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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 with respect to our personal experiences in academia. As a team we felt …

Continue reading “Group blog post: personal and group experiences on banning technology in the classroom”

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 “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!”

To progress as a society, we need to rethink the way we educate our students. This begins at the most basic level: the teacher-student relationship. The “banking” model of education is a pervasive issue throughout academia that has defined this relationship for far too long. In this approach, students are conceptualized as receptacles into which […]

In my education as a teacher, I have learned the importance of active learning and problem based learning in the classroom. I also reflect in my time as a student, and in retrospective I learned the most when I was challenged with applying my knowledge in to a problem or a case study. This is …

Continue reading “Applying problem based learning in a large class”

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”

I have never really reflected on this idea of “who I want to be in the classroom”. I was raised to be a very empathetic person, but still, hold the structure in everything I do. I think that’s what I want to take with me. I think it is important to be able to place …

Continue reading “Blog Post 1 – Discovering your authentic teaching self”

For this blog post, I read about Paulo Freire’s “Banking” concept. This is basically where students are viewed as receptacles that teachers fill with knowledge. The students are expected to listen to the teacher and absorb all of the information the teacher gives them, and the teacher is expected to “deposit” this information. Freire views …

Continue reading “Blog Post 5: Is the “Banking” Model of Education All Bad?”

This week’s readings talked about critical pedagogy and brought forth a lot of different ideas and thoughts. For me, especially, the readings hit home in the sense that they made me look at some different aspects of my own teaching that may or may not need to be changed. (Freire) spoke about the ‘banking system …

Continue reading “Week 12 (Critical Pedagogy)”

While I believe that Case-Based or Problem-Based learning can be a valuable way to engage students in the classroom, it also seems that there are some challenges that instructors must be prepared to navigate if they intend to implement this learning style. My initial reaction to some of the readings was to wonder how peopleContinue reading “Case-Based Pedagogy”

Sarah Deel’s article was profound. She detailed some of the minutia many GTAs tend to overlook when first starting their assignment. The article was relatable; it was reassuring to know we posted similar questions. However, I still don’t feel confident enough to fully define my teaching voice. I’ve been a GTA for a few semesters … Continue reading What’s My Teaching Voice?

Society, by common definition, is the aggregate of people living together for a particular purpose. A society also follows customs…

Image source: https://www.thecloroxcompany.com Since, I have come to United States and started my program, I’ve been interacting with diverse classmates who are different than me in culture, gender, color, religion, language, ability, life experience, education skills, etc. This is a completely new experience for me! I realize how America is a diverse place that is …

Continue reading “Blog Post #2: Inclusive Pedagogy”

As I was reading this weeks’s material on inclusive pedagogy, I started reflecting on my own experience as a student through the undergraduate level until today. As I was processing the ideas in from Arao and Clemens [1] and from The Teaching Commons I found myself listing the most memorable classes where the classroom felt like … Continue reading Inclusive Pedagogy →

This week in our contemporary pedagogy class, we were encouraged to reflect on the concept of critical pedagogy. First, I had to understand the concept of “critical pedagogy.”  What does this mean? I read two articles that focused on the work of Paulo Freire. I first read Freire’s article, “The Banking Concept of Education.” TheContinue reading “GOT ¿CONSCIENTIZAÇÃO?”

I really enjoyed this week’s readings, as they got to the heart of why we should be teachers in the first place. In particular, I was drawn to Freire’s Teaching as a human act article. Something I have always believed is that teachers should be able to communicate their passion for the subject they are …

Continue reading “Critical 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 myriad of definitions for different people. As …

Continue reading “The Trial and Error of Digital Pedagogy”

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”

As a teacher, I pride myself on loving what I do. Draider’s (2002) article resonated with me, stating that some teachers find what they want to do at a young age. For most of my young life, I thought I wanted to be a journalist. However, it turns out that I was always the one …

Continue reading “Influential Figures: Educators.”

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”

This week’s readings on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) was really interesting to me as someone who is intrigued by pedagogical practices, however this is a concept that I think I would struggle with as a student and potentially as an instructor. One of the parts of PBL that I know I would struggle with stemmed from […]

 My introduction to teaching was not being in front of a large group of students. I started as a preceptor in my senior year of undergrad. I was told that my role was to help students work through exercises in class. I came to learn that my intera…

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?”

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”

It was interesting to me that the article “On Banning Things in Classrooms” by Jon Warner was part of the reading materials for this week on Digital Pedagogy. Although I think that this discussion is more related to traditional pedagogical

The readings for this week’s topic made me think deeply about the teaching journey, particularly about it being a choice of how we carry our teaching practices. When we choose democratic, open-minded practices, there is always a risk involved. I reflected on the acceptance of students evaluation and how I think I should be committed … Continue reading Reflection on Critical Pedagogy →

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”

“…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”

Fostering an environment that is inclusive and accepting for all generates a safer and more productive atmosphere for learning. Diversity refers to the traits and characteristics that make people unique while inclusion refers to the behaviors and social norms that ensure people feel welcome (Source: https://builtin.com/diversity-inclusion). Diversity without inclusion does not work. If one does …

Continue reading “Blog 2 – Inclusive Pedagogy”

Group post by Chris Clements, Austin Garren, Jazmin Jurkiewicz, Andrew Knight, Malle Schilling, and Brittany ShaughnessyWhat do we mean by digital pedagogy?Digital pedagogy presents a unique set of issues that one may not think of when first stepping f…

As I have read through readings and blog posts for this class, other classes, perused news articles and listened to conversations and debates recently, one thing has stood out to me. Everyone, whether by choice or involuntarily, is placed into groups by people from all sides. These groups are based on a vast number of …

Continue reading “Blog Post 2: On the Topic of Generalizations”

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”

Upon completing my master’s coursework in December of 2015, I accepted a job offer with Tetra Tech, a large consulting engineering firm, and started work the first week of January 2016. At Tetra Tech I was fortunate to be involved

Reading about teaching voice made me reflect on the years I’ve spent so far as a student. There have been a few teachers that stand out in my memory– each one unique not only in the subjects they taught but in how they taught. After reading the pieces from Deel and Fowler, I realize thatContinue reading “Discovering My Authentic Teaching Self”

I have been thinking very deeply about inclusive pedagogy throughout my Ph.D. degree program in Rhetoric and Writing.  My views of inclusive pedagogy is not just understanding that we have implicit biases or that we are complicit in the system that we aim to deconstruct. I was hoping to understand how I have implicit biases …

Continue reading “Approaches to Inclusive Pedagogy”

In the last two weeks of class, we have been discussing culturally responsive teaching and inclusive pedagogy. I must say that my biggest take-away from this content is that I still have a LOT to learn. The following paragraphs discuss some of the points I found particularly interesting from our discussions and readings. I really […]

This Semester I am taking a class on Contemporary Pedagogy from the Graduate School at Virginia Tech. Part of my work will be to do blog posts about contemporary education and my experiences in education overall. The topic of this week is about discovering my teaching person. This topic reminds me of the Harry PotterContinue reading “Discovering my Teaching Self”

Paulo Freire’s chapter, “Teaching is a Human Act,” from the book, Pedagogy of Freedom, provided me with a wonderful perspective of embracing an open-minded, authentic presentation of one’s true self when serving the role of a teacher. Freire writes, “I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am. Without revealing, either reluctantly or withContinue reading “Teaching is a human act: Enhancing openness”

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”

 This week the readings focused on case, problem, and project-based learning. These three pedagogical approaches are all examples of ways to actively engage students in a classroom and there is a large amount of literature that focuses on these ap…

The idea problem-based pedagogy (PBL) is an idea that needs to be practiced more in all rungs of education. PBL has been described as a learning style that utilizes real world problems and solutions as teaching tools. For example if a teacher wanted to teach a student about engineering, a real world problem such as …

Continue reading “Week 8 (Problem (Case)-Based Pedagogy)”

 Sean Micheal Morris’s article, which revolves around the distinctive definition of pedagogy as a relation as well as process, discusses various aspects of digital pedagogy which ends with a few questions. One of them is, what happens when the learning is removed from the classroom and exposed to the entirety of digital landscape? Let me […]

This week’s readings got me thinking a lot about a workshop I conducted a few years ago. The workshop focused on identity and culture – the idea was to get first-year students to understand their identity and how they can work with other people who may have identities that are different from their own. Discussion […]

  We are bombarded with a lot of information everyday, but  how much do we really process and store in our mind? The answer lies in the fact that ow a particular piece of information was presented to us and did we participate in learning the piece that was being taught. These principles are very …

Continue reading “Information Processing and Problem Solving: Case, Project and Problem Based Learning Techniques”

After reading “The Case Method and the Interactive Classroom” by James Foran, I am inspired to try this activity in my classroom in the next few weeks. Foran describes how his students were presented with a vignette from the History … Continue reading →

The topic of inclusive pedagogy is a very important topic to me, as I try my best in all areas of life to be cognizant and inclusive of others. The Brave Spaces / Safe Spaces article by Arao and Clemens

This blog post is inspired by Mindful Learning, written by Ellen J. Langer. In this article, professor Langer clarifies the myths about learning and how they relate to learning mindlessly. Mindful learning requires active engagement with the subject of study, … Continue reading →

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

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”