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This week’s readings on inclusive pedagogy provided excellent practices for creating an inclusive teaching environment that fosters positive, long-term values of openness and acceptance of others beliefs and ideas. Arao and Clemens’ article “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces” resonated with me personally, as I was a part of the activity described in the article’sContinue reading “Incorporating Brave Spaces Into Teaching”

As we discussed during the class learning is a process of connecting between what is already known or understood and new information. Merriam Webster defines learning as “gaining knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience”. So, learning happens when people use their experience to deal with new situation, develop their …

Continue reading “Post #1 The Psychology of How People Learn”

“…to teach is not to transfer the comprehension of the object to a student but to instigate the student, who is a knowing subject, to become capable of comprehending and of communicating what has been comprehended.” – Teaching Is a Human Act, Paulo Freire Over the summer, I read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by PauloContinue reading “Translating Critical Pedagogy to Engineering”

Teaching is not an easy task to master. I think that many people outside of teaching believe that teaching is easy and that anyone can do it. This may be true, but not just anyone can teach well. There are many things going through a teacher’s mind while they are teaching. Did I make my …

Continue reading “Week 6 (Inclusive Pedagogy)”

Kozma and Clark’s debate was about whether media affects the learning process or media is just a vehicle for instructions. Since I’m an instructional designer I know well about the debate between Kozma and Clark about the media and if its ability to help students learn better or not. The basic idea of Clark’s argument …

Continue reading “Blog Post #4: Kozma and Clark’s Debate before Three Decades is still Relevant”

On average, I feel I’m part of a generation of academics that cares much more about teaching and pedagogy than some of our predecessors. It is still possible to get and keep a professorship while dedicating a minimum amount of time and attention to teaching, but it is no longer as “uncool” to care about […]

Group post by Chris Clements, Austin Garren, Jazmin Jurkiewicz, Andrew Knight, Malle Schilling, and Brittany Shaughnessy What do we mean by digital pedagogy? Digital pedagogy presents a unique set of issues that one may not think of when first stepping foot in the classroom. Digital pedagogy hosts a myriad of definitions for different people. AsContinue reading “The Trial and Error of Digital Pedagogy”

  Introduction:In this blog post we are going to address the issue of use of technology in the class, be it digital devices or educational tools. A thorough analysis of the pros and cons of different technologies will be done and discussed wi…

This is my start of my second year teaching Public Speaking at the School of Communications at Virginia Tech. I have learned many things in the first year both about teaching and about myself. I have realized that there are many important parts to being an effective teacher. For instance, preparation, approachability, and overall, even …

Continue reading “Week 4 (Teaching Style)”

Being authentic seems like a simple task; just be yourself. Being an authentic teacher in front of a full classroom takes another level of self-reflection. Are you being yourself? Are trying to be who you want to be? Are you … Continue reading →

I want to believe myself as a champion of diversity, inclusivity and equity. The struggles I’ve overcome as a human, derived of society’s response to my own identities,  have built a deep empathy for others. As a member of an under-invited group that has been marginalized by my culture, I have seen first hand how …

Continue reading “My biggest challenge in inclusive pedagogy”

In this blog, the focus will be on the topic of critical pedagogy. I was astonished while reading Paulo Freire’s philosophy on critical pedagogy in an oppressed climate in his book (1968) pedagogy of the oppressed on how it relates to our nowadays way of teaching in our public schools in Jordan. Since it is …

Continue reading “Critical Pedagogy: Ownership of Ourselves”

This week in Contemporary Pedagogy, I dedicated time to reading through the articles assigned to us regarding Digital Pedagogy. Honestly, I found the readings to be rather interesting seeing as we are currently in a purely online format, or at least I am. From here, I was not necessarily sure what to make of the …

Continue reading “Digital Pedagogy”

Airbus A321neo Taking off at Ronal Raegan International Airport (DCA). Photo by Dr. Antonio A. Trani, 2019. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) This week’s topic is one of my favorites, maybe because I am an engineer and naturally a problem solver! I think that PBL is a powerful way of learning especially for applied sciences such as … Continue reading Ready for Takeoff: Problem Based Learning →

This week’s topics centered around the idea of Inclusive Pedagogy, a term I was previously unfamiliar with. However, after reading more I really like that it’s a all hands on deck, community effort. Both the students and instructor have to work together to ensure that inclusive pedagogy is possible and actively implemented. While I really […]

This week in Contemporary Pedagogy, I read several articles regarding Digital Pedagogy and what it is and what it is NOT. I now have clarity on what is meant by pedagogy and, more specifically, digital pedagogy.  I’ll be honest, I am intimidated and overwhelmed by the various platforms and how to seamlessly integrate digital elementsContinue reading “May The Digital Pedagogical Force Be With You”

This blog post is a collaboration between Emily Burns, Jonilda Bahja, Sam Silknetter, Logan Perry, and HokieInstructor. In a post from Hybrid Pedagogy, author Sean Michael Morris writes that “just as the pedagogue will enter a room and rearrange the … Continue reading →

This week I want to reflect on Paulo Freire’s concept of  “banking” in education and what it means to practice a critical pedagogy in the classroom. For Freire, this “banking” approach to pedagogy means treating the student as an object to be filled with ‘correct’ information. It assumes that the student is passive, only a …

Continue reading “How do We Practice Critical Pedagogy?”

I began discovering my authentic teaching self during the first semester of my Ph.D. program, Fall 2019. I had no prior experience teaching in an academic setting. There I was, in my GTA assignment, in front of 60 materials science and engineering students to teach them about technical writing. My experience up until then was …

Continue reading “Discovering My Authentic Teaching Self”

I have always seen myself as a compromiser, as a person who can bring together different perspectives and create harmonious outcomes from seeming chaos. However, as I reflected on this approach following the readings by Freire, I feel this is less virtuous and more of fence-sitting neutrality. I have always seen my use of diplomacy …

Continue reading “If Teaching is a Human Act, I Need a Sea Change”

I always thought that teaching was an inherently performative activity. Therefore, I assumed that to be considered a good teacher you must conform to be an actor and entertainer in the classroom. These assumptions were built by watching both teachers a…

In December 2018 I was still working in industry, yet I was wrapping up applications to a number of colleges and universities, hoping to start back to school in the Fall 2019 semester. I knew that going back into academia … Continue reading →

I compare myself a lot to other people. That was the environment I grew up in. In Malaysia,  rankings of students after a big strings of exams were posted on the board for all to see. You, your friends, your peers, your teachers, your parents, and everyone in the school WILL know where you rank …

Continue reading “Not to Compare, I Remind Myself”

I always try to have a keen eye to learn the engaging behaviors that I observe in the teaching styles of other people. However, I have my own philosophy and do not believe in blindly imitating anyone to build my … Continue reading →

Critical pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that enables students to ask questions and challenge domination and help them strengthen their beliefs and practices in that field. The ultimate objective of higher education is to enhance students’ critical thinking and form their own ideas. Actually, critical thinking is really important and essential in higher education. InContinue reading “GRAD 5114 Post 5: Critical Pedagogy”

It was interesting, both through the readings and through class discussion, to consider the usage of laptops/cell phones in class. During undergrad, I used both laptops and cell phones for both helpful (i.e. looking up things, taking notes) and hurtful

  Introduction:In this blog post we are going to address the issue of use of technology in the class, be it digital devices or educational tools. A thorough analysis of the pros and cons of different technologies will be done and discussed wi…

Anaid Shaver, KJ Chew, Rifat Sabbir Mansur, Sam Salous, Zhenyu Yao (in alphabetical order) “We did not know it was different from online teaching. We are not sure what digital pedagogy is.” These were some of the opening statements we had in the group. Our discussion revolved around interpreting what “digital pedagogy” is.  For some … Continue reading What is Digital Pedagogy? →

Paulo Freire is a fascinating thinker of education. One of his enormously helpful preoccupations is with the question of power. This concern, of power, has reframed the entire body of discourse about education from moral and scientific to that of power and governance. However, drawing my inspiration from Freire’s text this week, let me ruminate […]

If not all educators are called to be pedagogues, then how do we hold (or expect to hold) educator’s accountable for sound pedagogical practices in a global environment where everyone is barely treading water? On the flip side of this coin (as if it’s really a coin), is the question of where the collaboration exists […]

In reading about critical pedagogy this week, it was interesting to see many things related to teaching that I had heard anecdotally take place in a scholarly format. Freire seems to be somewhat of a trailblazer on this topic! One of the things that he said that stuck out to me most was that we […]

Based on the definition, active learning is “an approach to education that does not consider students the passive recipients of knowledge transmitted from an expert, but rather, active agents in their own learning.” The approach of active learning offers two … Continue reading →

Several religions and schools of thought have emerged throughout the history of mankind. Almost always, religions attract followers by the promise of giving meaning to human lives, which serves to help them make their peace with the fact that they … Continue reading →

[Written by our entire group, listed in no particular order, Alexandria Rossi Alvarez, Daniel Linares, Jenny Kirsch, Tanya Mitropoulos, and Emma Baumgardner] If not all educators are called to be pedagogues, then how do we hold (or expect to hold) educator’s accountable for sound pedagogical practices in a global environment where everyone is barely treading …

Continue reading “Blog 4 – Digital Pedagogy”

I’m going to go on a tangent for my critical pedagogy blog post, thanks to this video and interview of Henry Giroux dredging up considerations that I’ve been mulling over for the past few years. In this video, Giroux talks about the importance in education’s development of agency in children. In fact, he proclaims that …

Continue reading “Technology and Agency (Critical Pedagogy post)”

The greatest enemy in teaching is boredom. Sitting and listening, sitting and reading, sitting and pretty much anything – these are all generally boring activities. And when you’re bored, your mind wanders away from what it’s supposed to be learning. Yet this is the most common and certainly the easiest way to teach. I’m no …

Continue reading “Discovering your teaching self”

The year 2020 has been rather interesting in the grand scheme of education. With a global pandemic on the rise,…

I consider teaching an honorable and rewarding job and I passionately immerse myself into it.  In my beginnings, I started as a high school teacher. For three years, I taught technology related courses and my students varied from 14-18 years old. In recent years, I taught undergrads for two years as instructor of record in … Continue reading Me, the “Cool” Teacher

Despite the growing demand for digital pedagogy and the creation of a massive amount of online courses over the web, most universities still prefer the traditional in-class style of teaching. Nonetheless, as I explain in this short essay, adding the … Continue reading →

Since I was a former math teacher, I was interested on employing different instructional methods that engage my students in learning process. The methods helped me to convey concepts and mathematical theories to them. I have learned more about different instructional methods, delivery mods, media attributes, etc. during my studies as a graduate student in …

Continue reading “Blog Post #3: Problem-Based Learning with Teaching Mathematics”

Over my years of teaching, one thing has always been a pet peeve of mine: laptops, phones, smart watches… etc. As someone who doesn’t necessarily believe that controlling every little thing students do is necessary for a good learning environment, … Continue reading →

For today’s blog post, I wanted to talk about teaching through problem-based learning (PBL). Much of what I have read has emphasized that teaching in a PBL setting can be difficult, and is a skill that takes time to master. As a current PhD student with little in my teaching portfolio, it seemed like a …

Continue reading “Dear Future Self: Beware (and Prepare) for Problem-Based Learning.”

While I was reading the article of Ladson-Billings about culturally responsive teaching, the reaction of teachers to her advice made me think: what is good teaching? Culturally responsible teaching is good teaching, but is it “just good teaching”? Is good teaching equivalent to culturally relevant teaching? Does culturally relevant teaching require more than “just good teaching”? […]

As a instructor for the undergraduates, I keep discovering my own true teaching style. Before being a instructor, I have been a TA for undergraduates and graduates. However, there are great differences between the TA and instructor. As a TA, the main job is to follow what instructor has taught and then solve problems forContinue reading “GRAD 5114 Post 1: Discover the authentic teaching style”

From Anaid Shaver, KJ Chew, Sam Salous, Rifat Sabbir Mansur, Zhenyu Yao “We did not know it was different from online teaching. We are not sure what digital pedagogy is.” These were some of the opening statements we had in the group. Our discussion revolved around interpreting what “digital pedagogy” is.  For some of us, …

Continue reading “What is Digital Pedagogy?”

After reading Freire’s article, I realize different aspects of Critical Pedagogy that I have never thought about. Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator, and he was seen as one of the founders of critical pedagogy. I just reflect from the readings some points could be helpful to understand the critical pedagogy. Changes the relationship between …

Continue reading “Blog Post #5: What does Critical Pedagogy Mean?”

Reading about “Discovering your teaching self” highlights the importance of the way or style of teaching. The concept of still learning and writing about this proves that there is really no right or wrong way to teach, or else it would be that simple and taught as a rule in graduate school. This means no … Continue reading GRAD 5114: Discovering your authentic teaching self

A Collaborative Blog Post Anaid Shaver, KJ Chew, Rifat Sabbir Mansur, Sam Salous, Zhenyu Yao (in alphabetical order) “We did not know it was different from online teaching. We are not sure what digital pedagogy is.” These were some of the opening statements we had in the group. Our discussion revolved around interpreting what “digitalContinue reading “What is Digital Pedagogy?”

 I was mulling over the readings and videos from this week’s focus on inclusive pedagogy and I was struggling to decide how to go about writing this blog. Why? I wasn’t sure how brave I wanted to be.I have the privilege of being white-passing and …

I read John Foran’s “The Case Method and the Interactive Classroom” and Stanford University’s “Problem-Based Learning”. This topic was super interesting to learn about because I have not often been in classes where this sort of teaching style was implemented,