I had the pleasure of interviewing our Instructor, Robert Winter whom I would like to introduce and paint a vivid picture of how he will play a part in our vibrant institute.
Bob has been working in Myanmar for 14 years in the field of education, focusing mainly on the college level. He taught for six years in the Liberal Arts Program at the Myanmar Institute of Technology and helped set up the institution's English Department. After that, he worked with the Open University of Hong Kong to establish an Associate's Degree in Social Sciences for students in Myanmar. He was the program director and also taught courses in academic writing and presentation skills. More recently, he has been working as a consultant in higher education.
He joined Connect recently and will be teaching Academic Literacy (ENG 10) and Introduction to Literature (ENG 20). When asked what the students should expect from his literature class, he smiled and said it will be a survey course that covers modern poetry, the short stories and drama. He will emphasize on the works of R. Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks, E.E Cummings, George Orwell and several other writers.
Bob is an advocate of participatory learning and feels that students learn more when they figure out the meaning of a poem or short story by themselves. His teaching style is to act as a facilitator and not just give lectures. He will encourage the students to present their ideas in class and give writing assignments that he hopes students will find engaging.
His message to students is for them to try and expand their world-views and see education as more than preparation for a career. He added that his favorite quote about teaching comes from his friend Spencer Benson, director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement at the University of Macau: "Teaching is leading students into a situation in which they can only escape by thinking."
He concluded by saying that he started to love learning and see the true value of it only when he got to college, and that he would like all of his students to see this as an opportunity to broaden their horizons by embracing new ideas and ways of thinking.
By Olive Too