Category: teaching and learning

Camosun’s Showcase 2023: A Reflection (Elizabeth West, Deidre Murphy, Emily Schudel)

This fall we launched in-person, for the first time since its inception, our Camosun Showcase publication with a celebration for Camosun Showcase 2023, the sixth annual publication highlighting creative, professional and scholarly activities by instructors across the college.

Like many things at the college, Camosun Showcase started with an idea, followed by a series of enthusiasm-fueled conversations, to eventually become a full-blown college publication.

In 2016 Elizabeth West, faculty in the English Language Development Department, was a committee member and chair of the Camosun College Faculty Association Professional Development (PD) Committee, where she “had the very great privilege of reviewing fabulous projects that Camosun faculty submitted for PD funding.” The projects the PD Committee reviewed were from across the college and spanned all disciplines. Recognising that the wider college community did not have the opportunity to hear about these projects, Elizabeth “thought it would be terrific to somehow celebrate the work at Camosun and get the word out that Camosun faculty were contributing in so many creative, innovative, and scholarly ways” to the college.

Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, in Learning Services (retired) director Sybil Harrison was thinking the same thing. Having long recognized the tremendous efforts instructors put into their scholarly and creative endeavours, Sybil wondered how their work might best be celebrated and shared. Having put their heads together and “brainstorm[ed] various ways of doing this, [Elizabeth and Sybil] agreed that a book/publication would be the best way to tell these stories – [in other words] – something tangible.”

The first issue of Camosun Showcase was published in 2017 and included contributions from across the college. Faculty shared stories that underscored the creativity and passion they bring to their classrooms, including research projects focused on language learning, interdisciplinary education, and gender diversity in engineering, among a host of other topics. Field schools in Bolivia, a drama project in the School of Health and Human Services addressing issues of social justice and oppression, the 2017 S’TENISTOLW (Indigenous Education) Conference, Universal Design for Learning, and a welding project that culminated in the design and creation of welded armature for a 150-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton, were some of the other projects featured in the first issue. Elizabeth notes:

It was exciting to see the inaugural [issue of] Showcase in print with contributor bios, stories of projects, photos of contributors and the various projects – a mix of images and text. This was not something I curated alone: Stephanie Morris in Graphic Design, Allan Shook, photographer, and the expert printers in the Camosun Print Shop played a huge role – and of course, we had Sybil’s strong support and the inspiring faculty who took time from their busy schedules to write about their work for an audience outside their subject areas. This Showcase was informative, celebratory, visual, and colourful.

The 2018 and 2019 issues of Showcase integrated artwork from Camosun Visual Arts. Joseph Hoh contributed the cover in 2018, with John G. Boehme, Brad Muir, and Nancy Yakimoski’s terrific artwork featured throughout the publication. In 2019, Nancy Yakimoski contributed the art from her piece in Showcase on photography in the style of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for the cover of Showcase.

In 2020 Deidre Murphy, an Educational Developer in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), joined the Showcase team as a co-project coordinator with Elizabeth, and Sean McLauglin came on board as graphic designer. The cover of the 2020 issue features the artwork of Melissa Mills from the Communications Department. 2020 also spanned the COVID pivot – all faculty stories and projects included were completed before COVID and the 2020 Showcase was finally produced in 2021.

By 2022, while the college had returned to in-person interactions, the pandemic had transformed much of how we do our work. Contributions for the 2022 edition came from both faculty and leadership, many of whom had conducted their work for the fifth issue of Showcase remotely during the pandemic, embracing the challenges and opportunities this disruption brought.

In 2023, the Showcase team increased to three with the addition of Emily Schudel, an instructional designer in eLearning and Chair of CETL, with Jenn Playford joining the team as our new graphic designer. As with previous years, the Showcase coordinators were awed and inspired by the range of stories featured in the 2023 issue. In Elizabeth’s words:

With Camosun Showcase 2023 we can see how this publication has evolved. More people know about it and our team is bigger, offering different perspectives and insights. In revisiting the past issues and reflecting on each one in preparation for our launch celebration, I have again been inspired by the range of the stories and the richness of the work at Camosun. These six editions form a record of Camosun professional, scholarly, and creative activity over time – each Showcase is a window on Camosun at a given time.

The stories in Showcase demonstrate how Camosun educators are simultaneously creative, inspiring, enthusiastic, innovative, inclusive, curious, and forward looking … They are problem solvers [and] critical thinkers, continuously thinking of ways to make students’ educational experiences more relevant, more interesting, more connected with community… and [able] to deal with the real-world complexities we [all] face. They look for ways to Indigenize curriculum in real and meaningful ways. They work collaboratively with other institutions locally, throughout Canada, and internationally.

In her introductory message to the 2022 issue of Showcase, Sybil Harrison quoted the late educator and author bell hooks: “As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence.” Sybil continued, writing, “Our work as educators is lifted up and amplified when we share it.” This is exemplified in Camosun Showcase, where we see the ‘classroom’ expanded to include the campus, the library, and the community, as well as the land, in-person and virtual learning and instruction across time zones, and at the local, national, and international level.

The stories in this edition are rich with faculty and student voices:

  • in Biology weaving Indigenous science into Western science curriculum so students see and experience the value of both;
  • in Business moving between online and in-person instruction with HyFlex instruction;
  • in Nursing enhancing health care education with virtual simulations and open-source electronic health records in medical settings;
  • in Academic and Career Foundations moving a 40-year classroom-based program online;
  • in Totem 2.0 an innovative and far-reaching project with Camosun Innovates, engineering students, and Carey Newman, renowned Indigenous artist;
  • in the South Island Partnership (SIP) that introduce high-school students to college courses;
  • in Curriculum Development and Program Renewal learn about preservice and in-service teacher training in Kenya.

When Emily thinks of the future for Showcase, she says, “I want to encourage everyone at Camosun to tell us about the amazing projects they are working on. Showcase is about Professional, Scholarly, and Creative activity, but I don’t like to think of these things as separate. I don’t believe that my creative life lives only at home and then I come to work and it’s all “professional” and “scholarly”. In fact, I believe we are creative in all aspects of our lives. I work with so many faculty who ask me, “Why would you want to talk to me or have me share my story because I don’t do anything innovative in the classroom.” Well, I can tell you all that every day you are in the classroom, or creating curriculum, or marking assignments, you are being creative. When I Googled “creativity”, I found several definitions that affirm this. For example, “Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.” Isn’t that what we do every day as educators and students?”

Thank you to all the individuals who have so generously shared their stories with us over the last six years. We are inspired by your creativity, your commitment, and your passion, and look forward to many, many more!

Team-Based Learning (TBL): It’s not what you think it is…

Last spring, our Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) collaborated with the University of Victoria (UVic) and Royal Roads University (RRU) to run the first Team-Based Learning (TBL) Institute to be held in Victoria.  I sat down with Derek Murray and Monique Brewer who were Camosun’s drivers on this collaboration, as well as two of the Institute’s participants, Kerry-Ann Dompierre and Robin Fast, to find out more about TBL, how the collaborative Institute went, and what’s next for TBL at Camosun.

I first wanted to know how Monique and Derek got involved with TBL.  Monique, a fellow instructional designer in CETL and currently the Applied Learning Coordinator at Camosun, said “one of the biggest challenges I hear from faculty is related to group work – how to make groups work and ensure everyone is accountable for their work in a team. Then last year, Derek sent us information about a TBL Institute in Nanaimo.  I thought it would be a great Scheduled Development opportunity and signed up.”  It was only when Monique arrived that she realized that TBL “is more than just setting up teams with good instructions and clear accountability – it’s a whole pedagogical framework.”

Derek, an educational developer in CETL, told me “I’ve long had a fondness for collaborative learning and in 2018 I saw a notice about the Team-Based Learning Institute and was curious.  Like many other instructors, I wanted to include group work in my courses, but often had challenges getting students to work together. So, when I saw the Institute, I thought I may as well try it.”  After Derek completed the Institute, he decided to integrate TBL into the second-year course he was teaching at Capilano University. “Even though it was a lot of work to change the course to TBL and some students were resistant, that whole teaching experience was a blast.  And seeing students really work together as teams was amazing. I also noticed that many of the international students, who had in some of my other classes clustered themselves away from the domestic students, were now part of teams where they had to engage with people of different backgrounds. TBL provided a structure to make that happen in a way that was really equitable for the people involved.”  Then, in 2020, Derek taught one course using TBL and one course using active lecture, “two different sets of students, the same learning outcomes, but two different instructional styles. I tested to see if Team-Based Learning would lead to greater engagement and better higher achievement, and it did.”

While I figured I knew the answer, I wanted to hear from Monique and Derek about why they decided to bring TBL to Camosun. Monique herself, having been the only participant from Camosun at her Institute, was curious to see if other Camosun faculty would be interested in trying TBL so she could work with them to co-facilitate or co-design a course since she is not in the classroom herself.  “I think it would be a much more engaged teaching environment and would work particularly well in the School of Business.”  As for Derek, one of his UVic colleagues was at the Institute with Monique, which led to further conversations with UVic and thoughts of doing a South Island Institute.  Derek and Monique brought RRU into the mix and the three institutional groups stated planning. “We connected with the folks at Vancouver Island University (VIU) who are the global leaders in TBL including Bill Roberson and Tine Reimers from VIU, as well as Jim Sibley from the University of British Columbia, who have led the TBL Institute at VIU for years.  But by the time we spoke to them, Bill had retired, and we found out that Jim was retiring in the following June. So, without them we wondered what would happen with TBL in B.C. and realized running our own Institute was no longer a nice to do, it was something we had to do.” So, the VIU group developed a facilitator package, and last May led the South Island Institute for 20 participants from Camosun, UVic, and RRU, including seven who were there as facilitators-in-training.

I turned to two of those first participants in the South Island TBL Institutes and asked what brought them to TBL.  Robin, who is both a faculty developer in CETL and an instructor in the Community, Family, and Child Studies (CFCS) program, said “I do a lot of group- and team-work in the courses I teach, and I think I’m pretty darn good at it. I work hard to create structure for students, so they don’t feel like they’re off on their own, and I thought that TBL would offer tools to enhance that structure.” Teamwork is central to the CFCS program, which is not the same for every program at Camosun.  “I, too, have spoken to many instructors about their struggles with teamwork and teams, and while my teamwork strategies help people, I know even with all that effort teamwork doesn’t always work, even in my own classes.” Robin thought TBL would both help him develop better skills and provide him with more tools to support other faculty. But to his surprise, after attending the Institute, Robin discovered “that I’ve been doing quite a few things wrong and found it was a huge benefit to me to learn this different structure. There are a lot of things from TBL I can integrate into my own teaching, and I really see how it could be valuable for other faculty at Camosun.”

Kerry, who is a Nursing instructor, the Simulation (SIM) Coordinator in the School of Health and Human Services, and an instructional designer in CETL, at first dismissed the idea of TBL because she thought it was about team teaching or similar to Problem-Based Learning.  But after doing some reading, she became intrigued. “I didn’t know until I participated in the Institute how similar TBL is to SIM design in terms of backward design. But what I found beautiful about TBL was how it brings students together to see each other’s humanity. Our program structure inadvertently creates competition between students, something which is counterproductive in healthcare. We need people to work collaboratively and to value each other’s perspectives.”  Like Robin, Kerry’s classes include a lot of active learning, but she says she learned a tremendous amount during the institute, discovering that TBL is “a pedagogy that brings students together who would not have normally mixed in a class, who then see each other’s perspectives, which I think could be transformational for healthcare education.”

By this point, I was getting a general picture of what TBL is, but I wanted to be able to better understand its approach.  Monique jumped in to explain that TBL “is a framework for teaching using a flipped learning model.  The ‘lecture’ takes place before class and teams then spend class time solving authentic, meaningful problems that are complex enough that they can’t be solved by an individual. The philosophy behind TBL is that teamwork typically sets students up for failure by saying, we know you’re all taking full time courses, you’re probably working, you have families, but please find time to meet outside of class to do this additional work. TBL provides a structure that’s divided into five to seven modules of learning. At the beginning of each module is a readiness assurance process that where students demonstrate both individually and as a group that they have read and understood the materials. The readiness process also helps students learn the materials if they haven’t fully understood them. Then the teams complete problem activities where they have to work together to address an issue. The framework around the teamwork is called the 4S model [Significant Problems, Same Problems, Specific Choice, Simultaneous Report], where each group is presented with the same significant problem and presents their answers simultaneously.” Then the real learning happens, during the instructor-facilitated debrief and discussion.

Derek calls TBL “a coherent set of protocols designed to harness the power of small group learning in the process of collaborative decision-making,” avoiding the confusion of calling this “team-based” learning when it’s not really about “group work” at all. “Group work is, in fact, the vehicle that supports decision-making – we can make better decisions collectively than we can individually. When teams work well, they make good decisions together, but when they don’t work well, one person’s decision can override the group. The TBL protocols not only help create teams that work well together so that they can solve challenging problems, but also build skills that help students make decisions in any context. You need to have a rationale, you need to have evidence, and you need to think critically. The 4S application activities are designed to hold students accountable to both the instructor and to themselves and their group. When they have that accountability and come prepared to do the work, they are engaged in the process and invested in the decision that gets made.”

Kerry and Robin added to Derek and Monique’s comments. Kerry said, “I think there are several different pedagogical approaches underlying TBL. It made me think of interdisciplinary learning, bringing multiple perspectives to group work, as well as transformational and experiential learning. But the protocols are what’s so magical in TBL because they’ve worked out the kinks in terms of creating good groups.”

One thing occurred to Robin during the Institute was that “team-based learning is not simply assigning groups to work together for a semester. The team is also the entire class with the instructor; students are never left on their own to do work. The protocols encourage folks to come to the class prepared, they make decisions in their small groups, then are brought back together for a spontaneous reveal of their answers. Finally, the instructor facilitates a discussion among the groups, bringing in additional ideas, and making connections between ideas. In TBL the real teamwork, the real learning, happens altogether in class, in that final discussion.”  And, as both Robin and Kerry noted, the Institute itself allowed them to both learn TBL while experiencing TBL.

Monique finished our discussion of the TBL model by saying “from an applied learning point of view, TBL drives home those key 21st century learning and employability skills: problem solving, critical thinking, communication, teamwork – those core competencies that students need for school and for work.”

I asked when and where does TBL work best in terms of courses, programs, and where students are at in their studies.  Derek shared that the TBL literature suggests content-heavy disciplines are well-suited, “but also disciplines that require a lot of application and decision making, for example, Nursing and Business.  The one area where, according to Jim Sibley and the folks at VIU, there does not seem to be a lot of uptake, is in writing intensive disciplines where so much of the work you do is internal. But I’m in a writing intensive discipline and I think TBL helps my students – I think it could be used by anyone in any discipline.”

Some of you might be thinking that revising your entire course to TBL sounds like a lot of work – I was, and I wondered if faculty could integrate pieces of it rather than committing to a complete revision.  Monique said that at her Institute, this was a topic of discussion “and the advice they gave was that the 4S activities are just really good active learning activities. So, you could generate some good 4S activities and run those in your class. And then if you’re confident, if you’re enjoying it, and it seems to be working, you could work through your Scheduled Development period to start revising your whole course.”

Robin also spoke to the potential benefits of bringing TBL elements into CETL workshops. “If I’m designing a workshop and have participants do a 4S activity as part of this workshop, all those faculty are being introduced to a tool they can use that is not related to the workshop topic at all. This might be a nice way to seed TBL through the college.”

Derek also believes the 4S activities can, in addition to improving student engagement, support stronger assessment practices in light of Generative Artificial Intelligence concerns. But the question then becomes how to support faculty to learn more about the 4S activities. “They support meaningful discussions around a real problem where students have to make a decision and bring all of their knowledge to bear, but we’d have to discuss how to pitch it because a workshop called “4S Activities” isn’t going to go anywhere.”

Robin jumped in with some ideas for “selling” such a workshop.  “We need to ask what the problem is that would draw faculty, and that’s probably:  Do you struggle with getting your students to come prepared to class? Do you want to find ways to engage students and support them to work together? I think those questions would bring instructors in.”

Derek also mentioned constant feedback as another selling feature of TBL.  “The 4S application activities generally start with an individual reflection about the problem, with students writing down their answers and rationale behind them. They then get into groups where they share their answers and rationale and build consensus. Through their group discussions, they are constantly receiving feedback on thinking skills, evidence-making skills, etc.   Then when they come to a consensus as a group and present their interpretation to and discuss it with the rest of the class (with the instructor facilitating), they get feedback again because not every group will have chosen the same answer. And finally, as a group, they give each other feedback and encouragement around how they are working together.  It’s that constant feedback amongst the learners in the group rather than it being back and forth with the instructor, that is key.” In this context, when the instructor goes to mark the more traditional assignments in the course, they have already seen the students in action – as Derek noted, you’ve seen their critical thinking skills in the classroom and can build from there, rather than feeling like you’re starting from scratch with each student on each assessment.

As we began to wind down our discussion, I wanted to know what was next in terms of TBL. Robin started us off. “My plan is to bring it to my professional practice course where there’s lots of application to field experience. It’s a first-year course, and because students don’t have field experience yet, they find some of the content hard to connect with meaning. TBL will be a great tool to support discussions around ethics and interprofessional practice, and I’m excited to give it a try.” And with Robin’s CETL hat on, he says that “the other piece is figuring out how to bring this to faculty in a way that is not too overwhelming – so you are not having to redesign course, but rather pulling in tools to support students digging into specific topics.”

Kerry is particularly excited because, while she was thought one of the biggest barriers to implementing TBL would be the team-teaching model in Nursing, her Program Lead is now encouraging her to go ahead with it as an individual instructor.  “I went to the Institute thinking about a medical surgical course that I taught in the winter term. It is a very content heavy course where engagement has gone way down, so I’m going to try to TBL-ify that course for the winter term. I’m excited about it.  As I said earlier, I think TBL could transform how we teach nurses, and I’m going to connect with Nursing programs at other institutions who have implemented TBL to learn from their experiences.”

As for Derek and Monique, they have plans to continue building on the institutional collaboration with UVic and RRU as well as to check-in with the Camosun participants from the spring Institute.  “Part of that check-in is encouraging people to continue, and part of it is ensuring that when faculty go to implement the model, they’re not setting themselves up for failure.  We also want to remind them that if they are not quite ready for a full implementation, they can focus on the 4S activities and bring the rest in later.” And of course, they will also be planning for next year’s Institute.

Monique will also be joining a faculty member’s TBL class in the fall so she can see it in action at Camosun, and “possibly do some co-teaching in winter term with a business faculty member if the right courses get assigned,” while Derek himself is playing around with the idea of making his January online synchronous course TBL. “I’m wondering if I want to make that leap because I’ve taught it online without TBL and it’s gone well, and I’ve taught it in person with TBL and it’s gone amazing.”  I guess I will be checking in with Derek next year to find out how it went!

 

Camosun Story #67: Andrea

Andrea has been a faculty member in the Pipe Trades and Women in Trades since 2018, and was one of the recipients of a Camosun College Teacher Recognition Award this past spring.

I was so interested in Andrea’s journey.  She originally completed training in the Culinary arts at Malaspina (now Vancouver Island University), but as time went by, she found she wanted something else.  I asked Andrea why plumbing? “I was looking for a change to a career with better hours and better pay. Honestly, culinary was great and I love cooking – it’s still something that I do all the time, but I needed a change.  I looked through the Camosun calendar at what was available in the trades because I like to work with my hands and thought, hey, plumbing sounds interesting. I’m going to give that a go. I put my name on the waiting list and got a last-minute seat, so I quit my job and moved to Victoria.”

Andrea apprenticed in Nanaimo and moved back to Victoria in 2013. “Then in 2018, there was a posting for a position that straddled being the women in trades homeroom instructor and a pipe trades instructor here at the college. I applied and got the position – obviously, I fit the bill to be a Women in Trades instructor.  It was a great opportunity and learning experience.”

When I asked Andrea what courses she teaches, she called herself the Swiss army knife of her department.  “I teach the plumbing week for Women in Trades, and I’ve taught the plumbing week for our youth sampler that ran for a while. I’ve also taught the plumbing week for Indigenous people in trades. Sometimes I’m the homeroom instructor for Women in Trades, although I haven’t done that in awhile.  And in the Pipe Trades department, I’ve taught everything from our Foundation training levels one through four, Plumbing and levels one and two, Gas Fitting, as well as Cross Connection Control.”

Andrea did talk a bit about her experience supporting Women in Trades. “I didn’t realize just how important and meaningful it was for female students coming into the program to have a female instructor until I was teaching in my first foundations class, where I had a group of 12: six females and six males. One of the students told me how nervous she was coming into the program as a woman, and what a relief it was to show up on the first day and have a female instructor – seeing herself reflected in somebody who’s been a plumber for a long time and now in a teaching role helped her believe that she could do it too.”

Andrea told me that what she enjoys most about teaching is getting to know her students.  “Getting to know their backgrounds, what they’re doing out in the field – I feel like I learn as much from them as they do from me because our industry is always changing.”  Andrea also loves watching their journeys.  “A student from the Women in Trades sampler went into Pipe Trade foundations, was then hired as a plumber in the field, and this past fall, obtained her red seal as a plumber. Seeing those students who come in green, find their passion, become more self confident, and then take on leadership roles is very rewarding to me.”  And coming full circle, “that same woman who got her red seal moved to Australia to do plumbing with her husband and donated two bags of tools to the Women in the Pipe Trade Foundation program as starter kits.”

And Andrea’s students span the gamut. “I’ve taught high-school students in the South Island Partnership Program, and I’ve had students that are 50 years old seeking a new career. While typically women who enter the program are choosing trades a second career, we’re seeing more and more young women enter the program which is really amazing. Then in the gas fitting programs that I’ve taught, students come from all over the province because we are the only institution offering level two gas training. So, I see a very diverse pool of students in my courses.”

I was curious about the dynamics of Andrea’s classroom with such diversity.  “I like to build a sense of community in my classes. We start off on day one talking about how we’re going to respectfully communicate and engage with each other, and then have conversations that draw upon experiences of students, because I think discussing things they’ve done and how those things relate to the topics we are working with enhances their learning. Sometimes the dynamics can be challenging with a broad spectrum of ages, but I find that the older students typically take on a mentorship role with the younger students – a kind of peer-teaching component which is important in my opinion.”

Like all faculty who have been teaching at Camosun since before 2020, Andrea saw her share of challenges when courses moved online teaching during the pandemic.  “I had a week of instruction time in the classroom right before the college shut down. There was a lot of uncertainty, stress, and anxiety, especially for the level four plumber students who were supposed to write their Red Seal certification exam. We didn’t know if the certification exam was going to happen, or even if the class would continue.” What became important to Andrea was having open conversations with students about how things were going for them. “Every morning when we went online for class, we’d spend about 30 minutes sharing stories of weird things we saw at the grocery store, or talking about what challenges they were facing, trying to take the anxiety out of the room a little bit. Like me, a lot of students had kids at home, so we were facing the same struggles which humanized the situation for us all.”

But also, like other faculty, Andrea found some good things that came out of that experience.  “I found that recording lessons was very beneficial to students because they could watch them over and over again.  I also kept online study space open for students after class to work together and bounce ideas off each other.” Something else Andrea found effective was bringing in guest speakers.  “With the Women and Trades program, we often bring in people from industry to speak about their experience. During the pandemic, we were able to bring in people from across Canada, including a crane operator and the first female site superintendent and Kamloops, to talk about their experiences. And we are continuing to bring in experts from outside using Zoom. The ability to connect students to people they would normally not have had the opportunity to connect with was a positive outcome.”

Some other cool COVID creations Andrea is still using include “instructional videos for the Women in Trades program about how to fix a toilet or how to clear hair out of the drain of your sink, and a project I developed for our students where they had to interview a trades person virtually. We pair students with people in the community who volunteer to be interviewed. Students record the interviews and share them so we can post them in the course and discuss them. This project creates connections between our students and people in the community who could become mentors or potential employers.”

Andrea’s students are inspirational.  “We had a female student from my very first foundations class, obtain her red seal this year and receive a Camosun award as well. She’d had so many barriers in front of her during her apprenticeship, as a single mom working hard to make a better life for her and her son, so to see her succeed was very cool for me. We also often take our students to Hero Work, a charity that renovates other charities in Greater Victoria, where they donate their labor and their skills to complete renovations. We also took the Women in Trades class to the Salvation Army soup kitchen for their renovation last fall. Seeing the students engaged in giving back to the community and using the skills they’ve learned in the program is amazing, and it also gives them the opportunity to walk by and say, hey, look – I built that!”

But Andrea herself is inspirational as well.  “I hear from students how important it is to see me here as a faculty member, whether it’s female students or queer students – I think it makes them feel more at ease. I try to provide that a little bit of connection by making sure everyone feels included and giving them a safe space within our department to connect with somebody. I believe if you feel included in the community and your learning environment, you’re going to be much more successful overall. And knowing that you have a touch point is important – it certainly was for me when I went through school. And I want to pay it forward and do the same thing for our students now.”

My final question to Andrea was what advice she might have for a new instructor starting in her area. “I feel fortunate to have an extraordinarily supportive department and I asked a lot of questions when I started. So don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to lean on other faculty for help if you’re unsure about things. The biggest superpower of our department is that we are very collaborative – we all lean on one another, get along well, and work well as a team. When you have the opportunity to work within a team where everyone supports one another, it makes for a much better environment, for both faculty and students. Make sure to take advantage of the opportunities we have for learning at the college – you never know what little tidbits you’re going to learn that will support your teaching practice. And finally, poll your students to see how things are going.  Then embrace that feedback, not as criticism, but as a way that you can improve your own practice.”

Camosun Story #66: Dianne

Dianne is a faculty member in the Healthcare Assistant (HCA) program, and she was a recipient of a Camosun College Teacher Recognition Award this past spring.

Dianne has been at Camosun since 2003; in fact, she retired for a spell (and was retired during the COVID pivot) and came back because she loves teaching.  “My teaching actually goes back to a one-room public school in rural Manitoba where I invigilated exams and helped teach the little ones.  My mom and grandmother were both teachers, as is my daughter.” While Dianne doesn’t have formal teacher training (she has a Bachelor of Nursing and a Bachelor of Management in Human Resources) as she told me, “a nurse is always a teacher because you have to teach patients, students, residents, and other health care staff.”  Dianne has been a registered nurse in Australia, Manitoba, Alberta, and in British Columbia since 1989 where she was employed initially in occupational health and safety with Juan de Fuca hospitals and BC Ferries.  “I’ve had a varied career for sure, working particularly with seniors and persons with dementia since 2000.” Since 2003, when she came to Camosun, Dianne has been teaching in the Healthcare Assistant program, which has grown from two intakes a year to many more when the Health Care Access Program (HCAP) began.

Dianne reflected on the changes in the student demographics over the years.  “Today we have many more international and ESL students who come in with a lot of knowledge and varied backgrounds. I have a student right now who has a Master’s in Social Work from South Asia and I have three RN students from other countries. The diversity is phenomenal.”  Dianne also notes that many of today’s students struggle with mental health issues and learning challenges.  “More of our students are being supported by the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) than in previous years, but the HCA program is a great place to start, as it really is the basic beginning in healthcare education.”

I asked Dianne what keeps her coming back to teaching. “What I like most is helping students learn how to learn and gain confidence in themselves. Those students who already know how to learn don’t really need me, but so many students have been beaten down by the system, so, to me it’s about building their self-esteem.  I am inspired when students who have struggled with education in the past get an A and take a picture to send to their mom, even though they are 45 years old!” Some students have not been in school for 20 to 30 years and these are the students Dianne especially enjoys mentoring. It seems to take longer to get some students to focus in class and I watch for students having difficulty with attendance.”

But what Dianne emphasized to me was her thinking around assignments and exams. “My personal philosophy is that an assignment is a measure of how effective your teaching was as you go through the material, in other words, assignments are tools for teaching not tools of evaluation, whereas exams are evaluative. Students hear only about 20%of the content presented by the instructor in class. I am not surprised that many students are unsure of what the assignment is asking when they first start the program. We fail as teachers if students don’t learn how to learn, so I spend a lot of time going over what’s expected of an assignment, making sure students understand what’s needed, referring them to the writing center, even looking at drafts before they submit them especially for students who have been away from studies as long time or for ESL students who want clarification on English wording. I don’t punish students for late assignments but try to get to know my students as well as I can so I can address their specific learning needs. The curriculum can be very difficult for some students.”

Dianne also finds that her own experiences coming back to teach post-COVID have been challenging, due to the increased use of technology to support teaching and learning.  “It’s been very difficult, and it used to bother me terribly because I felt incompetent, but I’ve tried to put that away because I’m a nurse, not a computer technician.” But when the technology challenges affect the students, Dianne becomes very frustrated.  “Students find writing exams stressful at the best of times and we shouldn’t be adding to this stress because our technology is not working.”

One of the Dianne’s thoughts resonated with me because other faculty member have mentioned it as well: that students should have a course built into all curriculum to help them learn the technologies and other skills they need to succeed at the college.  “I think we need to step back from the academics during a student’s first week because they’re too anxious and overwhelmed to really learn much of the content. We need to give them practical hands-on skills. We need to build in more resources to help students be successful. Teaching is not just about covering content. It’s helping students learn how to learn, learn how to find things, and learn who’s there to help them. I would like to see a more supportive approach at Camosun with more integration of support services throughout the term and the program, not just on the first day. In the first three weeks of my classes, I build in how to study, how to read a textbook, how to highlight, how to make notes. And then I offer extra after-class time with students who need it.”

I asked Dianne about some of the memories that stood out for her over her many years of teaching, and one story she had for me was amazing.  “I had a young woman who had to travel a long distance to get to her clinical sessions. Clinical started at seven and one day she got there right at seven with her coat on and was having trouble concentrating that morning. I went to talk to her later about being almost late and she said that on her way to clinical, she had come across an accident, so she stopped and found the driver was not breathing. She was by herself, so did CPR, and when somebody else came along he called 911 (she didn’t have a cellphone). She saved the driver’s life.”  A good reminder to remember to have empathy for our students before jumping to conclusions about their behaviour.

My final question for Dianne was around what advice she would give new faculty coming in to teach in her program.  And not surprisingly, she recommends new faculty get more help with technology, but also to “use the resources other people have already built for their courses and customize them, because this can be a good way to learn the material yourself.”  Dianne also thinks new faculty should critically review the way existing assignments and exams are worded and “have the confidence to point out when they don’t make sense to them. Because of time constraints, we often repeat and reuse our content and assessments without fine-tuning, but new faculty see them with fresh eyes.”

In addition, Dianne wants new faculty to be better supported.  “New faculty often come on term contracts.  They get lost in the system and try to cope without a lot of support. I think sometimes we as an organization are so busy with bureaucracy and budgets, we lose sight of the people who are supporting our students, the people who are in the front of the classroom keeping the students in our programs.”  Without faculty and students (and people to support them), our institution is just a building – it’s time for us to refocus on what really matters.

What are They Seeing When They See Me? A reflection from Robin Fast, Education Developer, CETL

Last spring, Camosun College Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) Book Club participants read Picture a Professor: Interrupting Biases about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning.

If you’re anything like me, you spend time wondering how you are coming across to the students in your class. Do I sound competent? Do I look competent? What are they deciding about me as they enter my class for the first time and what impact will those decisions have on their ability to engage in the learning process? Does dressing casually help them relax or tell them I can’t be taken seriously? Is my age – too young or too old – colouring their perceptions before we even begin to work together?

I could share more of these questions but I’m already tiring myself with my own angst.

Thankfully, Picture a Professor explores this challenge, focusing specifically on the experiences of faculty who do not meet the societal expectations of what a professor should be. The authors examine the stereotypes that follow teachers into the classroom; unpack how these biases can impact teachers, students, and the learning process; and offer practical strategies, both at the classroom and institutional level, for disrupting biases and supporting a diverse academy and engaged pedagogy.

According to the text, we often fail to acknowledge that identity matters. We ignore the impact our bodies, and biases about our bodies, have on the teaching and learning process and, as a result, conversations about effective teaching and learning practice are incomplete. The authors point out that “White women, women faculty of colour, faculty with physical disabilities,, non-binary faculty, and all Black, Indigenous, and people of Colour faculty must navigate different intersectional mazes of racial, gender, and other biases about embodied identity on an exhausting daily basis.”

Picture a Professor is divided into four sections with authors telling their stories and offering strategies on managing the first day of class, building trust and rapport with students, increasing equity through anti-racist pedagogies, and the value of teaching with our whole selves.

According to Jassamyn Neuhaus, the book’s editor, while each author writes from their own experience and describe strategies that align with their own context, several principles emerge that can be widely applied. First, the authors consistently engage in ongoing learning and reflection. “They try new things, assess, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, revise, and try again.” Second, the authors don’t “go it alone,” but instead study the existing research to “help them understand their own experiences and to develop teaching strategies.” They “find their people” and engage in conversations about teaching and learning with others in similar situations. And finally, the authors reimagine the role of the professor in the teaching and learning process. They share power in the classroom, create authentic learning experiences, and build strong, supportive classrooms, viewing themselves as part of the learning community they are building.

Picture a Professor led to deep discussions for the Book Club. We shared our own biases about what a professor should be and examined how we fit or didn’t fit those images. We considered our places of privilege and how that influenced our work. We talked about the characteristics we hold and what influence they might have on the perception students have of our abilities. We shared our first-day strategies and talked about what we might change or add for the next semester that would help students get to know us, help them examine and manage their perceptions and expectations, and help to build a more effective learning community. We talked about how bringing more of ourselves to our teaching, through stories and other strategies, could strengthen our relationships with students and their engagement with our courses and with their own learning journey. We considered the vulnerability that many faculty experience because of the biases held by students and colleagues and discussed how we could implement the tools shared in the text to disrupt these biases.

If you are interested in exploring these ideas, Picture a Professor is a wonderfully thought provoking resource.

Additional resources can be found with any of us at CETL and:

Camosun’s LibGuide: Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Camosun’s LibGuide: Dismantling racism & oppression