Josh Iorio

Excellence in Teaching Spotlight by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Virginia Tech

The Excellence in Teaching Spotlight, presented by the center to approximately nine Virginia Tech faculty members each academic year, recognizes a faculty member's effective, engaged, and dynamic approaches and achievements as an educator.

Among the goals of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning are advancing experiential learning at Virginia Tech and improving student learning through research-based instructional practices and student-centered design. According to Iorio, his approach to teaching leads with authenticity and then attempts to make course content meaningful to his students: “My approach to teaching is to be authentic and to treat students authentically as whole people. I think it's important to remember that students are people, for which school is only one component of their lives. Based on their life outside of school, students have a lot to teach me and each other, and I try to leverage those experiences in the classroom. I try to make learning meaningful (and memorable) for students by connecting the course content to their experiences outside of class. This is often where I start. I ask students to apply concepts to their lives and then bring in theory to help them better understand their own experiences. In many ways, I see my ultimate goal as teaching them how to extract knowledge from their lived experiences.”

Charles Smith, a colleague of Iorio, elaborated on Iorio’s teaching method: “As an educator, Dr. Iorio is a craftsman. He relentlessly examines the medium (student behavior) to reveal its Influencing features, like the impact of grain pattern on a piece of wood’s usage, and with precision adjusts his pedagogy to transform the medium (with its latent features) into greater employment.”

One of Iorio’s industry collaborators, Cory Curtin, described his experience working with Iorio over the past six years: “I have had the pleasure of working alongside Dr. Josh Iorio over the past six years. His dedication to teaching transcends the classroom, inspiring his students to strive for excellence and igniting a lifelong passion for learning and personal growth. His innovative methods and genuine care for each student's success make him an exemplary educator and a transformative figure in their academic journeys and in their lives. Josh and I have partnered on several projects over my time working with the Industry Advisory Council. From working on diversity and inclusion within the construction industry, to guest lecturing on leadership and personal growth. He is always willing to partner with others dedicated to improving MLSOC and creating great experiences for the students.”

Iorio provided the following advice for new college teachers: “Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Try new things. Study pedagogy and make sure your teaching is grounded in the fundamentals. Treat your teaching like research - have a reason for why you're doing what you're doing and communicate that to students. Don't try to change things too often. Sometimes you have a bad semester for various reasons outside of your control (e.g., your life outside of class, your students' lives outside of class, general classroom dynamics). If you change the course after each semester, you sometimes make it worse. Make sure you see a real pattern that warrants the change. And be honest about your mistakes. Teachers are people too.”