Statement of Teaching Philosophy
I bring an unusual perspective to the classroom: 26 years reporting and editing for some of the best media organizations. I love teaching journalism because it touches on so many other disciplines – history, sociology, philosophy, economics and literature. I want my students to leave class curious about the world around them and intellectually agile to adapt to our fast-changing society and economy.
Journalism plays an essential role in advancing a representative democracy and serving as a watchdog over powerful government and corporate interests. I am honored to continue this tradition as a journalism instructor, building a foundation of values and skills to allow students to succeed in the media and other fields.
My top teaching goals include:
–Empowering original reporting. As an instructor, I want my students to be excellent journalists and citizens who help keep powerful institutions accountable. To this end, my students learn how to analyze complex financial documents and databases and to write clearly about these materials. In my business reporting class, they retrieve Apple’s proxy statement and learn how much Apple’s CEO is paid; for context, they find Census data to see how it compares to the typical American worker’s paycheck. Through experiences such as this, students that are able to interpret original source documents come up with more creative and diverse views of news to enhance our media landscape.
–Creating independent thinkers. The best journalism grows from original and courageous thinking about our society’s problems. We encounter problems by leaning on so-called experts to shape our views. I guide my students to a new range of thinkers and materials, and encourage them to think independently. For example, we question the assumptions of economists Milton Friedman and Thomas Piketty or the reporting methods of Ida Tarbell. We debate ideas across the ideological and historical spectrum. Our class discussions pick apart The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, National Pubic Radio, Bloomberg, and ProPublica by examining sources, headlines, data and graphics. My main goal is to let students understand current political and economic trends so they can synthesize and build their own worldviews.
–Preparing for the Future. Journalism is exploding into many different possibilities now, and the future is impossible to predict, but sharp story telling skills always will be valuable. I want students to leave my class with sound reporting and analytical skills, which will serve them on any print, broadcast or multimedia platform. To this end, I demand concise, clear writing and transparent source attribution in assignments. For a student new to reporting, the process begins by writing the lead sentence, then two paragraphs and then a draft. I help them through this process, and we do it again. I use this same process for more complex assignments. First, I set the goal, such as conducting market research on casino companies in Maryland. We take a succession of small steps towards that goal: a short lecture, a class assignment, a video, a draft take-home assignment and then the final assignment. I provide feedback and encouragement throughout this process.
My students have multiple opportunities to make mistakes, learn and improve. This has worked well with the diverse I have taught at Maryland, South Carolina and Arkansas. I edit students’ assignments closely, holding up the clean simplicity of Strunk & White and The Associated Press as goals for writing. I spell out my assessments in rubrics, posted in advance of the assignment, along with an example of a successful past assignment. In this fashion, my students have a clear idea of how they are graded and why. The assignments are organized so the class room work and instruction will flow into a low-stakes graded assignment, which is then revised with additional work into a higher stakes graded assignment. These multiple iterations give students a chance to stumble, improve and excel. My classes are hard and the material is challenging, but students finish the course rewarded.
Part of the joy of teaching involves figuring the way to connect with students and inspire them to embark on their own original research. I use every means at my disposal, from chalkboards to video clips, discussion groups to individual presentations, to get students to internalize the material. I spell out clear expectations for my students, set the goals with challenging assignments and then work steadily towards those goals.
I hope my students will become excellent journalists and citizens who will better analyze the substantial economic problems and communicate their findings in accessible language for the broader society.
–Rob Wells, January, 2015 (updated November 2019)