1. Description of Competency

Instructional strategies, such as how to organize a class, enhance students' learning. Instructional strategies contain peer instructions, how to design questions for students, and how to group students.

2. Artifact(s)

To learn how to create effective learning environments, I attended the workshop for certification in the college teaching institute on May 9th, 2019. The workshop covered how to cultivate effective learning environments by promoting student success and engagement and creating inclusive learning spaces. You can find the workshop materials here (schedule and agenda, worksheet for the session addressing effective learning environments).

3. Artifact(s) Rationale

The workshop was designed to build around experiences in and demonstration of learning in five competency areas including creating effective learning environments. The topic included: students' learning styles, diversity, motivation, communication styles, active learning, and classroom management strategies.

4. Interpretation and Reflection

The main skill set I learned from the workshop was how to utilize peer instructions in the classroom. Students are often struggling to express their opinions in a classroom, especially when the size of the classroom is bigger and when students have non-traditional backgrounds (e.g., first-generation students or minority students). As an instructor, it is a critical skill to ask the right question and build a comfortable atmosphere for students to express their opinions. Utilizing peer instructions is one way to create an easy atmosphere to encourage students to participate in class discussions.

To apply what I learned from the workshop, I utilized peer instructions when I organized my classes. For instance, when teaching the cultural context in the intercultural communication course as the instructor of record (you can find the syllabus of the intercultural communication course I designed here), I randomly grouped students to create discussions between students. For each group, I distributed a different set of proverbs across the countries in the world (see Table 1). Students first categorized each proverb (e.g., If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together) according to Hofstede's six dimensions of national culture (e.g., individualism versus collectivism). Then, I paired students to compare their answers and discuss what they found. After students had a group discussion with their group, we have a discussion as a class and I provided feedback on their answers. The peer instructions encouraged students to participate in the discussion and created a more friendly environment for students to express their opinions.

One thing I would like to investigate further in the future is how to group students effectively though. I found how grouping students could influence the direction of the class discussion, and randomly grouping students or letting students create their own group are not always the best ways to do the peer instructions. I am navigating a way to group students in a better way to create an inclusive environment.