About the Instructor: Mr. Stanek

About the Instructor: Mr. Stanek

Welcome to my class! I am very glad to have you in my class and I do hope to see you in my other business classes around the campus at Barstow College. Here's the list of my qualifications leading up to lecturing at BCC. Enjoy the class!!!

Personal teaching philosophy:

Parker Palmer, a well known educator, in his recent publication, has reminded us that “every professional…is a moral agent with the power to challenge and help change the institution” If we are to address the bureaucratic-professional dilemma in the California schools: both within and across institutions of grade school and higher education, planning needs to be in place now to avoid retrenchment, status-quo, and the institutional backwardness. One must look not only at his or hers mistakes within the institution or the organization but also to the examples coming from abroad: good and bad.

In my humble opinion as an adjunct professor and a novice in a teaching field, there is a compelling evidence for the importance of the sociological, communal, and relational interaction to learning (e.g. learning communities, in-class group work, cooperative learning projects) often seen in my small classes at Barstow Community College. The societal factor that reveals itself in not only ethnic backgrounds of the students but also in the variance of the comprehensive knowledge they bring in at different stages of their education. With this in mind, the variance of learning among the students in top educational achievers’ countries, such as: Finland, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Sweden or Poland is rather small thus proving that institutionalized testing works to the benefit of the whole educational system. Although most of these countries are homogenous in their ethnic student background, the economic wealth varies from student to student. State of California school system is extremely diverse in both demographic and economic backgrounds of the students who have rather the same start in their public curriculum but the level of outcomes varies depending upon: faculty initiative, assessment, involvement of students in research, and the innovation.

The ability to form and to participate in small groups and not the ‘teaching styles’ is extremely essential as demonstrated in many of the most successful education systems. Most students that study in groups or in group projects were more involved in their studies and research thus were better prepared for class discussion, peer interaction than those who chose to study on their own. I can fully appreciate this type of learning initiative as very effective in my learning outcomes at Barstow College. All of my students are always involved in group discussions and in-class projects that demonstrate their ability of enquiry and analysis of a given problem. In fact those who participate the most score the best on their assessment testing often not connected in theme or scope to the prior class discussions. I am fully impressed by the positive correlation that occurs between these small class discussions and the overall high output and grades on the assessment testing.

The innovation is the second largest factor in my teaching methods that involve students and their abilities to bridge educational gaps within my small classrooms (9-15 students). Innovative tools such as: latest publications, video broadcasts, global examples of issues often unrelated to the taught subject promotes the discussion that eventually benefit overall students’ ability to argue, analyze and resolve curriculum outcomes in our California schools. For instance, I feel it is extremely helpful to discuss current global events in the first few minutes of the class and how they could possibly shape the events that occur currently in our country or the community. The subject taught is ‘Management’ but it also involves other subjects such as: the political science, geography, natural environment, economics, leadership and the English language through active discussions. I do believe that this type of instructional involvement and the innovation on behalf of the teachers or lecturers does bring excellent outcomes not only in my given ‘management’ class but also in other classes taught.

This type of innovation should be promoted and seeded in the faculty through the State of California in similar discussions, lectures, and collegiate series involving researchers who present the latest innovation tools, global issues and events. Furthermore, the involvement or creation of the smaller classes would allow teachers to spend more time on self-improvement and life long learning that, if brought to the classroom, could tremendously benefit the students and improve their learning curve.

I see myself as one of the innovators who experiments in this type of curriculum in my classes at the community college setting. I fully notice the change and the involvement of students who go out there and buy extra books to discuss topics in class in both local and global perspective. My innovative approach that involves discussion examples from Europe, Asia and the US, gained through my experiences in Europe and at Harvard University, produce the most excellent classroom and educational setting to be suggested or tested in the schools of California.