Aneeq: Hamilton tutor

Certified Tutor

Personal Statement
Teaching is the only field I am good at, it makes me very happy when I can make others understand something that is difficult to understand. I am looking for difficult areas of psychology understand them myself and are ready to help other to learn the same.
I have taught psychology for over thirty years and this experience has been rewarding most of the time. I cannot recall a single day when I was not motivated to teach. When I work with my students, the experience is always heartening and full of pleasure.
I did my masters in psychology from Government College (now Government College University) Lahore in 1978 and completed my PhD in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. Followed by a three-year fellowship at the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) at NIH and started teaching psychology (2001) at Henderson State University, in Arkansas. In 2014 I was honored to become the 60th President of Southwestern Psychological Association which one of the five arms of the American Psychological Association. I enjoy teaching undergraduate and graduate students and carry out research work in areas in neuroscience and religion. I am married, have three daughters and we all live in Arkansas.
I have taught a number of psychology subjects, all the way from general psychology to social cognition; however, my favorite subjects include, learning and memory, cognition, neuroscience

Teaching philosophy and Tutoring Style
Any measure of teaching effectiveness begins with the teaching philosophy of a teacher. A teacher not only teaches but learns, and in my opinion learns more than what he or she teaches. My philosophy of teaching is therefore based on the idea that teaching and learning is a two-way street that forms a loop between the teacher and the student. An effective teaching builds strong reciprocity between the teacher and the taught. This reciprocity makes the teacher sensitive to the needs of the student, and the only thing that remains to be done is to somehow gratify such emerging needs. As educators we all know that students come to our institutions with an array of needs, some of which are in-line with their academic gains and others are not so conducive to learning. When one finds a difficult and a challenging student ridden with reluctance to learn, the real test of a teacher begins. In my experience there were few students like that but a majority of them are eager to attain their academic goals, and thus challenge me differently with their needs. One such need is building-up their motivational levels when pressure of academic work and monotony of the semester crumbles their spirits sometimes around the midterm. Such students require constant prodding and encouragement. Where recognition and endorsements work for some, others may require some form of penalty to remain on course for completing course work. And then there are the select few who are the cream of the class, primarily seeking intellectual satisfaction, and are bridled if the teacher ignores their scholarly craving. If all such needs are carefully met, learning prospers and in my experience leads to forming long lasting bonds.
To summarize then, my teaching philosophy rests on this understanding that teaching business is a reciprocal need quenching process and when handled effectively is immensely gratifying and results in learning for both the student and the teacher.
What about the nuts and bolts of teaching effectively in a classroom? Perhaps that most important aspect of teaching is a clear, effective, and even-handed approach to conveying the subject matter. Selecting a good textbook and ancillary materials to help the students. Over the years, my teaching style has swayed towards organized and structured discussions in the class as opposed to plain lecturing. We all know that teaching through discussions leads to better understanding of the course material. For one thing, discussions lead the subject-matter to be arranged and rearranged in so many ways that its elaboration infuses meaning deep into our memory. Secondly, discussions lead to critical thinking asking questions about material inseminates this kind of thinking.
At the end of each course, I sincerely hope that I have managed to attain a number of goals. These include; students acquiring a firm understanding of the subject matter, learn history of conceptual development in the course/field, understand major thorny issues, and how leading investigators hold opposing positions on a subject, are or concept.