TDU Talk
Issue 3 - December 2015
Celebrating Teaching with 2015 winners of
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
Dr Julie Barbour, FASS
Pip Wallace, FASS
Nilesh Kanji, FCMS Donella Cobb, FEDU
AProf Clive Pope, FEDU
Dr Vicki Moon, FSEN
Hine-iti Moana Greensill, SMPD Hori Manuirirangi, SMPD
Dr Ryan Ko, FCMS
Dr Joseph Lane, FSEN
Dr Rouxelle De Villiers, WMS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial by Dorothy Spiller ........................................................................................................................................pg 1
Celebrating Teaching Day ................................................................................................................................pg 3
My Personal Teaching Philosophy by Dr Vicki Moon .........................................................................................pg 4
Linguistic Field Notes by Dr Julie Barbour ..............................................................................................................pg 5
Come Dine With Me by Donella Cobb ....................................................................................................................pg 6
Never a Dull Moment: Teaching and Emotional Practice by AProf Clive Pope .........................................pg 9
Keeping It Real: Authentic contexts for language learning by Hine-iti Moana Greensill ...........................pg11
Finding Bravery Through Experience: Is experiential learning worse than eating maggoty road
kill? by Pip Wallace ......................................................................................................................................................pg15
The Fuel for Lifelong Learning by Dr Ryan Ko ....................................................................................................pg17
Teaching Development Workshops - February 2016 timetable ........................................................pg20
Tutors’ Day: Introductory to Tutoring - workshop .................................................................................pg21
YOUR EDITOR AND AUTHORS FOR THIS EDITION
Dorothy Spiller
AProf Clive Pope
Dr Vicki Moon
Hine-iti Moana Greensill
Dr Julie Barbour
Pip Wallace
Donella Cobb
Dr Ryan Ko
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
EDITORIAL
Dorothy Spiller, Senior Lecturer, , Teaching Development Unit
Kia ora koutou
Welcome to the final edition of TDU Talk for 2016. It has been our tradition to use this
edition to celebrate our award-winning teachers and share some of their teacher thinking and
practices. It is also an opportunity to congratulate all of those who were nominated for awards,
those who won faculty teaching excellence awards and those who won university teaching
excellence awards. I recognise that compiling a teaching portfolio at a busy time of the year
can be an arduous process, but I am always excited and energised by the creativity of teachers’
efforts and by the evidence of the interesting, dynamic teaching that happens on campus.
We appreciate the contributions of the teachers who have written for this magazine and
hope that the ideas that they share will prompt readers to reflect on their own teacher
thinking and practices. A common theme is the need to build teaching and learning spaces
that engage the learners, but are also supportive and respectful. Vicki Moon highlights the
importance of respect for learners in the teaching and learning process Vicki reminds us
that this respect can also mean that we have to accept that learners may not always use
the learning opportunities that are provided in the ways that we hope for or expect. Julie
Barbour refers to the importance of surrounding the learners with a supportive community,
while Donella Cobb using the analogy of a dining experience to illustrate the idea of creating
a welcoming learning environment that will create an appetite for learning. Clive Pope’s article
focusses on the importance of teacher and learner emotions for connection and engagement
in teaching and the benefits of humour in building a positive learning environment. Another
theme is the need to make teaching and learning contextually relevant. Hineiti Greensill
demonstrates how the choice of interesting contexts can help to make language learning
relevant, immediate and exciting, while Pip Wallace takes her students to watch the proceedings
of the Environment Court to develop the students’ understanding of professional practice,
application of law to planning and stimulate critical debate. Ryan Ko provides a fascinating
example of encouraging students to develop the appropriate mind set in order to connect with
their learning, while Donella Cobb aims to model approaches that she encourages pre-service
teachers to adopt in their classrooms. All of these articles show a care for the students, their
development and a wish to prepare them for participation in the community and the workforce.
My thanks go to the teachers featured here and to the many academics on campus
who invest extensive time and energy in their teaching. As I prepare to leave fulltime
employment at the University of Waikato after twenty three years, it is those teachers
who are dedicated to providing the best possible learning opportunities for their students
who give me hope. While tertiary institutions and our teaching and learning environments
have changed dramatically over the years, there are some core precepts that we should
never forgo. Our methods and tools may change, but we still have the important and
privileged role of preparing our students for engagement with the community and society
and in this process building connections and relationships are at the heart of our work.
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
Many years ago I suggested to Neil Haigh, the director of the TLDU, that we should
establish a magazine to share teaching ideas and practices. Over time, with the amazing
skills of our administrators, Preetha Pratapsingh and then Lissa Smith, we have refined and
developed TDU TALK. I owe them a great debt of thanks for the polish and professionalism
they have brought to the production of the magazine. I also want to thank my colleagues
in the TDU and in the Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning for overseeing the magazine
production on occasions and contributing to it frequently. Editing the magazine has
always been a part of my work that I have enjoyed and it feels sad to be signing off for
the last time. I hope that the magazine will continue to flourish as I believe it is a useful
forum for teaching conversations and for promoting a teaching community on campus.
My thanks to all the academics that I have worked with over the years and best wishes for the
coming holiday period from all of us at TDU.
Dorothy
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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CELEBRATING TEACHING DAY
The Teaching Development Unit invites all staff to Celebrating Teaching Day on Tuesday 1
December from 9.30am-12.30pm in The Upstairs Lounge at the Academy.
​The event is an opportunity to celebrate teaching excellence across the University.
The following recipients of 2015 Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards will share their teaching
philosophy and practice:
Hine-iti Moana
Greensill, Lecturer,
School of Maori and
Pacific Development
Associate Professor
Clive Pope, Faculty of
Education
Donella Cobb, Lecturer,
Faculty of Education
Hori Manuirirangi,
Lecturer, School of Maori
and Pacific Development
Pip Wallace, Senior Lecturer,
Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences
To attend, register by 5pm Friday 27 November stating any special dietary requirements,
at the TDU events page or by contacting Lissa Smith at [email protected] or on extn
4839.
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
MY PERSONAL TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Dr Vicki Moon, Senior Lecturer, School of Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Faced with a blank document and the instruction to write 500 words, I sought inspiration from
the articles by previous Teaching Award recipients. A common theme related to how difficult it
is to write on your own teaching philosophy. I heartily agree. My teaching comes from who I
am, my background, experiences, interests, and personality, and the interactions I establish with
students on the day. Putting all of that on paper is enormously difficult, but here is a little of it.
When challenged to articulate my underlying philosophy of teaching, I continue to return to
what seems to me to be a somewhat trite and basic principle: respect for my students as people.
By this I mean recognising that students:
•
have their own “world views” which may differ considerably from my own;
•
have individual learning styles, which might also be quite different from mine;
•
all have lives beyond study which will impact on the choices they make as learners; and
ultimately,
•
the choices they make are all valid choices, even if they are not ones that I would make in
their position.
The last of these points is often the most difficult to accept. Each student brings individual
aims and desires to learning and makes decisions based on these aims, often leading to ‘poor’
decisions about attendance or the effort that is expended on study. While I can discuss their
choices with students, ultimately they remain their choices, and they should not be penalised
or patronised for making choices that are contrary to those that I value. When I reflect on it, I
realise that my respect for my students as people underpins every decision I make as a teacher.
Respecting my students’ individuality means recognising that each person has a different goal and
approaches learning in a unique way.Thus, my overall philosophy for teaching is one of preparing the
ground for students to learn in their own ways, making the learning student-centred. I provide the
relevant opportunities and environments for learning, pose appropriate questions and challenges
to guide their motivation, then step back and let the students take their learning where they will.
To put this philosophy into practice I find reflection on past successes and failures in
teaching is essential, and something that comes intuitively. From day one I have not stopped
reviewing every class in my head. While lectures and tasks may remain fundamentally the
same across years, I do not feel that I have ever “repeated” a class – every group of learners
is different, moods change, environments change and so does the atmosphere of the class.
In the context of my classes, I have found that reflection on teaching and learning has
been ubiquitous, something I have embraced and enjoyed throughout my time teaching.
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LINGUISTIC FIELD NOTES
Dr Julie Barbour, Senior Lecturer, Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Linguistics captured my attention as an undergraduate student at Waikato
University in 1991, when I encountered for the first time a discipline that explores
and celebrates diversity in human language. Manipulating unfamiliar language data
with apparent ease, my lecturers seemed impossibly knowledgeable. My fellow
students and I strove to emulate them, completing our assessment in private,
painstakingly handwriting our analyses. I took pride in my personal achievements, never asking
for ‘help’. Although I discovered a lifetime passion for language, I made few close friends during
those years, and my dream of being a field linguist seemed a romantic and improbable fantasy.
Contracted to my first teaching role in 1996, I am approaching the end of my second decade as
an educator. While I was never dissatisfied with my own studies, I have consistently made choices
in my teaching to build an entirely different set of experiences for my students. These choices
are most certainly underpinned by my long held interest in cultural and linguistic diversity,
but equally they stem from my experiences as a learner, teacher, and researcher of language.
My commitment to ongoing personal learning through research is an essential ingredient in my
professional teaching practice. The frustrations I experience with understanding and articulating
research ideas keep me ever mindful of the frustrations of my students. Equally, the satisfaction I
feel in solving a many-faceted problem, the clarity that understanding brings me, and the delight
I find in a well-crafted sentence parallel the experiences of my students. Each time I return to the
field I am thrust into the role of novice again, and by accepting this role my learning continues.
While my tertiary experiences were somewhat solitary, I have always had access to the
support of my academic family at home. Knowing that many students do not have this kind
of support, and knowing how essential it has been to my successes, I deliberately set out
to create a sense of community among my students. When supported in this way, students
gain the confidence to take risks, make mistakes, try again and again, and eventually succeed.
Knowing that everyone in their peer group is experiencing the same challenges motivates
students to strive towards excellence, where they might otherwise settle for something less.
My research interests in the indigenous languages of Malekula Island, in Vanuatu, have become
inextricably linked to my teaching practice. Fundamental to both types of activity is my belief in the
importance of an ethical engagement with my fellow human beings. The principles of partnership,
participation, and protection, inspired by an indigenous reading of the Treaty of Waitangi, infuse my
teaching and research. As educators, I believe we have a responsibility to convey the importance
of ethical considerations to students, teaching and assessing the implementation of ethical
principles that are relevant to our disciplines. As researchers, we have a responsibility to conduct
ourselves in an ethical manner in the many different dimensions of our work. Like many things
in life and language, there is no perfect answer to the question of ‘how’ this might be achieved.
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COME DINE WITH ME
Donella Cobb, Lecturer, Te Hononga Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education
Like a hostess at a dinner party, my philosophy of teaching is underpinned by my beliefs
about transformative pedagogy. By engaging pre-service teachers in the ‘lived experience’
of power sharing through my own pedagogical practice, I believe that this experience
is crucial in encouraging pre-service teachers to reproduce such practices in their own
teaching. Thus, it is my belief that seating pre-service teachers ‘at my table’ is a starting
point for achieving pedagogical transformation within the wider teaching profession.
A guest at a dinner party who enjoys what they taste will
most likely request the recipe so they can replicate the
meal. Like a fine-dining experience, I strive to provide an
educational experience that inspires pre-service teachers
to craft their own inspirational teaching practice. The
central focus of the Professional Practice and Inquiry 2
(TEPS222 and TEPS762) courses is on theories of learning.
Because learning theories underpin pre-service teachers’
philosophies and teaching practice, their ability to turn
espoused theoretical understandings into ‘theories-inaction’ (Barker, 2012) is critical if this knowledge is to
result in transformative pedagogical change. Previous
research suggests that without sustained critical reflection
to support the construction of new teaching identities
during their Initial Teacher Education programme, preservice teachers are likely to reproduce traditional
pedagogical practices (Darling-Hammond, 2006). As
such, I place pre-service teachers in the ‘student’ seat and
role-play stereotypical teaching practices that often go unchallenged such as rewarding wellbehaved ‘students’ with lollipops or giving impromptu and culturally biased tests ‘after morning tea’.
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These role-plays are intended to prompt rich discussion about the lived experience of such practices.
This teaching strategy ‘brings to life’ theories of learning and is intended to give pre-service
teachers a powerful experience to challenge their beliefs and reconstruct their teacher identities.
Like a dining experience in a warm and cosy home,
I work to create an inclusive, safe and supportive
learning environment through building relationships
with each pre-service teacher. At the beginning
of a new course, I set an aim to learn every name
by the end of the first tutorial. I am yet to fail!
During tutorials, I also make a point of talking to
each pre-service teacher individually. By doing so I
learn a little more about them, their backgrounds,
interests and teaching experiences. As Bishop and
Berryman (2006) have identified, learners will be
more likely to participate, share their thoughts
and opinions and engage in the lesson content
when there is a positive relationship between
teacher and learner. As such, this practice is
intended to build trust and confidence as well as
promote engagement in lectures and tutorials.
Therefore, it is my belief that guests should leave a dinner party not only with a full stomach,
but also with an enriched heart and mind. Because of this, I strive to provide pre-service
teachers with a pedagogical experience that moves beyond the digestion of knowledge to the
enrichment of their own capacities to respond to the students they teach in transformative ways.
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REFERENCES
Barker, M. (2012). How do people learn? Understanding the learning process. In C.
McGee and
D. Fraser (Eds.). The professional practice of teaching (4th ed.) (pp. 21-54). South Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning.
Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2006). Culture Speaks: Cultural relationships & classroom learning.
Wellington, New Zealand; Huia Publishers
Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st-Century teacher education. Journal
of Teacher
Education, 57(3), 300-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487105285962
TDU Talk issue 1 - July 2015
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NEVER A DULL MOMENT: TEACHING
AND EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
Associate Professor Clive Pope, Te Oranga School of Human Development and
Movement Studies, Te Kura Toi Tangata, Faculty of Education
I have been teaching in the tertiary education sector for 25 years. My undergraduate and
post-graduate teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand and in the USA was preceded by ten
years of teaching at secondary school level. Like many university teachers, I have witnessed
huge shifts in education. The advance of technology, the changing nature of students’
lives and the ongoing need to find ways of enriching my students’ learning experiences
mean that, despite the many years I have been a teacher, there is still never a dull moment.
I have been fortunate to have many opportunities to apply new learning and ideas to my teaching.
Like many educators I am constantly revisiting the notion of how to situate learning and am alert
to the changing conditions that are driving learning and therefore understanding. I juxtapose
these considerations with the challenge of designing and applying appropriate programmes and
pedagogies which can be applied in what can only be described as an uncertain future. I have
found the need to adjust constantly as my students indicate their learning preferences. The
career pathways that characterize many of my students point towards flexibility and diversity.
Today’s learners need both variety and balance and have different learning needs and approaches.
Variety seems to be the spice of their lives. As I teach in a programme that includes movement,
I have had the opportunity to develop conceptual and theoretical concepts in the classroom
and then examine selected topics in applied settings, thereby exploring learning as praxis.
As an educator, I also recognize the complexity of the learning and the teaching process.
Learning is often hidden and neither easily expressed or conveyed. It is also quite difficult to
measure or observe. It is subjective, imprecise, and often hidden. Definitions of learning are
often too narrow or too restrictive, hence learning deserves a more powerful and wideranging status, something that embraces dimensions like emotion, preference, choice and
feeling. In many ways teaching too has suffered from a similar status because for me
one of teaching’s greatest strengths is the way it can be enmeshed with emotion. Andy
Hargreaves (1998) reminds us that emotions are at the heart of teaching and good teaching.
Hargreaves (1998) argues that teaching is an emotional practice and good teaching is charged with
positive emotion. He contends that ‘we must acknowledge and even honor the centrality of the
emotions to the processes and outcomes of teaching, learning and caring’ (p. 850). And there is both
interest and evidence to support such a stance (Zembylas, 2004; 2007). This perspective supports
that of Eisner (1983), who asserts that ‘teachers need the psychological space and the permission
to maintain a sense of excitement and discovery for themselves as teachers so such excitement can
be shared with their students’ (p.12). There are numerous strategies teachers can employ to address
student engagement. But perhaps more importantly, selected strategies need to be a comfortable
fit with the teacher. The perspective that ‘you are how you teach’ applies when strategies are
considered. To be able to infuse positive emotion into my teaching I need to be able to connect
with my students, share my passion for my subject area and establish robust and effective learning
relationships with my students. It requires taking risks, infusing excitement, promoting inquiry,
fun and excitement. It involves creating conditions in which students can participate with agency.
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Creating positive learning conditions can also include a fun dimension and I strongly believe that
learning does not have to be a serious business. When humour is used appropriately, it holds great
potential to promote thinking, to illustrate a point, to make light of complex or sensitive issues or to
help reduce anxiety. Humour can arguably have potential healing properties (Torok, McMorris and
Lin, 2004). Although it may have been once perceived as a distraction it is more recently accepted
as a viable teaching learning and its potential to enhance learning is recognised. Students report
that humour can increase their interest in learning and if their teacher has a strong orientation
to humour they tend to learn more (Garner, 2006). Over the course of many years student
evaluations of my teaching have often referred to my sense of humour. I enjoy laughter, sharing
lighter moments, engaging in banter, telling stories to illustrate a point and performing in a way that
‘gets my message across’. There is often mutual enjoyment as I impersonate selected characters.
For me every year has been a year one, tinged with a nervousness about the who, what and
how of the new teaching and learning experience. I have never forgotten the excitement, the
emotion, the purpose that I felt when teaching my first class. I continue to seek those same
feelings when I am engaged in the practice of teaching. Every year extends and intensifies my
quest to identify and apply ways to push teaching further beyond the technical and influence
learning, engagement, memory, emotion and association.
REFERENCES
Eisner, E. W. (1983). The art and craft of teaching. Educational Leadership, 40(4), 4-13.
Garner , R. L.(2006). Humor in Pedagogy: How Ha-Ha can Lead to Aha!, College Teaching, 54:1, 177-180, DOI: 10.3200/CTCH.54.1.177-180
Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education,
14(8), 835-854.
Torok, S. E., McMorris, R. F., & Lin, W.-C. (2004). Is humor an appreciated teaching tool?
Perceptions of professors’ teaching styles and use of humor. College Teaching, 52(1), 14-20.
Zembylas, M. (2004). The emotional characteristics of teaching: an ethnographic study of
one teacher. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 185-201. doi:http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.09.008
Zembylas, M. (2007). Emotional ecology: The intersection of emotional knowledge and
pedagogical content knowledge in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(4), 355367.
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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KEEPING IT REAL:
AUTHENTIC CONTEXTS
FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING
Hine-iti Moana Greensill, Lecturer, Reo, School of Maori and Pacific Development
I have been a teacher of te reo Māori for close to 15 years and in that time have had
a plethora of experiences that have informed my practice and shaped my beliefs
as a classroom practitioner. In reflecting on my experiences in the classroom, a
lot has changed over the past 15 years. My own growth and development as a
teacher can be likened to that of a tree. The roots of the tree represent those aspects of te
reo Māori and tikanga Māori that form the foundation of my teaching. They remain a source
of strength and knowledge that I draw on, and while firm, also have the ability to grow deeper
and stronger as my own disciplinary knowledge increases. The branches represent who I am
as a teacher: my philosophies, beliefs, approaches and ideas. Many of the beliefs that I have
about teaching and learning are strongly rooted in past experiences of being a learner myself,
but as I have been exposed to new knowledge, ideas and practices, fresh growth has occurred
and new branches have sprouted, shaping my development as a teacher in different ways.
In this article, I outline three core principles that shape my practice as a language teacher.
He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.
Positive feelings in your heart will enhance your sense of self-worth.
Central to the teaching strategies that I use is the principle of manaakitanga, a belief in
the need to care for and nurture my students, so that they feel valued and connected to
their learning. I try to create an environment that is positive, warm and welcoming; an
environment where my students feel at home, where they feel safe and are unafraid of
making mistakes. This is particularly important in a language classroom where students
in the early stages of their language development are extremely vulnerable and can easily
be affected by the way in which the teacher responds to their efforts. Understanding
the difficulties that my students face, as well as being there to listen to them and to
offer support where I can, is fundamental to my practice and to who I am as a teacher.
Ruia taitea kia tū ko taikākā anake.
Strip away the sapwood so that only the heartwood remains.
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
The whakataukī above is one that embodies my journey as a language teacher over the past
15 years and the approach that I now have to teaching. The sapwood, or soft inner part of the
tree, represents all of the extra layers that sometimes distract us from what’s really important.
What this whakataukī alludes to is the need to strip away all of those additional layers, all of
those things that aren’t essential to what we do, so that we can get to the heartwood, those
things that are absolutely fundamental and core to our teaching practice. This process of
stripping away is something that I aspire to in my teaching of te reo Māori and is one of the
three inter-related key principles that inform my approach to course design. These principles are:
1.
Stripping away the excess
2.
Alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and assessment
3.
Keeping it real: Incorporating authentic contexts for learning
Keeping it real: authentic contexts for learning
In making decisions about what is essential and ensuring course alignment, I am guided by the
wish to create a meaningful and real learning experience for students by designing authentic
contexts for teaching, learning and assessment activities. The construction of teaching and
learning materials based on authentic, real-world experiences, is a routine part of the language
teaching methodology that I use and is also a phenomenon that is the subject of a considerable
amount of scholarship in higher education in general (see, for example, Montgomery, 2002;
Meyers & Nulty, 2009). Much of the scholarship questions traditional modes of assessment and
makes connections between authentic assessment and positive student learning experiences
and outcomes. Montgomery (2002, p. 35) states that:
Rather than measuring discrete, isolated skills, authentic assessment emphasizes
the application and use of knowledge. Authentic assessment includes the holistic
performance of meaningful, complex tasks in challenging environments that
involve contextualized problems. Authentic tasks are often multidimensional and
require higher levels of cognitive thinking such as problem solving and critical
thinking.
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The use of authentic contexts in the learning and assessment activities that I design is an
important feature of my teaching, particularly with regard to the teaching of te reo Māori.
Assessment for me is an area where there is huge potential to build the confidence of students,
to allow them to demonstrate their learning, to enable creative expression and to connect
with real-life experiences. I have spent some time developing assessments to strengthen the
connection between what the students are learning in the classroom and what they experience
in the real world. I recognise that authentic assessment can facilitate a high level of engagement
and prepare the students to use the language in a long lasting context.
Some examples of assessments that I have used illustrate my efforts to create learning
opportunities for students that make language learning immediate, relevant and interesting.
Examples include homework assignments and oral assessments that were inspired by real-life
experiences. Tasks involved creating advertisements for Trade Me, submitting an application for
a contestant on New Zealand’s Next Top Model and creating a one page fashion spread for a
magazine, including descriptions of clothing and accessories.
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A final innovative assessment was the oral assessment. Students worked in pairs to create a
segment for a fashion show. The students selected clothes and worked on descriptions for the
show. Each student had a turn at a being a model and a compere with the end result being a
fashion show.
Aside from the relevance of the assessment and the effective scaffolding of students through the
learning process, it was also a lot of fun!
REFERENCES
Meyers, N. M., & Nulty, D. D. (2009). How to use (five) curriculum design principles to align
authentic learning environments, assessment, students’ approaches to thinking and learning
outcomes. Assessment and evaluation in higher education, 34(5), 565 - 577.
Montgomery, K. (2002). Authentic Tasks and Rubrics: Going beyond traditional assessments in
college teaching. College teaching, 50(1), 34 – 40.
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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FINDING BRAVERY THROUGH
EXPERIENCE
Pip Wallace, Senior Lecturer, Environmental Planning, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
IS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING WORSE THAN EATING MAGGOTY ROAD KILL?
I’ve been thinking about my approach to teaching, and really, it’s all about exposure. Not in any
hypothermic or indecent sense, rather, exposure to knowledge, learning from experience, and the
limitation of vulnerability. I teach law and policy to a remarkably diverse group of students, many
of whom will be destined for careers in environmental planning and policy. Convening papers at
all levels, but with an emphasis on fourth year, I am responsible for preparing these students for
their chosen profession and the work place.
Working out what students need to learn and how best to achieve that, is an engaging challenge in
a rewarding job. From my own learning experiences, I found that law and regulatory mechanisms
can at times be dull, and I aim to bring life to the subject by exploring relevance to the discipline
and operation in context. Experiential learning is an established method to inculcate learning
and to engage students’ interest (Schachter, 2004, 175, Usher, 2009, 170). When students
recognise the vocational importance of the subject, they are motivated to engage more deeply,
particularly when its value is indicated in a real time context. For example, this year I arranged
a field trip for our fourth year cohort (in ENVP408) to the Environment Court. During this
visit, Judge Smith initially saw them in chambers to chat to them about their professional roles,
and then we watched a segment of a hearing where a planning professional was giving expert
evidence to the Court. (This came at a time when the Court had released judgements that were
highly critical of planning practice).
The experience stimulated the students and assisted the synthesis of learning across a range of
papers. The Environment Court visit fed into professional practice, application of law to planning
practice, ethics and prompted some serious critical thinking in terms of the problem at hand. In
addition, the experience prepared students for a forthcoming mock hearing which was a final
item of Year 4 assessment.
Learning through experience is more than a pedagogical technique for vocational training.
Experiential learning provides for holistic learning, and it is socially and culturally constructed
(Gregory 2002). As well as delivering learning tied to core competencies and skills, learning from
experience develops the student as a person, shaping personal attributes and perspectives. These
are often things that “can’t be taught”, and that are commonly the result of experience “on the
job” or in life generally.
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Fundamental to my teaching approach is the notion of courage, driven home to me as a young
lawyer by the command of a legendary senior practitioner, who daily sent me and my freshly
minted fellow lawyers off to carnage in the courtroom with the exhortation “Be Brave People”
ringing in our ears. I came to understand that there is much learning in the “doing” and that part
of the journey is vested in developing the knowledge, confidence and fortitude to participate in
professional life. Knowing this, my approach to teaching includes laying down a progressive raft
of experiential challenges for my students. Although I have had a student tell me that he would
rather eat maggoty road kill than appear at the mock hearing, all in all, it is a singularly rewarding
experience for me to see them stand up and deal to the challenges.
REFERENCES
Gregory, J “Principles of Experiential Education” in Jarvis, P (ed) The Theory and Practice of
Teaching (Routledge, New York, USA, 2002).
Schachter, M The Law Professor’s Handbook: A Practical Guide to Teaching Law (Carolina
Academic Press, Durham, NC, USA, 2004).
Usher, R “Experience, Pedagogy and Social Practices.” in Illeris, K (ed) Contemporary Theories of
Learning (Routledge, London, England, 2009).
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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THE FUEL FOR LIFELONG LEARNING
Dr Ryan Ko, Computer Science, Faculty of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
“Teachers who make physics boring are criminals!”
Prof Walter Lewin, Physics Professor at MIT
When I was about to start my job at University of Waikato,
I wanted to know what it is that makes a good lecturer.
While searching for a recommended book “What the Best
College Teachers Do”, I came across an online interview
with Walter Lewin, a Physics professor at MIT. His style of
teaching was legendary. It was immersive, interactive and
highly linked to the real world. In one occasion, he used a
real-life pendulum and taught the principles of force by
placing himself at one end of the pendulum – ‘risking his
life’ doing so.
There are no boring subjects, just criminal teachers.
“Teachers who make physics boring are criminals”, Prof Lewin said in that interview. “What is
important in life is that students experience important milestones in physics, even though later,
they may not remember the details anymore. But in many cases, they had bad teachers, so they
carry on the bad teaching, and this goes on from father to son to son and so on. They are criminal,
because they miss the golden opportunities, and make it dull and boring, and so people begin to
hate physics”. It was said that even Bill Gates spent hours learning from Prof Lewin’s recorded
lectures, just out of interest. Though I have never met him, the retired Prof Lewin became one of my
teaching role models; I wanted to make sure that I could make a lasting impact like him – creating
milestones.
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
I also realised that through my life, my learning has been shaped by motivation, and that learners’
motivation is closely linked to the teachers’ efforts to imbue a love for a subject. I work from the
premise that enabling the learners to approach their learning with the appropriate mindset is the
first step in connecting learners with the subject. My recognition of the importance of mindset in
the learning process was initially inspired by a conversation years ago with a friend working as a
counsellor. He explained how he helped his clients to address challenging recurring habits, by attacking
the problem through working with the client’s psychological mindset, because it was fruitless to tell
the client to “stop doing the action”. He mentioned that mindset leads to behaviour, while behaviour
leads to action. If one does not address the mindset, the client will never be healed or removed from
that problem. That conversation was timely, as my teaching as a tutor/ doctoral assistant in first year
basic computer programming (in NTU) was rather dry at that time. Correspondingly, I now set out
to make sure that all students have the relevant mindset for each tutorial that I teach – i.e. the right
understanding of how the mindset of programming actually occurs in logical decisions in daily life.
An illustrative example of promoting the appropriate mindset was in one of the classes on loops
and if-else conditions. I told the students the story of a lady making a decision when her boyfriend
proposes to her.
I can still remember how all the students’ eyes lit up and started to understand the fundamentals
of nested “if-else” conditions, and “while” loops. That was my turning point in teaching, and I was
hooked. It has been ten years since then, and it is with gratefulness that I am a “law-abiding” teacher
by Prof Lewin’s standards, focusing on the fuel of lifelong learning – motivation.
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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“Ryan is an amazing lecturer, he is passionate about his areas, makes classes fun and involves the whole
class. Best lecturer I have had in 3 and a half years!!”
2015 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award nomination narrative
“Before meeting Ryan I found my degree rather boring and uninspiring. I really only did it for the job
prospects afterward. After meeting Ryan, and participating in his lectures his lecturing style and upbeat
personality has shone a new exciting light into the subject area for me. Even aspiring me to want to do
further study because I’m interested, not because of money promises or other factors.”
2014 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award nomination narrative
“Ryan gave a guest lecture on Cyber Security in COMP103 (Introduction to Computer Science) when I
was teaching it last year. COMP103 is a large class because this is our main first-year paper, but Ryan
kept the audience spellbound. I have never seen such a large class being so engaged in a computer
science lecture. Ryan’s lecture was very interactive: for example, it involved a competition where
students had to tackle a security challenge to win. I tremendously enjoyed the lecture and would love
to have Ryan as a guest lecturer again.”
Associate Professor Eibe Frank, FCMS
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
TEACHING DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS
TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
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TUTORS’ DAY
TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT OFFERS YOU TUTORS’ DAY
Tutors’ Day is an introductory workshop designed for those who are new to tutoring at the
University of Waikato.
The day includes an introduction to tutoring, discussions on surviving your first tutorial, facilitating
small group discussions, increasing participation and getting feedback on your teaching.
Morning tea and light lunch will be provided inclusive of hot and cold beverages throughout the
day.
You must attend the whole session to be eligible for a Certificate of Attendance.
Date
TO REGISTER
Tuesday, 23 February 2016
Please contact Lissa Smith
Time
e-mail [email protected]
from 9am to 3pm
or phone extn 4839
Venue
Faculty of Law, Te Piringa, room LAW.G.02
University of Waikato’s Hamilton Campus
Facilitator
Charlotte Ferry-Parker, Senior Tutor
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TDU Talk issue 3 - Dec 2015
Closing date for registration
5pm Friday, 19 February 2016
enhance your teaching
excite and engage your learners
educate effectively
VISIT THE TDU
Teaching Development Unit
Centre for Tertiary Teaching and Learning
The University of Waikato
Gate 8, Hillcrest Road, A block
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
Website: www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu
Phone: +64 7 838 4839
Email: [email protected]
© The University of Waikato, December 2015.