Teaching Philosophy
For developing necessary skill sets about teaching, integrating the point of view of epistemology is quite essential. Epistemology is “the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.” In the context of learning, it is an important phenomena, since it is important to answer some questions such as ‘what I know, how I know, how I know that I know it’. Based on the answers of these questions, it is possible to understand the nature, purpose, reliability of the information and knowledge. After understanding the aforementioned characteristics of information or knowledge, lessons should be designed in accordance with these characteristics.
In order to integrate epistemological aspect, the categorization of knowledge types are quite important phenomena. Firstly, the explicit knowledge, which is formal and systematic knowledge that can be expressed in words or numbers and can be documented or stored. In terms of construction project management perspective, some of the basic theories, verbal and written expressions on slides could be regarded as good examples of explicit knowledge. Due to the nature of explicit knowledge, it is quite comprehensible and concise. When teaching this kind of information, the main purpose is to encourage students to interact with information, because it is important to transform information into implicit knowledge, which could be developed through the practical applications of explicit knowledge. To integrate epistemological point of view and transforming explicit knowledge to implicit, it is quite suitable to ask scenario-based open-ended questions to orient students to critically think and grasp the information represented during the lectures. There are high number of leadership theories such as transactional, transformational, action-centered, and benevolent, etc. existed in the literature of human-based construction project management. Understanding these theories could be a good example for explicit knowledge, since it could be simply comprehended by listening the lectures, reading course materials or examining the slides. However, determining which leadership suits better to a different occasion could be a good example of implicit knowledge. In a real construction project, in which theory the leadership method to be used can be determined by its compliance with the current situation. For instance, a project manager must be quite autocratic, especially when there are strict outcomes of decisions such as health and safety. It is imperative and compulsory to take necessary safety actions on the construction site and safety manager should be an autocratic leader, especially for the unsafe situations on the construction site. However, the financial aspects of construction projects are quite open for discussion and it is important to listen financial consultants’ and cost managers’ ideas to take correct decision. In this sense, more diplomatic or democratic type of leadership could be more suitable to motivate cost managers and consultants to share their ideas without hesitation. From these two simple examples, it could be noticed that open-ended questions and critical qualitative thinking are inevitable parts of construction project management. Evaluating a situation and determining which leadership style should be preferred could be a good example of conversion of explicit knowledge to implicit, since both theories have advantages and disadvantages according to different occasions. To integrate epistemological point of view, it is quite suitable to ask scenario-based open-ended questions to orient students to critically think and grasp the information represented during the lectures.
In the courses developed by Dr. Kiral, students oriented to critically evaluate and discuss the theories, evidences in oral and written expressions, thus, they enhance the comprehensibility of the information provided during the lectures. Students need to grasp the structure, nature and purpose of the information, in terms of epistemological point of view. In order to enhance learning, as it mentioned, it should be asked scenario-based questions. When students try to answer the asked question, they could unwittingly comprehend the theory. In addition, they unwittingly develop necessary implicit knowledge when they evaluate the situation and find the most suitable theory based on their critical thinking, thus converts explicit knowledge to implicit. As a result, they could easily comprehend the information provided during the lecture and consolidate this information in examples, thus, develop necessary knowledge about related topic. The most critical success factor of this method could be considered as engagement level of the students. In other words, higher engagement level between the students and information provides them an opportunity to learn better.