My teaching philosophy is based on my unequivocal belief that
education is a never-ending two-way process .
With the students' willingness and commitment to learn, I will
do my best to guide my students in developing the following
abilities, namely, to think and analyze
mathematical problems,
to communicate with people in other fields,
to be self-sufficient, and to not be afraid to be innovative even
if it means making mistakes sometimes.
In return , I expect myself to learn as much from my students as they
do from me.
Based on my many years of teaching experience,
I found that that there are ideal conditions under which
students will learn effectively, namely, when:
the students are actively participating in class,
the students are willing to put forth efforts into the course while
they are outside the classroom,
the course material comes across with pertinence,
I, the instructor, can motivate and communicate
the subject matter by using various ways that will
facilitate participation by the students and
I, the instructor, am able to
show the pertinence
of the subject
In addition, within the subject matter of mathematics,
I am convinced that different people have different learning styles
with which they grasp these concepts.
Thus, without losing any rigor on the subject matter,
whenever I teach I make sure that I include these
components of these styles so as to maximize the learning
capabilities of my students on the subject matter.
In other words, the students must:
see ideas/concepts in written forms
hear ideas/concepts spoken by someone else
write the ideas/concepts down themselves
have the chance to think about the ideas/concepts themselves
speak about or explain the ideas/concepts to others
practice using the ideas/concepts in various different scenarios
In the lower level math courses,
since more students have a less
solid background in theoretical mathematics, the strategies used are
lectures, the first few minutes of which are usually
question/answer discussions, and daily assignments.
The reason for the daily assignments and weekly pop quizzes is so that
students
have enough practice and maintain a up-to-date schedule with the
course materials so as to feel more
comfortable and confident in the subject matter.
In addition I also give a few more elaborate problem sets
where students have to make use of technology to obtain
numerical solutions.
Ocassionally, I will ask them to work a few challenging problems in
groups (in class or outside of class) and ask them to write the
solutions up, formally, and to present them in class.
During my lectures, I always make the process an interactive
form instead of just myself talking and the students writing.
In other words, I try to lead my students into new concepts instead
of just telling them.
I let my students know from the very beginning that I strongly
welcome any questions pertaining to the subject, and that I do not
consider any question
about the material as stupid .
For the upper level mathematics courses, my teaching method
is via lectures, weekly assignments, discussion sessions, and
projects related to the material taught.
Since assignments in my upper level courses are more elaborate,
I give them on a weekly basis.
Course projects (groups and individual) are mandatory in all
upper level applied math courses I teach. The purpose of such
course projects is for students to be aware of how and where concepts
of the courses are applied beyond the walls of academia.
I also require students to turn in
written reports and to give oral presentations about their
course projects.
Brief and Precise Description of my teaching interests
In a nutshell, I am a die-hard, self-avowed and
practising applied mathematician
who is interested in teaching a variety of undergraduate
math courses, including the following:
Calculus and its applications
Discrete & Combinatorial Mathematics
Operations Research
Linear Algebra and applications
Mathematical Programming
Network Modeling and Optimization
Mathematical Modeling
Graph Theory and Applications
Matroid Theory
In general, my areas of teaching interests include, but are not
limited
to, diverse areas in the field of operations research and its applications,
namely, most of the aforementioned areas.
For more information on these topics, try to either take or audit
the following scintillating mathematics courses, namely,
Discrete & Combinatorial Math (Math 3411, or
Math 1760 & 3370 under quarters), and
Operations Research
(Math 3401, or
Math 3270 under quarters).
These areas of mathematics have a plethora of
real-world applications and applications in other
areas of theoretical mathematics.
If you would like to learn more,
please feel free to talk to me or take or audit the courses I teach.
Peh's Semester Courses
Homepage of Math 3111, a.k.a.
Linear Algebra .
( Currently teaching in Spring 2025. )
Homepage of MA3370, a.k.a.
Combinatorial Mathematics, . F.Y.I., this is a course with a service-learning component, i.e. a way for UMM students and faculty to reach out and touch the great City of Morris ;-)
nal
Homepage of MA5900, a.k.a.
Discrete Mathematics & Graph Theory.
( This is a workshop course for secondary math teachers in conjuction with the (ME)^3 Project, sponsored by the Minnesota Board of Higher Education ).
