My Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy rests on three pillars:

Academic knowledge is best conveyed through a combination of theory and practice;
Long-term methodological skills should have priority over short-term information;
Education technology (ET) has an important role to play in the classroom.

◊ ‘Knowledge as a Combination of Theory and Practice

The idea that academic knowledge is best conveyed through the blending of theoretical inquiry and empirical work is often preached but seldom practised. As somebody with both teaching and professional experience who strives to combine academic, policy, and media work, I am often surprised at the gulf that separates the suppliers and the consumers of academic knowledge. Indeed, I have sometimes left lecture theatres with the impression that the teacher came from Venus and the student from Mars, two aliens who meet on neutral territory (the Earth) and share a space (the classroom) but little else. Since academia is the planet of ideas and students ought be taught to take ideas seriously, this is not entirely surprising.

However, problems emerge when teachers confuse information and knowledge, the former being a commodity in ever-greater supply whereas the latter is a process and, as such, is far more difficult to acquire and transmit. Conveying knowledge rather than information is the challenge of the conscientious teacher and it is, in my experience, best achieved through a combination of theoretical inquiry and practical exercises. Academia tends to excel in the former whereas the ‘outside world’ focuses on the latter, so students are often stuck in the middle. The teacher must bring these two worlds together, but how?

This is where I draw from my professional experience. For me, the best way to make learning interesting for students is to combine international relations theory (IRT) with the practice of diplomacy. This is why my classes are often divided into two parts: the first ensures that students gain a good grasp of the IR theories we are discussing, while the second part of the class teaches them to apply those theories to an international issue.

The two parts complement each other but are structured differently. The first, theoretically informed half comes in the form of a socratic dialogue between me and my students: since my experience is that the mere explanation of theoretical concepts is as tedious as it is easily forgotten, I adopt a question-and-answer approach whereby I start with the discussion of a basic document (a political statement, an excerpt from a peace treaty, or a newspaper article) and then guide students—through sustained questioning—to see how different theorists of international relations would likely perceive that document and that issue.

We then consider a case-study, which I typically draw on my professional experience (including at the UN) and frequently involves role-playing (we recently simulated a Security Council session on the Russo-Ukraine war). I try to show my students the theoretical implications of the case-study, so that theory and practice are blended. This is by no means simple: my classes tend to be challenging affairs in which students are trained to acquire their theoretical skills through the discussion of case-studies.

◊ Long-Term Knowledge over Short-Term Information

The second pillar of my teaching philosophy rests on the belief that long-term methodological knowledge should take priority over short-term factual information.

This is especially so for first-year students: like immigrants knocking at the door of academia, they are applying for citizenship to the ‘Republic of Letters’, and the teacher must help them obtain it (though full admittance will only come on Graduation Day). This is a challenging process in which students should first and foremost be assessed on the basis of their methodological skills.

First-year applicants to the ‘Republic of Letters’ tend to be unsophisticated in their approach, but they are quick learners and offer a fertile soil upon which to build. Hence my unrelenting emphasis, from day one, on three methodological skills: critical thinking, academic writing, and class discussion.

Critical thinking is the most important but also the trickiest skill to convey, for students come with a black-and-white approach that the teacher must undo, while instilling the merits of polite disagreement. I try to do so by picking a polarizing issue (such as whether Sharia law should have equal standing with domestic law, or whether abortion is a public or private matter) and by randomly dividing the class into groups, each of which is then asked to defend a given position regardless of the views of its members. Once the groups defended their pre-assigned views, I ask each to subject the other to sustained criticism (to which I add my own questioning), something that aims to show students how reality is rarely black or white.

The second skill, academic writing, it is best acquired through the correction of bad practice. This is why, when possible, I like to give students class exercises: I ask them, for instance, to write a short paragraph on a certain matter which they then email me and which I return with my comments. This way, structural mistakes are corrected ahead of any assessed work and recurring methodological problems–such as adopting a descriptive rather than an analytical approach, bad practice and poor referencing–can be more easily rectified.

Thirdly, class discussion is not a standalone skill but one that I try to develop on a continuous basis through a socratic method of questioning inspired by the Oxford tutorial system and aimed at rigorous reasoning. It is my experience that through this method even the quietest student becomes more confident. To be sure, there is a delicate balance to be struck here, for impose this questioning on a shy student and s/he will be put off by the experience, yet apply it to the class at large and only a talkative few will participate.

This is especially true when students comes from different backgrounds, like at all the universities I have been teaching. On this I learned my lessons: in my first years I tended to be a little dominant and class discussion suffered. Things are now different and student feedback reflects such improvement. Like all skills, teaching is a progressive business and practice makes it perfect (though mine is far from it).

◊ Education Technology (ET) over Information Technology (IT)

The last pillar of my teaching philosophy is that technologically-enhanced teaching can be an important tool in the classroom. This goes against the rejectionist view that technological advancement is more harmful than useful for learning. I see this approach as flawed for two reasons: first, the bigger the exposure of new generations to technology, the greater the expectation from their teachers. Second, this conservative view confuses information technology (IT) and education technology (ET), the first of which is passive and offers students data, whereas the second is interactive and allows them to build their own knowledge.

As I discovered in my first years of teaching, conveying information is far easier than transmitting knowledge, but student feedback has allowed me to see the issue. Since then, I try to transform technologically-savvy students into independent learners by turning the gadgets they master so well into interactive learning tools that—like modern-day ‘Trojan Horses’—allow them to interact with each other and share their thoughts both in and out of the classroom. In this, Twitter/X, Facebook and MySpace are especially useful.

Twitter/X is an effective teaching tool that allows instant communication. Through dedicated accounts, I used to post a wealth of materials (such as videos of WWII, interviews with prominent IR theorists, data sheets on developing countries and mini-assignments requiring students to interact with each other). This way, students were expected to construct their knowledge collectively through an in-depth engagement with their case studies and by collecting data as they progressed. This data was then offered for discussion online and the results were opened up for debate in the following class or seminar.

◊ In Conclusion

Agood teacher conveys information, but only a great teacher instills knowledge (a bad teacher does neither). My aim is to become a great teacher. I believe that teaching is the best possible form of learning and that the teacher is the first student in the classroom, so I am delighted with my pedagogical experiments.

I have found all the universities I taught at congenial places to perform innovative teaching—institutions where I have been able to learn from my students and colleagues while sharing some of the expertise and knowledge I have acquired through the years. As a passionate teacher, I am always committed to improving my skills.

Teaching truly is one of the most gratifying activities I engaged in–it even compares favorably with diplomacy!–so I look forward to receiving and taking on board more student feedback.