Activity 2: Shawna's task

Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Shawna Williams -
Number of replies: 12

Context: I've recently stepped into the role of Educational Developer, and helping to shape a Faculty Development program which is aiming to move away from one-off workshops, to series of interconnected/related workshops that culminate in reflective tasks that are directly related to each participant's teaching practice. These workshops are aimed at giving faculty tools for engaged teaching, curriculum and assessment design, intercultural communication, de-colonizing, etc.

One major challenge is that faculty are teaching across departments, with varied schedules, and our unit needs to offer flexibility but motivation for follow-up and "completion". So,  whereas there will be high interest and motivation to attend the sessions (and series), there isn't always the ideal opportunity to gather participants together after the workshops for a) setting an intention of trying something new/different in their class, b) reflecting on how the trial worked, and c) celebrating those who take risks to change-up their teaching approach(es).

Reflection Task:

Purpose: To apply new knowledge from the workshops into participants' own teaching practices to gain the experiential element, and then to reflect on this application to delve deeper and recognize changes and opportunities for their teaching practices through the process.

Step 1: Make an intention to try apply changes in your teaching practice. From the workshops, think of 1-3 changes you wish to make and plan the steps to implement these changes. For example, you could ....

  • revise your course/class learning outcomes
  • create a detailed lesson plan that integrates active learning strategies
  • introduce a series of self-regulated learning activities into your course
  • invite students to a discussion around land acknowledgement
Step 2: After implementing the above, take the time to reflect on the outcome...Consider questions such as what was your reaction? how did students respond? what went well? what was the most challenging part? will you continue or abandon this change in your practice? Share your reflection (publicly, with a small group, or with a chosen mentor) using the medium of your choice; for example: a blog post, a journal reflection, a video, a dialogue, etc.

My questions:

  • I like the idea of choice for faculty, but not want to overwhelm. Ideas for the kinds of tasks for the setting of intentions and how that can be realized, as well as options for how to articulate their reflections. Do you have any suggestions?
  • Is step 2 too vague? Would participants need more parameters? 
  • I like the idea of having this post-session(s) task be housed in an online platform (though at this stage, all/most of our workshops are face-to-face), but I wonder if that's too limiting?
In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Hi Shawna,

Ooh I love me a good faculty development scenario! It's near and dear to my heart. ;-)

I really like where you're going with this, the only thing I'm wondering about is if your Step 1 ideas are too grand. It's a lot of work to rewrite learning outcomes for an entire course, or "introduce a series" of learning activities. Could you narrow their focus a bit, to make each possible change more of a "baby step" approach? I am very used to working with faculty members who are stretched, stretched, stretched, so the more you can make the steps "doable" the more I think you might be able to get uptake on people actually doing them.

I like your idea of using an online site to support this process. To this end I wanted to share with you an online site (that is now an OER) that shows a microcourse that I led the creation of a couple of years ago at Royal Roads. It was a week-long fully online session that we created to help RRU faculty test out tools they could use to meet the "technology-enhanced" element of the (now old version of the) RRU learning and teaching model. If you dive into one of the "Learn about..." pages, you'll see the structure we used. First we showed the faculty learner the tool (e.g. Padlet), then we told them about how it was used at RRU (to help them see that other faculty were using it), then we talked about the result of what happened when the faculty used it, and then we gave them tools to "try it out" (the online tool) for themselves. I was wondering if you could set up a similar approach with engaged teaching strategies, such as is your focus. It might help faculty to see examples of what other faculty are doing/have done, why they did it and how it was received...

Hope this helps!

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Shawna Williams -

Thanks for this, Beth. Very cool site that you shared. I've taken a brief look and am excited to delve further.

I agree that the Step 1 suggestions might be better contained to more 'baby step' approaches.

And the more I think about it, I do like the idea of having an online site, since f2f might be too difficult given faculty with different schedules and physical locations across campus. I also think it could be a support to engage in the online environment given that even for f2f classes, there is an expectation to have an online component.

In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Doug Strable -

Thanks, Beth for introducing the learning site! I like the idea of an online site for "instructor follow up".  a great idea that I see I can use as well for faculty training. 

Doug 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Absolutely! The OER site at oer.royalroads.ca is a little treasure trove of great stuff, you just have to dive for it. ;-)

In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Those reasons are exactly why we created that micro-course online, as RRU faculty are spread all over the world and we wanted people to be able to equally access the learning opportunity. And I think it always helps faculty to see and be a part of great modeling of online facilitation (I say as both an ID and faculty member myself!).

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Doug Strable -

I think it always helps faculty to see and be a part of great modeling of online facilitation.

Exactly Beth, my thoughts as well (and some faculty I've talked with in Japan). To see and hear stories of how other faculty are approaching the tasks is an ideal way of growing.  

I look forward to meeting again in a FLO course. 

In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Leonne Beebe -

Shawna,

Once again, it feels like this Micro FLO's "group consciousness" is reaching out to answer questions we may have asked before.  

This activity for your teachers outlines just where I am now with beginning to infuse indigenous and western traditions into my teaching and course work.  Reading through your activity, I felt like you designed this for me.  I would find this (and will follow this) as a relevant and useful reflection guide. You allow for individual flexibility in Step 1 and again offer flexible suggestions for reflection in Step 2.  

Using an online discussion forum/blog for teachers to post their reflections and respond to others would accommodate timing issues and keep the discussions permanent; this would also allow teachers to go back, re-read and/or continue to add to their reflections. This sounds like the beginning of a community of practice with your teachers.  F2F meetings are useful for sharing, but unless they are video-recorded and posted, the thoughts and words are lost to memory.  If you missed the meeting, you missed the message.  Suggesting various formats allows the teachers to choose what format they prefer to use as well as offering variety and the motivation to learn new tools.  Otherwise, discussions often up as written posts. 

I look forward to learning with and from you and from the other participants' feedback and comments.

Out of confusion comes clarity.

Leonne

In reply to Leonne Beebe

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Shawna Williams -

Hello Leonne,

Thank you so much for this feedback. Interestingly enough, we are looking to form a Community of Practice with another group of faculty who completed an Advanced Teaching Seminar. I feel this would be another venue for an emerging CoP. I agree that the flexibility is important, as we'll be engaging with faculty at different stages of their teaching careers and wanting to engage in different aspects of their practice. Again, I appreciate the encouragement to use an online forum for 'containing' this group and for 'housing' their reflections so as they're not lost to memory, but accessible for other to learn from.

Many thanks

In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Heather Smith -

Hi Shawna --  I really like the idea of the follow up from the workshops because so often our workshop experiences get lost in the shuffle of the demands of our teaching and the insights and ah ha moments from workshops are not operationalized. So I like the intentionality of this exercise. 

One practical question I have is how will workshop participants be reminded of this commitment or intention? Will workshop instructors do the follow up? 

I like the freedom for the participants to choose their intentions -- we all take sometime different out of common spaces. One question I might add for the reflections is why did they choose to make changes in that particular area? What were the instructors hopes or aspirations in making that change? And I was wondering if instructors might be encouraged to seek formative feedback from the students thus giving them some feedback other than their own reflections? 

In terms of the platform for sharing -- I like the public facing idea but I wonder if all the workshops are taken as a cohort or its it's different folks over time...I guess I'm just wondering how participants would feel about public sharing. I could be really cool. 

That's it from me. 

Cheers - Heather 

In reply to Heather Smith

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Shawna Williams -

Hi Heather,

So true. Much of what can be gleaned from workshops, conferences, etc. can be lost in the shuffle without that intentionality. 

At this stage, I'm not certain who would do the follow-up. I suspect it'd have to be the person (me?) assigned to the overall 'program'. Individual workshop facilitators would likely not be available for the follow-up, even though they'd be the ideal people to do so. As you might tell from my answer, this is a work-in-progress, so appreciate such questions and knowing it has to be accounted for in the design.

I LOVE the idea of asking faculty to engage in seeking formative feedback from their students! It can be very empowering and students often love it, too. (I attended a workshop on this very topic a few years ago, and tried it out with my class. I invited them to write on paper one thing in class we should continue doing and one thing we should stop, then they balled up their papers and tossed them at me like snowballs. The first student was hesitant, but at the end, they rest loved throwing the balls at me! I think crumpled them, read them in private, and it was so humbling and rewarding to read what they wrote outside of a formal evaluation process.)

Also, I appreciate the questions for considering why they made the intentions they did. 


In reply to Shawna Williams

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Viviana Chiorean -

Hi Shawna,

I couldn't agree more that in the scholarship of teaching and learning, there needs to be a consistent message that "innovative teaching" is valued and rewarded as handsomely as "innovative research" which ties in to your point "c) celebrating those who take risks to change-up their teaching approach(es)."

The UFV Teaching and Learning centre provides an opportunity for a small reward through a fund for "Innovative Teaching" which takes applications from all departments. I think this is a fun way to showcase institutional support and motivate faculty to explore innovative methods. There are also workshops on de-colonization and the journey toward reconciliation, digital assessment and blackboard tools among many others. 

I could go on but at this hour I will link my blog post on institutional support here: https://vivianachiorean.wordpress.com

In terms of your questions, no I do not think that step 2 is too vague at all. You provided sufficient guiding questions that faculty can use to reflect. Also, an online platform is a fantastic idea! Many educators have blogs (my son is in grade 5 now and his kindergarten teacher had a blog). Hope this is helpful. 

Viviana

In reply to Viviana Chiorean

Re: Activity 2: Shawna's task

by Shawna Williams -

Hi Viviana,

Hear, hear! I love ideas on how we can find ways to celebrate and motivate, and while monetary rewards aren't always the answer, they can certainly help. I just looked up the UFV "FIT". It's great, and it seems like there is faculty engagement and interest. I'm curious to explore further. At my institution, some of the initial thoughts are for people who go through a series of 'foundational' courses and interest-area streams, and who complete this reflective aspect, to be eligible fro funds to support their attendance at a conference in that same stream, and bring their learnings back to the college. (I have some conflicted feelings about sending one person to a conference with the expectation that they are responsible to bring teachings back, but that's another post....). Anyway, it is looking at finding ways to celebrate with a reward faculty commitment to engage in innovative teaching (especially important since my college is a teaching college, not a research insitution).

Thanks for sharing your blog post. I read it, and totally agree with your thoughts.