Teaching Portfolio

Teaching Philosophy Statement

During my education journey, great teachers inspired and positively transformed the way I look at the world and, ultimately, helped me become the person I am. As a lecturer, I now feel the responsibility of the many students I meet: they are shaping their ambitions, knowledge, dreams, and relationships. I believe teaching is a human practice that empowers students in becoming independent thinkers. Conscious of my personal and social role as a lecturer, I try to honour it with the highest standards of professionalism and care: students are the centre of this passionate effort. Constantly updated content and mode of delivery, intellectual honesty, concern for students’ intellectual and moral growth, care for their personal and professional excellence, a human and empathic atmosphere in the classroom: these are the ingredients for my teaching philosophy, which keeps flourishing with me lecture after lecture.

Teaching Business Ethics

I currently teach Business and Professional Ethics for undergraduate students in DCU Business School. Aristotle would say that we do not study ethics to know what the good is, but to become good: teaching business ethics, then, is a semester-long transformational challenge! In a business school, a business ethics module is probably one of the few opportunities for a student to engage with a bit of philosophy: I teach this discipline conscious of the fact that this might be the one chance they have to reflect on the deepest meaning of their actions. The aim of teaching business ethics in this way is to give them the appropriate tools to analyse business phaenomena, but also to equip them to live an undivided life, realising that they are always the same person, whether they are with their friends or at work. Case studies help in translating theory into practice, together with lively discussions and rigorously structured content. This is (hopefully!) their intellectual and practical pathway to integrity and excellence in their university life and future business careers.

Approach to Assessment

My Business and Professional Ethics module in DCU Business School has 100% continuous assessment. For one of their assignments, students submit a reflective piece where they write their own ethical theory, and they compare it with one of the existing theories explained in class. They are asked to work in pairs, so that they can have a discussion with a teammate: “It was a good experience as we got to think deeply about how people should behave. The conversation was enriching”.

All the students receive personalized feedback and suggestions for improvement. I also worked on a Business Ethics module for the platform Future Learn, and I explored how to incorporate meaningful assessment in online delivery. Once completed the course, a learner wrote “This is a great course Marta! The presented material and reflective assignments are well in balance with the theory sections and support sustainable learning” It was my first course completely online, and reading that learners were able to engage even without monitored assessments was a great achievement!

Continuous Professional Development

I really care about my development as a lecturer: I keep up-to-date with the most recent literature in the business ethics field, regarding ways of teaching business ethics. Business ethics academics usually write about the way they teach their subject. I tried to have a publication every year on a teaching topic, starting from 2016 (please see the list in the image below). Moreover, I am constantly in touch with a wide community of scholars thanks to the membership with the Society for Business Ethics, and with the Virtue Ethics in Business Research Group. I received a scholarship in 2019 to participate in the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop organised by Bentley University (Boston, MA), where I shared my experience of teaching business ethics in DCU and I attended four intense days of sessions with top business ethics scholars who shared their teaching strategies; I looked for feedback on the module I teach also at the 2019 DCU Teaching and Learning Day. During the pandemic, I attended the Harvard Business Publishing webinar on “Making Online Classrooms Work for You (and Your Students)”, and I followed our TEU updates, tips, suggestions, and implemented some of them in my module (e.g. use of Vevox for students’ engagement).

Modules taught