Teaching Philosophy

Passionate engagement, open communication, and critical thinking are the core values that shape my priorities as an educator. The best teachers can make any subject exciting through lectures, discussions, and assignments that are clear, accessible, and thought provoking. They breathe life into their content and kindle curiosity in students who might otherwise have little interest in a subject. Cultivating a collaborative learning environment that prioritizes engagement and growth over numerical outcomes and letter grades encourages students to develop skills that transcend the specificities of a single academic subject. For me, helping students blossom into confident, compassionate, self-aware thinkers and communicators is always more important than any course-specific knowledge or skills I can offer them. I hope my embodiment of these values will inspire students, expand their intellectual horizons, and empower them to dream big and take risks.

As a musician, scholar, and educator, my musical and intellectual journeys are inextricably intertwined. My commitment to remaining active as a practicing and performing musician sustains my enthusiasm for teaching collegiate music courses to students with variable levels of musical experience—from those taking their first introductory survey course through to the upper levels of a music major. I remain a firm believer that encountering music—as a listener, musician, or both—provides unique possibilities for developing social awareness and deepening cultural understanding. My training in a range of percussive practices, from drum kit and orchestral percussion to Hindustani drumming and Indonesian gamelan, has prepared me to introduce transcultural perspectives that challenge students to think globally and reflect critically on the enculturation of their own views and musical norms.

In addition to emphasizing intellectual and cultural diversity in my course design, I honor the diverse backgrounds and unique academic needs of my students in cultivating an equitable and inclusive learning environment. By combining aural, visual, and written materials with individual and group assignments, I introduce course content using multiple modalities and provide students with opportunities to showcase their strengths, practice where they need improvement, and chart their own creative path through a course while also fulfilling its basic requirements. Short reading responses, regular listening journals, discussion forums, and analytical essays invite students to think expansively and make broad connections between and among topics. In my experience, small, regular assignments, rather than heavily weighted midterm and final exams, minimize stress around “crunch time” and encourage sustained engagement throughout an academic term.

Ultimately, I view my students as active co-creaters of a shared musical and intellectual journey rather than as passive recipients of knowledge. I strive to model honest, responsive, and compassionate communication and make myself available to students during class time and during office hours. One of the most important skills college students can develop, in my opinion, is the ability to communicate openly, honestly, and responsibly with their peers and instructors. As we prepare students to thrive in social and professional environments, communication skills should be valued as a key learning outcome. We owe it to ourselves and our students to cultivate educational environments that encourage genuine engagement, critical dialogue, and interpersonal growth.

Anonymous Student and Evaluator Feedback

  • "I found the lectures very helpful and straightforward. My teacher's enthusiasm and interest in every lecture made it easy to remember the material."

  • "Great Professor. Super passionate about the subject he teaches."

  • "Thank you for incorporating female and black artists and giving them the attention they deserve. The genre is white-male dominated, but this class helped make it feel more diverse. All the music picked for this course was great!"

  • "The lectures were very concise and clear. Easy to follow and understand...I also personally really enjoyed the discussion assignments on writing about the music we had to listen to."

  • "This class was well run, organized, and very effective. The students are enthusiastic. The material is covered in a variety of ways. Professor Cushman is a master teacher and OCC is fortunate to have him as part of its faculty."

  • "The lectures were very informative and concepts were discussed clearly and thoroughly. I found it quite helpful to see what the professor was talking about in the lecture examples of songs. In these examples, the teacher would often even point out specific parts and elements in a song so that we can notice these concepts in context."

  • "I appreciate how much support Professor Cushman provided during these challenging times. He made assignments fair and the lectures were very entertaining."

  • "I really liked the structure of the class. Being able to engage with my fellow classmates in our discussion boards helped me understand how music can be interpreted differently."

  • "The readings were usually very relevant and informative. I liked how the class was structured in such a consistent manner. It made scheduling my workload out throughout the week a lot easier."

Sample Syllabi

Sample Assignments