As I think back on my second year in the teaching certificate program (TCP), I am not quite sure how I was able to grow so much as an educator. Thinking back to this point last year, I am much more sure of myself when it comes to teaching methods and my approach to teaching. I am also able to recognize the strengths I possess as an educator and really use those while avoiding my weaknesses. I was fortunate to be able to interact with multiple learners who allowed me to learn how to hone my teaching abilities. I believe this program has helped encourage my growth as an educator over these past two years.

One goal that I set for myself focused on my teaching delivery. I sought to become more efficient in involving learners in the lesson. Originally my plan was to develop specific interactive learning activities and use my learners as participants. This plan changed as I started coursework towards a Master of Education degree. During these courses, I became more familiar with educational terms such as pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy. Not only was I learning more about the benefits of using learner-centered education for adult learners, but I was learning the best methods for implementing these methods. From that point forward, my aim as an educator was to learn how to appropriately transition from being the “sage on the stage” into being a “guide on the side.” This transition was difficult because it was a two-fold change.

First, I needed to know how to implement these changes. I began to learn strategies that were helpful for encouraging both learner-centered and learner-driven lessons. My lessons became much less lecture-based and instead focused on facilitating discussions about the material. I found that I increased class involvement and appeared to help with subject retention. Using a strategy I learned during the American Association of College of Pharmacy Teachers Seminar, I also started focusing on using testing as a means of teaching. I wanted to find a way to make testing and teaching fun for my learners. One of my favorite "games" was to have my students pick 2 random numbers. The first number selected which patient we would be discussing and the second number selected the medication from their list of medications. We would discuss what they knew about the medication from previous lessons, but also what was important for them to know for my rotation and moving forward. This method worked because it forced spaced retrieval of material and allowed the learners to reflect on the knowledge they had retained. This seemed to help my learners be less intimidated by questions that they were asked during rounds and increased their confidence in their knowledge.

The second barrier to implementing less lecture-style teaching was learning when it was appropriate to teach using this method. There were certain lessons throughout the year that I could not teach in a way that allowed increased autonomy for the learner. The learner’s motivation to listen to the lesson often impeded my ability to let them drive the experience. If a learner was unwilling to help guide the lesson, I would often have to resort back to methods I was experienced in and comfortable with. When I was required to revert back to old strategies, I would then seek the feedback of more experienced educators to see what they would have done in similar scenarios. I hope that in the future I will be able to implement the most effective learning strategies possible for my learners while being able to overcome barriers that are presented to me.

As previously mentioned, I believe that I have begun to learn how to tap into my strengths as an educator to enhance a learning experience while avoiding my weaknesses which may hinder the lesson. One of the strengths I have leaned heavily on this year is my ability to build rapport with my learners. I feel as though my learners trust me as someone they can be honest with and discuss the material they understand as well as the parts that are leaving them confused. This has allowed me to refocus material throughout the lesson to touch on topics with which they were struggling. I also believe that I have continued to use my strength of adapting material to my learners’ abilities. This was a strength I believe I already possessed last year. By being able to describe the information to all kinds of learners, I felt that I was not limited in the types of learners I could educate.

For weaknesses, it felt like I was not always comfortable with adapting my teaching methods to make learners more involved. This was a teaching goal I wanted to focus on this year, but it did seem that if I was uncomfortable during a learning session I would revert back to what made me feel more comfortable. I hope that as I teach more, I am able to practice different teaching methods so that, not only do I know which method works best for me, but I can also teach using a variety of teaching methods.

A second goal that I set for myself during this year was to become stronger at providing objective, high-quality written and verbal feedback. This very well could be where I grew the most as an educator from last year to this year. I became much more successful at evaluating where my learner stood as far as understanding the material. This success was rooted in the concept of using testing as a means for spaced retrieval. My learners were much more willing to answer my questions when they came from a relaxed situation rather than an actual quiz. I then knew where my learners stood and could provide feedback and adjust my teaching. During these reflection sessions, I would also receive feedback from my learners so that I could help provide a clearer explanation of the material. The newest form of assessment that I used this year was PollEverywhere during my long lectures. I found that it would show me how well learners were retaining my information while also increasing classroom engagement. Writing test items for the pharmacology course was something that I found difficult, but was a great exercise for my growth. Initially, my questions were too broad and needed to be more specific for my material. I also found myself using phrases that I use in practice, but did not use when teaching the lecture. I think that I will need to continue to practice writing test items so that I will be stronger at this in the future.

As far as the quality of my feedback, I wanted to become much more descriptive in my explanations. This led to my written feedback being wordier and verbal feedback sessions being longer. Initially, I was worried that the learners would either be discouraged by the amount of feedback or would not pay attention to its entirety. To help alleviate these worries, I began to focus on making sure that the feedback I gave was not only constructive but was also necessary. I wanted my feedback to be almost all objective with very little input from subjective thought. This seemed to help the learners understand why the feedback was necessary while also giving them actionable items they could work on to improve in the future. I wanted to assure that the feedback session was not unidirectional, so the feedback session always started with the learner speaking first. They were able to point out many of the things that I was going to say in the first place, so it encouraged self-recognition of areas of growth. My learners often said that they appreciated this method of feedback because it allowed them to tell their side of the story first and explain how they felt about the experience.

During this reflection, I have mentioned two of my three teaching goals for this year. I feel that I have made great progress toward all three of my goals since July. The final goal that has not been previously mentioned was to develop effective lesson plans. The Teachers Seminar over the summer focused on how to effectively develop a lesson plan using design thinking. I tried to place myself in the shoes of the learner every time that I developed a lesson. This process of trying to relate to my learners worked well for me at first. I was able to relate to several of my learners and see the situation through their eyes. There were a couple of instances where I tested the lesson on learners that I thought I understood well and the lesson crashed and burned. This taught me to be ready to improvise and change on the fly so that I can meet the needs of my learners. This method for lesson planning seems to work well in the didactic curriculum but was not very beneficial in my patient and caregiver interactions

Overall, I believe I have made great progress toward my goals. I have started to allow my learners to dictate their learning experiences rather than force them to learn using a method they are uncomfortable with. This has allowed me to see what information is most important to them while also seeing how they retain the knowledge on their own. I will continue to investigate andragogy and heutagogy and how to further integrate them into my education. My ability to give feedback to my learners and receive feedback myself, from both learners and mentors, has grown throughout the year. I attribute this to my ability to self-assess as well as use testing as a means of teaching. My learners were much more willing to be assessed when the testing was risk-free and instead was a means for helping them recall information. Finally, I focused on developing quality lesson plans for my learning sessions. This was tested as I developed two hours of lectures for pharmacy students this year. As I reflected on this session, I believe that the true test of my lesson planning abilities will not be seen the first time that I produce a lesson plan but instead, as I test the lesson plan, see its shortcomings, and adapt it to improve it.

I am thankful for all of the opportunities that the teaching certificate program has provided for me over the past two years. I hope that I am able to take the exercises within the program (reflections, meetings with mentors, goal setting, etc.) and continue to use them throughout my teaching journey as I continue to grow as an educator.