This session will share the insights gained about teaching during a scholarship of teaching and learning inquiry exploring student learning in an undergraduate studies course. As teachers from different backgrounds, our learning and growth began when we came together to explore a series of learning questions and reflective journals completed by students in our classes.
During data analysis, we became part of a process of transformation and growth; realizing our students were offering valuable lessons about not only the design and delivery of the course, but also about our teaching. We shared teaching approaches and styles with each other through the information we gathered for our research: student feedback within learning questions, assessments used in the course, and feedback provided to students. Our insights resulted in a powerful experience that changed the way we viewed our teaching and the course, and resulted in adaptations to course design and delivery. At times it felt like an endeavor where we were taking a risk, other times an experience of affirmation, but most importantly it developed into a unique means for learning about teaching and ourselves.
In this session, two teachers share how collaborative research impacted their future teaching experiences and delivery of an undergraduate studies course. Lessons learned from students during the research process will be explored through a description of the inquiry, the data collected and insights gained during the data analysis process. Adaptations to course assessments as a result of the research will also be shared. Finally the impact of the group research process and its data analysis process will be identified.
Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the information presented and discuss the impact it may have on their personal growth, teaching, and course development. The lessons students teach and their opportunities for transformation will also be explored. Dialogue about the importance of these lessons and how research facilitates learning opportunities will conclude the discussion.
“If we want to grow as teachers -- we must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives -- risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, the abstract.”