Trust, flexibility, equity, and inclusion.
Flipped classroom, project-based learning, peer learning and co-teaching, peer-review, soft deadlines, metacognition, and open education.
My teaching is student-centered and focused on inclusive instructional design. I know I have succeeded in building trust and kindness into my classroom when my students feel comfortable sharing their challenges and difficulties.
I teach content but I also teach metacognition, asking students to really reflect on their learning. My goal is not to create subject matter experts, but to create expert learners. I aim for students to complete the course with a strong sense of competence in the materials covered but also the ability to engage in further learning, exploration, and critical thinking. Students are able to proactively identify potential issues, troubleshoot intelligently, and analyze their own workflows to enhance their efficiency. My goal is for the class to become a community of expert learners.
As a way of developing trust, I transparently share my experiences and the realities of learning the material. By normalizing making mistakes and encouraging them to be honest with me about their educational needs and goals. I use a student-centered approach in which instructors are facilitators and guides along a student’s journey of exploration and learning. Inspired by Paulo Freire and bell hooks as well as the field of disability studies, my relationship with students is not built on power but on trust. Students are keepers of knowledge and are encouraged to develop their work around their own interests. Options for independent study are always included in assignments and projects, allowing students to apply the tools and knowledge they've learned to subjects most relevant for their lives.
I consider Universal Design for Learning or UDL, a research-based method that engages learners and meets them where they are at, to be one of the most promising pedagogical approaches. UDL means giving multiple modes for representation, engagement, and action and expression and allowing students to choose what works best for them because learners learn on a continuum. UDL removes learning barriers that prevent students from successfully understanding the material and engaging with it. Students become expert learners, able to master all subjects and topics because they understand how they best learn. I want to teach students how to challenge ideas, how to work together, how to question what makes them uncomfortable and why.
I ask students to reflect on their own learning and their progress throughout my course, starting with a worksheet asking them about their goals for the course, any concerns they have, and how they learn best. I consider potential barriers to learning while designing my educational materials, not as an afterthought. UDL is not only about making learning accessible for everyone, it is about moving disability to the forefront of instruction and centering instructional decisions around disability. This is very much related to using a student-centered approach.
I attempt to build my classroom as a community of care, where students work together and explore ideas, troubleshoot with one another, and depend on each other for guidance and help. I model this care in my own instruction and facilitation, using a flexible syllabus that is updated as needed to adjust to student needs and goals. I include assignment questions that require students to check in with one another and troubleshoot together. I want students to realize that we’re all making mistakes and learning together.
My teaching methods include a commitment to antiracist teaching and decolonial education. I believe in syllabi that incorporate voices from marginalized and oppressed groups, including Black, Indigenous, Latine, disabled, and poor people. I encourage students to consider historical and, more importantly, current exclusionary practices. “Who is included in this map? What voices are absent? Why?”
I center feedback and not grades. We learn best when we’re able to focus on the material at hand rather than worry about grades. By allowing students to submit their assignments repeatedly and earn a higher grade each time, the pressure to perform is removed. I have had tremendous success with this approach; students incorporate feedback and learn from their mistakes. They ask follow-up questions, they try again, they grow and they learn more.