I believe my role as a teacher in higher education is to empower students to take ownership of their own learning. I feel I can best serve them if I can help them not only to learn concepts related to my discipline, but also to help them to develop skills that will enable them to become lifelong learners. There is much to learn, and if I can help students to develop their abilities, such as thinking critically, critically appraising the literature, solving problems, working in teams, and analyzing and synthesizing information, they will be much better served than if I were to view my role as just a conveyor of facts. I believe that all students are valuable contributors to the education process. Each student has a unique background and perspective that they can share with others to enrich the learning environment. It is my job to encouraging students to teach, and learn from, each other and to foster a positive learning environment in which students feel valued and respected. I believe that evaluation of students must match our intended learning objectives. Since I believe that the development of high order thinking skills is a key learning objective of higher education, I strive to create evaluation methods (e.g., assignments, exams) that test high order thinking skills. It is unfair to ask students to develop skills, such as the ability to synthesize and analyze, during a course and then expect rote memorization of facts for examinations. Having seen instances where this is, in fact, the case has only strengthened my belief that we must always strive for evaluation techniques that assess that which we wish our students to learn. I believe in transparency in my teaching methods. I have found that students are much more comfortable with an unfamiliar pedagogy, such as problem-based learning, when you explain why you use this technique. I have found that students are much more receptive to feedback when I explain the reasoning behind its inclusion in the process. In addition, being open to suggestions from students and available for discussions with them reinforces that their opinions are important and that their learning is the primary focus of my teaching. I believe that I am also a learner. I continually strive to improve my teaching – through soliciting feedback from my students; by attending teaching workshops, seminars and conferences; from discussions with colleagues (whether formally, such as through the UBC PBL Network, or informally, just sitting down with other teachers to talk about teaching); and through reflection on my teaching practice; and, most importantly, by putting what I learn through these processes into action.