Pedagogy: My method and practice of teaching is grounded in creating a safe, inclusive, and intellectually engaging learning environment where students feel empowered to engage in higher-level discourse as they develop their confidence in a judgment-free space. Learning is a layered process where students learn foundational concepts pulling students toward deeper levels of critical inquiry, reflection, and real-life application. Through scaffolding instruction and transparent learning outcomes, students will be guided within their zone of proximal development encouraging their active participation and engagement through meaningful collaborative activities, giving rise to independent thought. Students will continue to establish their identities throughout their education. Teaching requires adaptability and integration of multiple pedagogical approaches addressing student needs.
Drawing from critical pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy, and open pedagogical frameworks, interdisciplinary practices encourage students to question assumptions, think beyond the curriculum and reach into what comes next, which is an opportunity to develop minds of the future. The purpose behind the curriculum and general outcomes is viewed as a layer of an onion that guides students from the outer layer, exploring the surface, and taking students on a journey deeper inside the onion, and its layers are how education is formed and built. Similar to how educational outcomes are achieved, one module at a time, covering topics in a field of study, working within a zone of proximal development. I believe each course benefits from selecting appropriate pedagogy from open pedagogy in a creative writing environment to an interdisciplinary approach to digital pedagogy, and working across the disciplines. Connecting course content to students' lived experiences builds their funds of knowledge and literacies in a broader societal context.
Transparent goals and outcomes are paramount, while adaptability is essential for guiding students through each course. Setting students up for success means having grading rubrics, self-assessments that build self-efficacy leading to self-awareness and higher levels of motivation, while students’ agency is their capacity and propensity to achieve and take initiative, leading to self-regulated learning, inward focusing on student performance. Assessment is a task with fact-based evidence on progress. I believe in making assignments meaningful, and there is value in finding personal connections. Transparent grading rubrics, self-assessments, formative and summative assessments are opportunities to help students build self-efficacy, autonomy, and life skills necessary for self-regulated learning.
As higher education evolves alongside technological advancements GenAI technologies, educators should prepare students to use these literacy tools effectively and engage with them ethically and critically. The future of education will increasingly rely on AI-enhanced learning environments. AI affords students an opportunity to support creativity, enhanced brainstorming in a personalized instructional manner while maintaining the fundamental human element of a teacher to guide and teach the affordances and constraints as we develop experiences that carry us forward and students thrive after college in a tech-heavy, digital world.
