Month: October 2024

“Andrea is a compassionate instructor who offers students the individualized support needed to meet high standards with confidence. Her unique teaching approach is built on developing relationships, creating safe spaces, seeking rich learning opportunities, and providing thoughtful feedback. Andrea challenged us to be critical thinkers, expand our self-reflection, and provide exceptional patient care. Her innovative approach stands out in developing excellence in the next generation of nurses.”

Another recipient of a 2024 Camosun Teacher Recognition Award, Andrea has been a faculty member in the Baccalaureate of Science, Nursing (BSN) program at the college for 17 years. A registered nurse (RN) since 2001, Andrea has worked in almost all clinical settings, but early on in her schooling, began to feel like teaching was her path. “By second year I wanted to do what my teachers were doing, but I needed more clinical experience to give me more confidence.” Then her husband began to teach at Camosun. “I saw what he was doing, and I thought, I really want to teach too. And now, I love being in the classroom, in the lab, working with the students because they inspire me to think and learn and grow.”

Andrea told me she has taught everything in the BSN program, including theory and relational practice courses, but she always teaches the clinical courses, and has been in almost every clinical setting, but her heart “is in oncology and palliative care. I’ve also just completed my master’s in counselling which supports the work we do in oncology. I love helping my students support families as they work through grief.” I asked Andrea if her degree in counselling has helped her support students in their own studies, knowing how stressful the BSN program is. “Yes, absolutely. Our students are stretched thin and being a nurse is a busy, demanding job. As well, because many students have anxiety or other mental health challenges, if I can support them in a more holistic way to empower them in their learning, they can identify their own strengths to become the best nurses they can be.”

I asked Andrea what she enjoys most about being in the classroom. “I’m passionate about nurses giving great care to patients and families, and I feel that as an educator, I can help shape that. I understand that a nurse can be very skilled but may not be able to relate to patients who may be experiencing some of the hardest days of their lives. So, I just love being able to support the students in becoming that compassionate nurse for their patients.”

The BSN program was especially challenged when COVID hit, mainly because of the hands-on nature of the program, and I wondered how Andrea adapted at the time and what she might have taken away from that experience.  “I learned a lot and got more comfortable with technology and learning in different ways. My experience with the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP) gave me a good foundation for using technology for teaching, but moving online forced me to use it more, for example by recording videos or integrating D2L discussion forums. I do think the pandemic made me a better teacher, but it also made me realize I don’t want to teach online because I missed the engagement with and immediate feedback from my students.” As to what Andrea has kept since that time, not a lot since she has only been teaching clinical recently. Immediately after COVID, however, she taught the theory course as a flipped course. “I never would have had the guts to do that before. In that version of the course, students reviewed videos in advance and came to class ready to work on more practical content. And I think the learning improved in those theory classes because they had access to the videos ahead of time.”

I take groups of eight students into the hospital setting, and what I have learned is that some students aren’t ready emotionally to be on units like oncology or palliative care. Some students have limited to no life experience dealing with death or grief or they have recently had a loved one pass, sometimes even from cancer. So, what I’ve started doing is having them reflect on whether they are ready for specific units. I explain that oncology is an amazing unit – it’s so rewarding, but people are going to die on our shift and families are going to be in a lot of grief. I ask them, how they are going to care for themselves and have them self assess if they think they’re ready. Because they have to look after themselves so they can get through their year of school.”

I wondered if Andrea had any specific memories from her years of teaching to share. “I was very inspired by something that happened recently. A student didn’t know if she wanted to go into the oncology/palliative unit, or into the respiratory unit for clinic. I needed more students to go on the oncology side, and I thought she would work well there. She had had a rocky term and was ready to quit, so, we talked about how things could play out for her, and she ended up just doing amazing on palliative. The patients loved her, and they never wanted her to leave. She had the right personality and wanted to learn and grow. In the end she told me palliative was the area she wanted to pursue, and I told her the patients and families would be lucky to have someone like her at their bedside.” Andrea told me how inspiring it was to see how one week this student was ready to drop out, and the next she was blossoming on the palliative unit. “The stories that resonate the most for me are when students become confident and begin to trust themselves, and then surprise themselves when they look back at the start of the term and realize how far they have come.”

Andrea had a lot of advice for new faculty coming to teach at Camosun. “Trust yourself but lean on experienced faculty – I learned so much from senior teachers when I started. Be humble with your students. It’s okay to not know something – that’s where we grow the most. And I really feel that completing some kind of courses on teaching is invaluable. For me, the PIDP made me a better teacher; it made me much more confident and breathed new life into this job for me. Have fun, be creative, and don’t be afraid to try new things. Students love it when you mix it up. Create diverse assignments so students have some choice to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. And finally, make sure to take some self care for yourself so you can support your students.”

“I took Anthropology 104 with Tara as an introductory course my first semester, while I was unsure about what to study. It was an online course and Tara made the class so enjoyable! Usually, online courses are hard to get into, but Tara delivered the course material in such an interesting and tangible way. The assignments were intriguing and challenged you to think beyond yourself and develop the anthropology lens. Her style of teaching made me enjoy the class even more!”

Tara, a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award last spring, started teaching as a term instructor at Camosun in 2000 just after competing her master’s in anthropology from Simon Fraser University (SFU). For a year she commuted between Victoria and Vancouver, where she was living, then someone retired, and Tara became a full-time continuing faculty member. “I actually took my first course at Camosun in the 90s, in a pilot project for something they called ‘coordinated studies.’ After two years of taking courses at Camosun and the University of Victoria (UVic), I went to Trent University in Ontario to finish my undergrad because I learned at Camosun how valuable a small class was. After taking a year off and to work, I started my master’s at SFU specializing in medical anthropology.” Tara’s master’s thesis examined the way health care providers within a hospital system understand the concept of culture, if they feel agency over changes happening within their institutions and communities (often linked with culture), and how that informs their patient care. “I wanted to study how those in power within systems and institutions play a role in shaping our experiences; In contemporary language I would say I was studying institutional racism.” Tara assumed she would continue in a career revolving around research and international development when she finished her master’s, but life had other plans. “I’ve been teaching ever since, and love being in the classroom with my students.”

Tara teaches Anthropology 104, the introductory course, as do her colleagues, but she also teaches a gender across cultures course, as well as cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and a course on the anthropology of development. “The anthropology of development course studies international development as an industry. We take a critical analysis of international development and ask questions like: what does development mean? How does it play out in countries of the Global South? And we study the criticisms from anthropology about placing such a broad framework onto local contexts without studying those contexts from within which can often end up marginalizing those who need support the most.”

I asked Tara what she loves about teaching. “I enjoy getting students to see the world differently, to check assumptions, to understand how culture informs so much of how we view the world and how what we often assume to be universal is culturally situated and created. And how once we understand those things, we better understand why people act or think the way they do. I’m lucky to be teaching a discipline where students essentially read stories about real people and real lives – there is theory, but the stories are woven in throughout. Whether we’re talking about issues of people being unhoused, undocumented migrants, people in farm work, nurses, it doesn’t matter; we want to understand their perspectives.” Tara provides a safe space for students to challenge assumptions about the world as they explore these different perspectives. “Students are hungry to explore contemporary issues. Many have a basic understanding of gender, racism, settler colonialism, globalization, etc. so my job is to give them grounded examples in that safe space.” But Tara’s favourite thing about teaching a Camosun is the small class sizes. “We really get to know our students and can support them in their learning journey. If I have a student with academic experience, I can push them. If I have a student who is engaged, but doesn’t have the same solid academic background, I can support them to try things they find challenging. I can meet where they’re at, but also have high expectations of them.”

Tara also loves having international students in her classes. “They can speak from experience, and they understand that culture means more than food and flags and traditional dance. And they bring in great examples to share with the class. Our classes include people of different ages, different academic backgrounds, and different cultural backgrounds, which in an anthropology class, is gold.”

My next question for Tara was around what impact the past few years, from the sudden move to online teaching to the slow return back to “normal,” has had on her teaching. “I had already been using D2L and teaching an asynchronous online before the pandemic hit, so the learning curve was not as steep for me as for others. And while I prefer to teach face-to-face, I see the value in online courses. When I taught gender studies online last winter, I had five students who don’t live in Victoria, and because they were working part time or parents, the online format worked well for them. I also had a couple of students who were only taking that one class, but now they’re going to come to Camosun because it was a great experience for them.”

In terms of what she has carried over from that time, that is a more complicated question. Due to challenges around attendance post-pandemic (for a variety of reasons), Tara is not using D2L as much to encourage students to come to class. “I don’t want students thinking that the in-person course can be completed online. Providing course materials in D2L to support in-person courses has allowed us to move away from students having to buy textbooks. I can embed videos that I don’t have to take time to show in class, I can provide them with quizzes so they can check their understanding of content, and I love all of that. But how do we also encourage students to come to class? So instead, we are bringing some of those activities back into in the classroom.”

I wondered if Tara could share some memories of her classes from her many years of teaching. “A few years ago, I unintentionally used an offensive word in class- I didn’t even realize I had done it. After class, this lovely student came up and commented that he hadn’t heard that word in a long time – he was from England and familiar with the word’s pejorative meaning. I turned bright red and said ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize I had used that word.’ He replied that he had been surprised. So, I opened the next class by saying, ‘I need to apologize for what I said. A student very respectfully pointed this out to me, and I am really horrified at my behavior. And I just want you to know, I am sorry, and I will work on this.’ It was good learning moment because we all have to be mindful of the language we use and the effect it can have even when it might not be intentionally used to be hurtful. That was really impactful and the way that student dealt with it was a model for other students.” Tara told me that while it’s lovely getting cards or e-mails from students commenting on how wonderful the class was, for her “what’s impactful is when I when I make mistakes, and how that then changes how I am in the classroom moving forward.”

Finally, I asked Tara what kind of advice she might have for faculty just starting out at Camosun. “Have fun. We have course outlines and learning outcomes to guide us and provide consistency for students, but we also have a lot of freedom to teach courses the way we want to. So, teach to your strengths, teach to your passions, and the students will love it. But most of all, be authentic and true to yourself. Just as students are diverse, our instructional styles are also diverse – I’m sure there are students who are frustrated by my teaching style and some who love it. We need to teach to our strengths, and be interested, invested, and passionate, and open to changing and learning when we get those student evaluations. But, at the same time, be self-aware when you review evaluations. Students are often very perceptive and if they say you really cared about them but were kind of disorganized, there is a pretty good chance you were disorganized. And if you’re aware of that, you’re going to be a good teacher. So, learn from your students, take what they say seriously, and let them help you become a better teacher, because just as we want them to succeed, they want us to succeed too.”

Nik is an instructor in Culinary Arts at Camosun, specifically working with the apprenticeship and foundation programs, and now the E-pprentice program.  Nik was pointed out to me by a colleague as he is integrating self-reflection practices into the E-pprentice program (the online version of the apprenticeship program), practices that are not typically found in trades programs. I was intrigued, and very happy when he agreed to talk to me.

Nik finished his Red Seal in 1994/95, then moved to Europe for 18 years. When he returned to Canada, to his surprise, his instructor during his apprenticeship at Camosun in 1995 lined him up with a term appointment at Camosun, which became continuing in 2012, teaching the foundation and apprenticeship programs. When the E-pprentice instructor, Gilbert Noussitou, retired a few years back, Nik was asked to take over that program. “It was daunting at first,” Nik said, and as he began to teach the course, a quote from John Dewey, which he had heard while working on the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP), stood out to him: We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on the experience. Reflecting on learning was what was missing from the E-pprentice program. “We were struggling with student engagement, buy-in and ownership of learning.” But Monique Brewer, then in Applied Learning, understood what he was trying to do and agreed to help.

Nik worked with Monique and Robin Fast from CETL to develop a critical reflection framework for the E-pprentice course, which incorporated STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and SMART (Specific Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals into the course revision plan, because “at the end of the day, we want students to develop metacognitive skills to promote self awareness and continuous learning.”

The original document outlining the assignment was complex, so Nik and his colleagues worked with Patricia and Kristina from E-learning, and the Multilingual Support Specialists (MSS) group to make it more accessible for students. “We started with a professional interview, due within the first two weeks of the course. Why a professional interview? Well, we wanted students to identify why they’re in the program, where they’re going, and how they’re going to get there. And what better way to think about that than to talk to someone in the industry. We gave them options for questions to ask, depending on what was important to them – work life balance, progression, etc., and created an overview and instructions,” which framed the reflection and self assessment components around the 5Rs Reflective Writing Scale (Bain et al., 2002), Reporting, Responding, Relating, Reasoning, and Restructuring. Then they created a rubric and a feedback tool for the assignment and were good to go. Nik now considers this to be the most important assignment in the course.

While Nik had originally created four reflective assignments, he decided in the end to integrate just three of them into the course.  “I wanted to incorporate the interview because that would set the stage for success. The “SMART goal setting assignment gives students a framework to set and take ownership of their professional development goals for success in the program and culinary industry. The STAR story framework helps them to reflect on their skill growth throughout the program and articulate it to future employers.”

In addition to adding the reflective assignments, Nik worked (with Kristina) to create instructions for the course as a whole to make sure all the content and assignments were clear for all students, revised the content so it is in HTML format and easily accessible in D2L. He is, however, satisfied with what he has done to support students to own their own learning.  “That’s what our idea was: to give students the opportunity to explore and stretch and to try new things, because that allows students to excel and build employability skills.

Culinary Arts has agreed to share the developed assignments with whomever in the college community would like to use them. They have been developed in a way that is easily transferable to other trades. Please reach out to CETL if you have questions or would like to talk to Nik more about his work.