Teaching philosophy
“The sense of vitality and the surge of emotion we feel when touched by one of the arts can also be secured in the ideas we explore with students, in the challenges we encounter in doing critical inquiry, and in the appetite for learning we stimulate”
(Eisner, 2002, p.13).
(Eisner, 2002, p.13).
My teaching philosophy reflects a commitment to facilitating learning experiences in which students are invited to fall in love with the world and to find meaning from their place in it. This notion of preserving joy and cultivating passion in learning, shapes my classrooms. I believe that student engagement is inseparable from the rush of excitement that follows a child’s flash of insight, or the opening of a topic to a huge horizon of relationships and possibilities. As a teacher, I prioritize getting to know each student’s individual story. I believe in the importance of building a learning community that is critically aware of the physical, cultural, historical and political places we inhabit and their relation to the topics we study. My pedagogy is inquiry-based, focused on interactive learning experiences that engage students collaboratively, intellectually and emotionally with authentic questions that invite in-depth exploration and appreciation of our world.
Student-centred practice
I believe that teaching is a fundamentally responsive art that must be grounded in an acknowledgement of each learner’s unique perspectives and passions. I dedicate a significant amount of time when my classes first come together to inviting students to share their stories. Through pictures, movement, games, conversation and structured learning activities, we build a better sense of who each individual is and how they are connected to the whole. By celebrating each person within the learning community I strive to help my students feel comfortable in revealing the strengths, vulnerabilities, and assumptions they bring to the classroom. As Palmer (1998) writes, “making space for the other, being aware of the other, paying attention to the other, honouring the other [means] entering emphatically into the student’s world so that he or she perceives you as someone who has the promise of being able to hear another person’s truth” (p. 46).
Connection to Place
"“All important ideas must include the trees, the mountains, and the rivers”
(Oliver, 2015, p.17).
"“All important ideas must include the trees, the mountains, and the rivers”
(Oliver, 2015, p.17).
My pedagogy prioritizes active exploration that is firmly grounded in the world around us. I believe that topics exist as a network of interconnections that can only be properly understood in relation to the contexts in which they exist. Authentic inquiry necessarily arises from tangible encounters, rather than reduced, universalized programs or texts. Whether the physical learning environment is a windowless classroom, or a forest floor, I endeavour to design experiences that invite immersion in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, and experiences, using these as a foundation for the study of a topic. Through play, experimentation, and imaginative attention, I believe we can open up new horizons of possibilities for falling in love with the world we inhabit. As Zwicky (2003) writes: “The world has patterns, of which our thinking is part. It makes us feel good to experience these patterns: it is one way of coming home” (p. 114).
Collaborative learning
I am deeply invested in collaborative learning and the way that understanding is amplified when we explore, teach, and learn together. I believe that “learning demands community - a dialogical exchange in which our ignorance can be aired, our ideas tested, our biases challenged, and our knowledge expanded” (Palmer, 1998, p. 79). My pedagogy encourages students to seek peer interaction through all stages of their learning, from brainstorming, to conjecturing, to experimentation and presentation. As students articulate their thinking and explain themselves to others, they are forced to create and acknowledge meaning through discourse, cultivating the confidence to admit error and seek to have it corrected. With questions such as: “Why are these classification schemes used? What happens if that assumption is dropped? How has this topic shaped or been shaped by our living environment?”, my classes engage in collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity as part of learning, along with ongoing critique and reflection in order to encourage students to deepen, articulate, and refine their understanding.
Teaching Methods
Inquiry
“Prescription is writing that occurs in advance, a charting of a particular path; proscription is a scribing not of a route but of boundaries.”
(Davis, 1996, p. 91)
“Prescription is writing that occurs in advance, a charting of a particular path; proscription is a scribing not of a route but of boundaries.”
(Davis, 1996, p. 91)
As a student-centred, inquiry-based educator, I believe that learning outcomes must emerge from an interaction between the learner and the living topic. In a K-12 classroom this approach means that we do not begin a task by focusing on a set of discrete and disconnected learning outcomes listed in the program of study. Rather we spend some time with a topic, exploring what is most compelling or intriguing, what possible debates, issues, or questions it holds that might be worthy of sustained investigation. As we gain a better understanding of students’ prior knowledge, misconceptions, and curiosities, we are better able to define a task and clear learning intentions that are appropriate not just to the topic, but to the students’ unique contexts.
At the post-secondary level, I have found that engaging pre-service teachers and teachers in inquiry more often involves asking them to take off their teacher hats and reconnect the heart to the head in their learning. As Dewey (1934) writes “the enemies of the aesthetic are neither the practical nor the intellectual. They are the humdrum; slackness of loose ends; submission to convention in practice and intellectual procedure” (p. 42). What is it about a topic that sparks your interest and how can this be stoked into flame? Find yourself in the topic. Trust your instincts and your intuition. Experiment. Observe. Listen. What makes you pause, wonder, or light up with excitement? That is where learning lies.
At the post-secondary level, I have found that engaging pre-service teachers and teachers in inquiry more often involves asking them to take off their teacher hats and reconnect the heart to the head in their learning. As Dewey (1934) writes “the enemies of the aesthetic are neither the practical nor the intellectual. They are the humdrum; slackness of loose ends; submission to convention in practice and intellectual procedure” (p. 42). What is it about a topic that sparks your interest and how can this be stoked into flame? Find yourself in the topic. Trust your instincts and your intuition. Experiment. Observe. Listen. What makes you pause, wonder, or light up with excitement? That is where learning lies.
Experiential learning
In the Western tradition, knowledge has often been understood as a collection of facts, a body of content, or a list of processes or procedures to master. However, within a rich inquiry space, rather than learning about a particular topic, students are invited to experience that topic as scientists, dancers, mathematicians, musicians, or explorers. As Christopher Danielsen (2015) writes: ““What exactly is a vertex?” is a much richer and meatier mathematical question than “How many vertices does this shape have?”” Second graders are ready to do some real mathematics, and sorting triangles from rectangles is not it. This idea of having an experience prioritizes physical experimentation in the classroom. I believe that embodied cognition is often key to deep comprehension. Whether it be exploring balance through dance, inclined planes via car races, combustion through fire starting, or Newton’s Laws on a longboard, concepts that are experienced are much more likely to be retained. Whenever my students appear stuck in their thinking, the answer has always been to have an experience. I believe that the best way to get students to change the way they think is by giving them opportunities to change they way they live and play.
Ongoing formative assessment
The critical thinking expected of students in a student-centred, inquiry-based, experiential learning environment “is not a generic phenomenon” (Friesen & Jardine, 2009, p. 20) that can be assessed formulaically. Students and teachers alike must be mutually invested in finding the best way to communicate about what has been achieved and what to work on next (Black & Wiliam, 2004). In my classroom, it is always an expectation that students can clearly articulate their individual learning goals and can identify what they need to do to reach them. The importance of assessment for learning is deliberately emphasized in an effort to encourage students’ confidence in admitting errors or seeking critique. As students work their way through a particular task or experience, I aim to be present and accessible, providing ongoing feedback that is substantive, specific, and contextual. Students are also encouraged to seek feedback from their environment (peers, sources) in a wide range of settings and a variety of circumstances. It is my goal in any learning environment to ensure that assessment is embedded in all aspects of student learning.
References
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2004). The Formative Purpose: Assessment Must First Promote Learning. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 103(2), 20-50.
Danielson, C. (2015, February 08). The twin cities shapes tour. [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/the-twin-cities-shapes-tour/
Davis, B. (1996). Teaching mathematics: Towards a sound alternative. New York, NY: Garland Publishing Inc.
Dewey, J. (1934). Having an experience. New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group.
Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
Friesen, S. & Jardine, D. (2009). 21st Century Learning and Learners. Western and Northern Canadian Curriculum Protocol. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/7925594/21st_Century_Learners_and_Learning_A_report_prepared_for_the_Western_and_Northern_Canadian_Curriculum_Protocol_for_Collaboration_in_Education
Oliver, M. (2016). Felicity. New York: Penguin Press.
Palmer, P. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Zwicky, J. (2003). Wisdom & Metaphor. Kentville, N.S.: Gaspereau Press
Danielson, C. (2015, February 08). The twin cities shapes tour. [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/the-twin-cities-shapes-tour/
Davis, B. (1996). Teaching mathematics: Towards a sound alternative. New York, NY: Garland Publishing Inc.
Dewey, J. (1934). Having an experience. New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group.
Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
Friesen, S. & Jardine, D. (2009). 21st Century Learning and Learners. Western and Northern Canadian Curriculum Protocol. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/7925594/21st_Century_Learners_and_Learning_A_report_prepared_for_the_Western_and_Northern_Canadian_Curriculum_Protocol_for_Collaboration_in_Education
Oliver, M. (2016). Felicity. New York: Penguin Press.
Palmer, P. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Zwicky, J. (2003). Wisdom & Metaphor. Kentville, N.S.: Gaspereau Press