Three teaching things: week of September 6
Issue # 16
Three Teaching Things is a weekly newsletter compiled by Gavan Watson, which shares three different teaching and learning resources (papers, resources or tools) worth your attention.
1. The paper
Sociology, Teaching, and Reflective Practice: Using Writing to Improve
As I write in the editor’s note (below), this Fall semester will see University educators facing new classroom practices, or adapting past practices for different scales. It’s a situation ripe for professional growth (and sure, a certain amount of frustration). To help the opportunity for growth, it would be wise to be prepared and have a strategy in place to turn those emergent critical classroom moments into opportunities for reflection on those moments.
This week’s paper is one such approach, drawn from the author’s personal practice of autoethnographic writing—put plainly, reflecting and writing after class on that day’s experiences: “I took the majority of the notes directly after each class period, generally in a 10- to 15-minute period of writing. Unless unusual circumstances arose, I blocked out this time in my schedule.” (p. 8) Purcell divides the notes into three broad themes, and the paper goes into these in some detail (pp. 9-11), including the impact on practice: “The cumulative effect over time of incorporating reflective practice is that I have increased my sense of mastery as a teacher.” (p. 14)
Purcell, D. (2013). Sociology, Teaching, and Reflective Practice. Teaching Sociology, 41(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055x12460028
2. The resource
How to teach China this Fall
This coming academic year could see students learning with you from locations outside your institution’s city/town/borough and, even, country. For some learners living in countries with civil liberties and political rights less free than your own, their location combined with planned course learning experiences could lead to increased risk for persecution. Four US-based academic have considered what the remote semester could mean for academics and students teaching or learning, specifically, in or about China.
This is not a call to censor course material, as critically exploring issues and topics deemed by authoritarian states as problematic are a keystone of the role that a University plays in supporting a democratic society and developing engaged citizens. Rather, it is important to consider what actions can be taken to manage and mitigate students’ risk. The linked resource includes four specific strategies that instructors can take to manage that risk, regardless of the material under study.
3. The tool
Piazza
Designed to be embedded in your learning management system course shell (but can be linked externally), Piazza is a tool that allows students and instructors to support classroom communication, and help manage the load of answering student questions, in part, by empowering TAs and classmates to offer support.
In hearing from colleagues who have used Piazza, the indispensable feature is the ability to answer student questions in one place, for all to see. Students can collaborate on creating a single high-quality response, and instructors can mark answers as “correct.” One usability and privacy concern to consider: users will need a separate account to use.
Editor’s Note
There are a few changes to the newsletter this week, some of which I hope you notice, and some of which I hope you don’t. On the “hope you notice” side: a new header image; on the “hope you don’t” side: a new back-end to write and send the newsletter. One bonus of the shift of online newsletter services: a “better” website to host the posts, including the opportunity to add comments. There might be some growing pains associated with the shift, and they’ve effected you: apologies, but please let me know.
For some colleagues around the Northern Hemisphere, Fall semester classes have already started. For my Canadian colleagues, the first class of the fall will kick off this week. I want to wish you all a Happy (academic) New Year, and hope everyone enjoys success this Fall. Remember to be kind to yourself—the situation we find ourselves in requires us to enter (and embrace) all kinds of discomforts, and in turn, our own opportunities for learning.
As always, thanks for reading!