Endings and New Beginnings…..

A year has rolled by and these are the final few words that I will pen as a part of my PGCHE learning reflections. Will this be the end of my reflective journal? Most definitely not! The single most important thing I am taking away from this year long experience is my now constant and conscious practice of reflection. Reflection is now a learning aid used not just by me but also my learners. Practice of conscious reflection has taught us, both students and tutor alike to expand our minds. It has made us curious to learn, to apply, experiment, query, ideate, think, and so much more.

So when I look back on this year, I am now embarrassed at my skepticism on being asked to enroll for this programme. I thought I knew it all and would go through the motions to keep my superiors happy, but the reluctance soon became enthusiasm as I began reading books, journal articles, reports and writings on teaching and learning. There are many things I have explored, experienced, studied and learned that may not have come to pass if I had not enrolled in this programme.

Kolb, Schon and Moon have taught me to think deeply about my actions. They have added a dimension to what I already believed in because of my deep interest in philosophy – but this is a practical dimension – as it allows me to practice reflection as a part of my day to day functions and makes me realize why I teach how I teach and believe what I believe . Schon taught me that reflective practice must be enacted during the process as well as after it; Kolb through his model gave me the structure to this practice by pondering on my experience to improve my future actions; and lastly Moon taught me to apply it to my teaching practice and in my classroom.

I am grateful to the PGCHE because it made me step out of my bubble and re-examine many of the concepts I had about teaching and the theories of teaching and learning. John Biggs taught me that teaching is not about giving and receiving knowledge, but about understanding learner needs and helping them construct their own learning through learning activities and assessment methods that are aligned to these needs. That as a tutor my responsibility is to facilitate this process rather than impose the learning on the students.

Ramsden helped me understand that higher education is evolving and student learning needs are changing. From him I learnt to organize my teaching to suit students’ needs, to select teaching and assessment methods that are appropriate to these needs and last but not the least, evaluate the effectiveness of my teaching. Race gave me tips on how to enhance my classroom engagement and learner interaction. Biggs, Moon, Prideaux, Donnelly, Fritzmaurice, Boud, Resnick and Perkins introduced me to the complexities of curriculum and module design and development; understanding learning outcomes and objectives; aligning assessments to these objectives and outcomes; the three P model; and examining these in the context of the modules I teach and the programmes I deliver. Biggs also taught me to develop into the ‘Type 3’ teacher who facilitates learning using this model.

The PGCHE helped me confront and overcome my biggest fear – using technology in the classroom as a tool and a teaching strategy to enhance learning and engage students beyond the ‘brick and mortar’ classroom! Getting comfortable with ICT and the 2.0 Web technology platform was probably my biggest challenge in this learning journey. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the PGCHE for taking me from a ‘technology challenged’ individual to a ‘tech savvy’ tutor! Of course I am also grateful to my course team colleagues and my learners who were my partners in this experiment and without whose help, participation and co-operation much of this may not have been possible.

The PGCHE made me appreciate how the ‘other half’ lives and teaches. My learning set comprised of colleagues from the Design Faculty. Colleagues we normally interact with at college social functions or large academic presentations and seminars, but very rarely on a day to day basis. Getting to know my colleagues, observing them in their work environment, getting an insight into the complexities of their subject specialism opened up a whole new dimension of how creative classroom and learning experiences can be. The Design faculty probably practices collaborative, inquiry based learning at its best. Fundamentals are introduced in the class and then built on brick by brick through exploration, ideation, experimentation, discussions and critiques. Everyone is involved in the process. This is probably another big learning that I am taking away from PGCHE – how to make learning truly collaborative and fun. Observations of my peers from the design department made me understand that facilitation of learning requires huge amounts of patience, perseverance and the ability to observe and listen.

This year has made me realize that learning cannot happen in isolation. For learning to take place there has to be a learning environment that consists of tutors, mentors and guides and fellow learners, and has structure. Even though the PGCHE is about self paced learning, the programme had a certain formal teaching and learning structure of workshops, learning set meetings and discussions that supported the mature student of this programme. Tutors at the various workshops helped introduce the content of learning, the mentors (our Rocks of Gibraltar) helped us pace our learning and the learning set colleagues were the sounding board who rallied us on.

Yes, I think the PGCHE experience was worth every minute of it – late night study sessions, submission deadlines, learning set meetings, agonizing over the feedback on assignments, reliving being a student all over again.

So today there is certain sense of sadness at the end of this journey, and yet it is also a new beginning…… A new beginning with a sense of accomplishment, a sense of satisfaction of a road well traveled, a sense of excitement and renewal, a sense of expectation of moving towards something that is bigger and better than before.

“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.” ~ Khalil Gibran