to help students get a deep understanding of the subject material, and especially of the core concepts. In classroom lectures, I pursue this goal by focusing on clarity in delivering core concepts, for example, by explaining concepts to students using the simplest language possible or by explaining the same concept in multiple ways. In addition, I always bring several practical and relatable examples to class that help students not only relate course material to “real-world” problems, but also help them retain the material better. Subsequently, I ask students to come up with more illustrative examples which gives them a deeper understanding of concepts. Such participation also has the added advantage of providing feedback to me about the level of students’ understanding.

My formal teaching experience comprises of holding positions of instructor and of teaching assistant at Vanderbilt University. I have twice been an instructor of record for the core undergraduate course principles of microeconomics, and also for short summer courses in behavioral economics, economic statistics, and microeconomics. These short courses, that bring gifted high-school students from all over the country, are meant to challenge gifted students by testing their limits. These courses contain considerably advanced college-level material and, with five hours of class every day, we covered almost a semester’s worth of material in just three weeks. Even though it was a completely different experience, it still made important contributions to my pedagogical skills, particularly knowing how to appropriately challenge students and realizing what their limits are. In addition to being an instructor, I have held teaching assistant positions for the undergraduate courses intermediate microeconomics and game theory, and for the graduate-level course microeconomic theory II.

Another type of teaching experience comes from my role as a tutor for economics courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Even though tutoring has been nothing more than a recreational activity for me, it has had some important, positive, and unintentional consequences on my teaching abilities. For example, I am able to quickly and accurately identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and subsequently figure out which instructional method will be most helpful appropriate for them. Another related ability I have acquired is recognizing when a student’s current confusion stems from a prior misconception. In retrospect, it is clear that I could have never obtained these skills without the 1000+ one-on-one teaching sessions that I have conducted over the years.

The most formative aspect of all of my teaching roles is the rewarding feeling I get to experience when one of my examples is what helps a student finally understand a concept that he or she had been struggling with. In the coming years, I look forward to sharing my passion for economics with new generations of students and to growing further as an educator.