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In 1944, Clive Staples Lewis published The Abolition of Man which later became one of his most popular non-fiction writings. In the opening chapter of the book, Lewis expresses his frustration over an English textbook intended for grade school students.

I really enjoyed this week’s topics and readings, as they are incredibility relevant to the online learning situation we have going on right now at Virginia Tech and around the world. We have all had to adjust to online learning with the coronavirus pandemic. I have also had to adjust with teaching as well now …

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The reading from the New York Times, “Leave Your Laptops at the Door of My Classroom”, was adamantly against allowing students to use laptops during class. I have had professors in the past who feel the same, and have “no electronics” policies. As someone who uses their laptop in class to take notes exclusively, I …

Continue reading “Response to “Leave Your Laptops at the Door of My Classroom””

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 …

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I get to design and teach an online course for Spring 2021 for my Graduate Assistantship. I will teach a Pathways course, Educating Exceptional Learners, so I will have undergraduate students from various majors. I hope to motivate students to…

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For this week’s blog post, we were to take a look at what we think is our authentic teaching self. I have spent the week pondering this question, as I have found that my authentic teaching self is something that I pride myself on. It took me a long time to find my authentic teaching …

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I began this week by reading “Case-based Learning” from the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. As I read, I reflected on the number of case-based and problem-based assignments that I have been assigned as a student or led as

In “Teaching As An Act of Love: The Classroom and Critical Praxis,” Antonia Darder (2002) draws from Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and the concept of teaching as an act of love is directly connected to educators who have passion for teaching to the extent that they may have had a lifelong dream to …

Continue reading “Critical Pedagogy: This is Real Life!”

I am a teacher but I had limited training on how to be a teacher. I have taught several times in the past and I am currently teaching a large undergraduate biochemistry course. I am passionate about teaching and I make sure to put my heart and effort in every single one of my course …

Continue reading “Being critical of my teaching”

Education is not always an easy process. Learning a skill or studying requires constant improvement of one’s current knowledge/skill. Studying…

“The climate of respect that is born of just, serious, humble, and generous relationships, in which both the authority of the teacher and the freedom of the students are ethically grounded, is what converts pedagogical space into authentic educational experience.” – Freire (1998). For this week’s blog post, I decided to summarize points that resonated […]

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 →

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 →

As I started to reflect on my teaching voice, I first turned to this week’s video lecture given by our professor. I was intrigued by the teaching advice given, especially the piece about mindful use of humor. I consider myself a self-deprecating, go-with-the-flow person; and this is apparent in my teaching style. I have gotten …

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The Trial and Error of Digital Pedagogy 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 …

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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 […]

I think many of the popular pedagogical approaches (problem-based learning, active learning, case-based pedagogies) have expanded to various learning environments and disciplines. This is a good thing, do not get me wrong, but I also tend to stumble upon conversations that talk about how some instructors struggle with implementing those in their classrooms, and some …

Continue reading “Let’s Pump the Brakes before Diving Straight into Popular Pedagogies”

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 existsContinue reading “Digital Pedagogy Group Post”

 According to The Teaching Commons, “inclusive pedagogy is a is a method of teaching in which instructors and classmates work together to create a supportive environment that gives each student equal access to learning” (The Teaching Commons, 2020…

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 read Freire’s “Teaching Is A Human Act” document and found it quite poignant. The “Caring For Students” section resonated with me because I had recently discussed the semester with other GTAs in various courses. Although we serve in different capacities in different departments, we all concluded that instructional staff (GTAs included) are … Continue reading Reflections on Listening

When I think of this topic, I am hearkened (such a lofty word, no?) to my time as a Master’s student and taking my first ever class on multiculturalism. In all my undergraduate years, I cannot recall a single class that discussed cultural, racial and ethnic inclusivity in the classroom or how to attend toContinue reading “Inclusive Pedagogy”

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”

At the time of writing this post, I have not taught a college class before, however, I am on my third semester as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). I believe that the journey of realizing someone’s authentic teaching self is a process that could start way before they formally become a teacher. I have always practiced … Continue reading Finding 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”

Being a PhD student in engineering education, I’m regularly thinking about the many ways in which engineering education can be improved, often from the standpoint of my own experiences from my undergraduate education in mechanical engineering. I often daydream about what I’d do differently if I was the instructor of these courses, not that IContinue reading “Inclusive Pedagogy and Engineering”

In this blog post we are going to address the issue of the 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 with respect to our personal experiences in academia. As a team, we felt …

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The most common form of classroom teaching has always been a traditional form where the professor comes to class to deliver lecture and the student listen to take notes. This form of teaching has been in existence since time immemorial and has been very effective. However, with the ever evolving change in global technology, the […]

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, …

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Digital pedagogy is the study and use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. Some people will misunderstand the digital pedagogy and online teaching. During this pandemic, most of teaching activities are moved online and the online teaching is not equal to the digital pedagogy. On the contrary, I would view digital pedagogy as aContinue reading “GRAD 5114 Post 4: Digital Pedagogy”

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 →

I am addicted to my smartphone. And it’s making me depressed, destroying my creativity, ruining my attention span, and straining my in-person relationships. I’d venture to say that you are probably addicted to your smartphone, too. How do you feel about that? Is it negatively impacting your life? Recently, I’ve been trying to work on […]

This week’s readings focused on case-based and problem-based learning.  A Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) proposes that “Students learn best by constructing solutions to open-ended, complex, and problematic activities with classmates, rather than listening passively to lectures.” This week’s readings led me to reflect on my own experiences with problem-based learning […]

This week’s readings on project-based learning and case-based learning sparked a lot of interest in how I want to teach one day as a full professor or graduate student in charge of organizing my class content. I believe that problem-based learning objectives help students contextualize their learning into long-term application that can help prepare ourContinue reading “Long-Term Study Abroad as PBL”

  As I ponder on the different formats of learning, I find the fascinating characteristics of different learning formats and…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach and curriculum design methodology often used in higher education and K-12 settings [Savery, J. R., & Duffy, T. M. (1995)]. In this method, the teacher exposes the students to “challenging, open-ended problems with … Continue reading →

Like Sarah Deel, I also came from a liberal arts college that put a strong emphasis on teaching. In fact, it was the impact my professors had on me as such great teachers that led me to want to become part of academia. In a letter I wrote during my sen…

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 tables and chairs to suit his purpose, so too will the digital pedagogue happily hack … Continue reading Digital Pedagogy

By my calculations, between the years of 2011 and 2020, I have participated in at least 61 classes at three different institutions of higher education. I’ve taken courses ranging from “Existentialist Philosophy” and “Islam and Christian Theology” to “Finite Element Methods” and “Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.” To say that I’ve been exposed to several different teaching […]

My closest experience to a case-based class was a graduate class at Virginia Tech on Decision Analysis. It was more of a flipped course in which we had to prepare for the material and were handed a related challenging problem … Continue reading →

A lot of things in the introduction of the ‘Finding My Teaching Voice’ article by Sarah E. Deel really resonated with me, as my first experience lecturing was also a subject I never studied in undergrad. I felt like I

I love the idea of case-based pedagogy as a style of learning. Too often have I sat in a college class and wondered the relevancy of the material to the real world. Case studies allow students to connect what’s going on in their lives to their education, and ultimately get the most out of the …

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As a current graduate student and undergraduate teacher, I find myself oscillating between the two poles of student and teacher. I find myself constantly wondering how to approach the classroom and what I consider to be the most valuable aspects of teaching. I often ask myself what worked in my classes and how can I …

Continue reading “Discovering My Authentic Teaching Self”

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 →

The readings this week, like many readings I have encountered over the years, confirmed my opinions on our education systems. The systems that see students as consumers and “to be taught”. The systems that aim to “process” these students to make sure they have a role in this society. The systems that constantly reproducing the …

Continue reading “Realizing Critical Pedagogies”

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”? […]

I discovered early on that teaching is by far the most enjoyable activity for me. My favorite game was to gather children the same age and play the role of their teacher. I was lucky to have a younger sister … Continue reading →

Inclusivity is vital more now than ever. A learning environment should be a safe space. My intent as an educator is to create a learning environment characterized by a positive outlook. I, too, am concerned about our world and our society, and am deeply disturbed by what I see. However, I have made the personal … Continue reading How To Adopt Inclusive 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

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. As …

Continue reading “The Trial and Error of Digital Pedagogy”