Teaching

I found this great phrase at my son’s daycare center. The daycare teachers are heroes.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, kind of beautiful //
And every night has its day, so magical //
And if there’s love in this life, there’s no obstacle … “
(Lyrics in my favorite song, Waiting For Love, Avicii)

I quote these lines of lyrics as I believe nothing better reflects my teaching philosophy than them — inspiration & empowerment.

I believe the most fundamental teaching element is to plant an eternal flame in each student’s mind. Reflecting on my own experiences and observations, I have realized that there is no more powerful factor in unleashing people’s potential than deep motivation. It enables students willing to go through any hardships in their learning paths. I carefully design the class and allocate sufficient time to inspire students. It could be related to their career dreams, or sometimes, it could be a wicked issue in our society that students would like to dedicate their lives to address. Or, it could originate from simple intellectual curiosity. As every student is motivated differently, I try my best to bespoke the motivation process to each student by carefully listening to each student’s voice.
However, motivation alone cannot make it real. It requires instructors’ sincere efforts to walk together with students during every daunting moment in learning paths. I was blessed to meet great teachers and mentors who patiently guided and stayed with me through the lengthy, daunting period of pivoting my career from Mechanical Engineering to Public Policy. I believe such compassion is essential, and whenever I take on a teaching role, I always strive to walk with my students, keeping in mind that it is the way to repay the kindness that I got from my instructors and mentors.

Thankfully, some students recognized my efforts to pursue my teaching philosophy to inspire and empower them in course evaluations. Certainly, I still have much to improve. I believe they left those kind comments to encourage me to keep working harder. Here are some selected quotes:

"Joonho was an excellent professor. He was kind and always gave us clear intructions and directions. I appreciated how fast he responded to emails. He also left thorough comments on all of our work, from groupwork, to quizzes which really helped me learn from my mistakes." 

"The way he structured the lectures, groupwork, and quizzes was extremely helpful. He did a great job of explaining the material to us and listening to his students' feedback."

"Joonho was a great source of support during the semester, and his assistance and feedback directly contributed to my ability to understand complex statistical concepts in public policy analysis much more effectively. In addition, he was extremely personable, maintaining a great level of professionalism but also being fully receptive to the mood of the classroom, adapting as he saw appropriate."

"He is incredibly knowledgeable about the course material and was successful at explaining/teaching material in ways that helped students with different learning styles. He was always dependable and open with communication throughout the course. He is so kind and understanding and never made you feel intimidated to reach out and ask questions."

"Joonho made himself so available for students inside and outside of class and we knew he genuinely wanted to help us learn so I was never afraid to ask questions even if I felt they were dumb. Fantastic TA who I hope knows how much we appreciate him."

"Joonho is one of the kindest, most helpful, and most punctual TAs. He is always attentive and ready to answer questions, and one can just tell that he cares about what he does."

"Joonho was amazing and if I ever had the chance, I would love to have him as a TA or professor in the future. He was always very patient with any questions that we asked him and made learning difficult material enjoyable."

"He always came in happy, he was kind and had a very encouraging energy which is helpful for students in classes like this where most people do not have a background in the subject matter being taught."

"Joonho was always readily available and saw helping his students as a top priority."

"If any students ever had questions, Joonho always either had an answer or would find out an answer. His effort was the most effort I have ever seen a TA put into a class and their students' success. I have never and will never have a better TA than Joonho, and I say that with the upmost sincerity."

"Joonho is an amazing guy that really cares about his students and wants them to succeed. There are no limits to how far he will go in making sure his students have everything they need to succeed."

"Joonho is overall the best TA I have had the pleasure of being taught by at Carolina. He takes every person and their problems seriously and tries to make the class enjoyable and doable for everyone. He is kind and encourages participation in class by making it less anxiety–inducing and more fun."

"Joonho was an incredibly accommodating and kind TA. He regards his students with so much compassion and respect and makes sure that everyone feels like their concerns are being taken into account. I thoroughly enjoyed every interaction I had with Joonho and despite my struggles with the course material he never made me feel like it made me less deserving of kindness."

"He was extremely availabler to us if we ever had any questions or concerns regarding the material or our learning. Furthermore, the outline of the course was very clear, so it made it easy to follow and plan ahead."

"He had to deal with so much extra work, time, and effort that he didn't really have to do but did it because he genuinely cares. Thank you Joonho you are an inspiration."

To PLCY 715 Students (Spring 2025):

My walk-in office hour is 9-11 AM on Wednesdays (Abernethy Hall Rm. #122)
Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions!