I see teaching not as a secondary task beside research, but as a central responsibility and opportunity for growth. My goal as an educator is to foster inclusive, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences. To develop my teaching, I completed the 12-credit College Teaching Certificate at the University of Arizona, where I studied learner-centered teaching, using technology in instruction, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), and college teaching practice.
At the heart of my teaching philosophy is a learner-centered approach. I view my role not simply as delivering content but as facilitating and supporting students’ intellectual growth. This means creating varied assignments, reducing barriers to participation, and encouraging students to see themselves as collaborators in the learning process. I use personalized language in my syllabi and classroom interactions to build trust and a sense of belonging. I also emphasize that mistakes are opportunities for growth, a perspective inspired by the growth mindset.
When designing assignments, I use backward design, setting measurable learning goals aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy. I incorporate formative assessments, scaffolding, and detailed feedback so students can steadily improve. For example, in MENA 354: Food Traditions of the Middle East and North Africa, I ask students to choose a regional dish from culinary blogs, cook it, and create a short video presentation. This assignment connects academic study to lived experience, making learning both memorable and personally meaningful.
I also embrace transformative learning principles. I want students to not only acquire content knowledge but also challenge assumptions, develop new perspectives, and carry their learning into the world beyond the classroom. This approach is particularly meaningful to me as I reflect on my own undergraduate years, when learner-centered teaching empowered me to question inherited truths and pursue intellectual independence.
In my teaching, I have worked with students for whom English is a second language, as well as students from varied cultural, religious, and professional backgrounds. These experiences have underscored the importance of flexibility, accessibility, and respect for different learning styles. For example, I design scaffolded writing assignments and emphasize content and ideas over surface-level grammar issues, following Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) principles. I also provide resources such as glossaries, peer review, and workshops to support students in strengthening their linguistic skills while building confidence in academic writing.
In courses on Islam, I often encounter students with different levels of familiarity: Muslim students who may bring sectarian perspectives and non-Muslim students for whom the material is entirely new. To keep all students engaged, I design assignments that ask them to approach practices such as prayer or fasting from both insider and outsider perspectives. Non-Muslim students explain practices as if teaching someone unfamiliar, while Muslim students analyze variations, historical developments, and cultural interpretations. This approach fosters empathy, comparative thinking, and peer-to-peer learning. Similarly, when I had a student with a Catholic high school background, I encouraged them to draw comparisons between Catholic and Islamic practices, which created meaningful connections across traditions and enriched class discussions.
In my course on Religious and Ethnic Minorities in the Middle East, I taught students from Arab, Jewish, Turkish, and American backgrounds while discussing sensitive issues such as the Kurdish question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. These discussions required careful navigation of strong emotions and differing perspectives. I established ground rules for respectful dialogue, presented multiple scholarly perspectives, and structured activities to encourage empathy and critical thinking. By shifting the focus from defending identities to analyzing historical and political complexities, I created an inclusive environment where students learned from one another’s experiences.
To support diverse learners, I integrate multiple modes of engagement, allowing students to participate through writing, audio, or video. This flexibility accommodates students balancing jobs, family, and study while affirming that all voices matter. I also use personalized language and emphasize a growth mindset to create a classroom culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning.
Technology plays an important role in my teaching, but I select tools carefully to ensure accessibility and meaningful use. I regularly use social annotation platforms, which make student engagement with readings visible and encourage collaborative dialogue. I also employ interactive videos that prompt reflection and sustain attention. In recent semesters, I have designed assignments that integrate artificial intelligence. For example, in MENA 389: Middle Eastern Ethnic and Religious Minorities, students used AI to generate research questions and short essays, which they then critiqued for bias, factual accuracy, and assumptions before revising into their own papers. This exercise helped students think critically about AI while strengthening their research and writing skills.
Feedback has been crucial in shaping my teaching. Student evaluations of my asynchronous online courses emphasized the need for clearer expectations and more interactive activities. In response, I added detailed rubrics, categorized readings into required and optional, and incorporated interactive tools. As a result, students engaged more effectively with sources and demonstrated stronger final projects. Supervisors and colleagues have also encouraged me to provide step-by-step written instructions for classroom activities, which has increased participation and improved group work in the course MENA 160: Global Islam.
Ultimately, I view teaching as a collaborative and evolving practice. My responsibility as an instructor is not only to guide students through historical content but also to equip them with enduring skills: critical thinking, communication, research, and intellectual self-confidence. In doing so, I aim to help students see education as meaningful, connected to their lives, and capable of fostering both personal growth and social transformation.
Yigit's e-portfolio 