My teaching philosophy is based on some very basic principles derived from my own experiences and expectations as a student and as a teacher.  I try to make the courses I teach the 'state of the art' so that I can also learn a lot myself!  I usually can find many topics of great interest while teaching.  The course syllabus to me is a flexible guide and not a rigid schedule.  Although I must always know how the course should proceed, I must also be prepared to adapt the course to the students' interests and concerns.  I especially enjoy teaching classes in Regression Analysis, Applied Statistics, and Statistical Methods for Forecasting because the possibilities to be flexible.  Most of my classes have computing and writing components, because there is not much point to statistical exercise unless you can calculate what you need to know on the computer and then communicate what you have learned. 

I always put my complete lecture notes in my website and, in addition, usually give some useful information and/or link via my website.  I teach my students on how to use statistical packages, such as SAS, SPSS, MINITAB, RATS (Regression Analysis for Time Series), and S-Plus (for graduate level) for the Statistics, Regression Analysis, Time Series Analysis, Applied Statistics, and Statistical Methods for Forecasting courses.  I ask my students to work on their final projects by team, for which each group has to get a real data set from an internet database and then analyze it by using all the statistical technique they have learned and the same for the undergraduate students as well.  Finally, each member of team has to present it as his or her course presentation.  I emphasize how to apply statistical tools to many areas.  Therefore, the graduate students in my courses come from all kind of departments, e.g. Economics, Finance, International Trade, Statistics and Actuarial Science, Applied Mathematics, and Hydraulic Engineering.  I consider each class as an opportunity to evaluate and to improve my own performance as an instructor.  I encourage evaluative feedback from the students.  I particularly like to work in an academic environment because I get to work with students on various research projects including writing papers, as well as enjoy being an academic advisor.  I developed an interdisciplinary program entitled “Quantitative Finance” while serving as head of my department in 2000-2002.  This program has been extended to graduate level with me acting as the program director of “Quantitative Finance” since 2003.  I encourage students to take various courses designed for this program.

        As a female university professor, I am confident in my ability since I am actively involved in scientific, educational and research activities.  I encourage all my female students to be confident in their own abilities, to thrive to fulfill their dreams with determination in building their future careers.  I actively try to help them to create favorable conditions for young female students to succeed in a competitive environment.

[latest updated  2004/11/07 ]