Scott

I have worked as a summer-school teacher for five years in a Cambridge University based summer school, teaching Philosophy & Ethics, Politics & International Relations, History, Sociology, and Psychology, on a group and individual basis. I have also worked as an online tutor for several years, teaching, in addition to the above subjects, English Language, English Literature, Religious Studies, Chemistry and Biology. During the three years of my undergraduate degree, I was president of the Philosophy Society, where we regularly ran peer-to-peer teaching sessions. In the year preceding my undergraduate degree, I co-founded a Continental Philosophy Research Unit with a PhD student at Cambridge University, in which we hosted close readings and interpretations of canonical texts in the tradition. More recently, I have stared teaching for a charity that runs philosophy courses in prisons.

The simple fact is, I love to learn. It may sound strange, but it was only once I left school - after I dropped out - that I discovered this. In school, with a couple exceptions, learning often came with a lot of constraints, and sometimes even felt oppressive. But once I took things into my own hands and started teaching myself - being an autodidact, as I learned it's called - learning became a form of liberation, and an adventure (I'm being serious). I discovered that learning could be filled with excitement and joy, trial and overcoming, triumph and transformation. It can deepen you as a person, like a well that reflects the sky. This love of learning led to me earning an award for the best performance in my year during my Bachelor's degree (First Class Honours), a scholarship for my Master's degree (Distinction) in recognition of academic excellence, a good deal of praise from many of my students over the years - for which I am profoundly grateful - and now I am working on a PhD for which I have been given governmental (AHRC) funding to complete. From drop-out to Doctor of Philosophy. This love of learning is, I believe, what makes me a good teacher - because I know what it means to truly learn. It is my joy to share this joy, this adventure of ideas, with others. I hope you, too, can come to know the love and the joy of learning. You'll be surprised by how far it can take you.

In my teaching, I follow a student-centred approach. I aim to develop students' confidence in their own abilities alongside improving their knowledge of the subject in question. I take my inspiration as an educator from the great Socrates, who taught that education should not simply be the filling of a vessel (as if there is only one direction in teaching, "I speak and you listen"), but rather the stoking of a flame (being taught something should make you hungry to learn more and burn brighter!). I principally achieve this with problem-oriented and dialogue-based teaching techniques that naturally make topics interesting and encourage students to arrive at the answers themselves under careful guidance, cultivating the inquisitive mind.