December 16, 2009 - 3:25am
Vancouver Island University educators Neil Smith and Nancy
Randall believe innovative, engaging and risk-taking approaches to teaching are
worth sharing with the rest of the world.
The associates of VIU’s Teaching and Learning Centre have
collaborated on producing and distributing The Art of Teaching, a
45-minute DVD that has been presented at seminars and conferences in Canada and
internationally. It is also available for viewing on YouTube and the TLC
website.
“We walked into classrooms and saw wonderful teaching and
wondered, ‘How do we share that within our community and beyond?’” said
Randall, former head of the TLC and now an honorary research associate.
Faculty members featured in The Art of Teaching
include professionals with a range of experience from those with just a few
years in the classroom to others who have found ways to keep their approach
fresh after more than 30 years on the job.
“There are so many people who have a passion for teaching
but sometimes we work in isolation and don’t see the professional practices of
others,” Smith said.
In the DVD, math professor Dave Bigelow talks about leaving
his students with cliff-hanger problems at the end of lectures to keep their
interest for the following class. In another, Sport, Health and Physical
Education professor Guy Le Masurier tosses a ball back and forth with students
to introduce a kinetic element as they engage in discussion and debate. English
professor Jeannie Martin explains how she gets positive feedback from students
after she gives them her rationale for “heavy marking” to cut down on grammatical
errors. A Media Studies student gives professor Marshall Soules high marks for
treating those in his class as adults. Soules talks about the value of raising
questions even though he might not have answers. Science Education professor
Bernie Krynowsky describes his shift to put a greater focus on students and the
outcomes they expect.
VIU president and vice-chancellor Ralph Nilson commended
Smith, Randall and other members of the faculty team for promoting an
innovative and inspiring approach to teaching.
“Neil has demonstrated that effective teaching is truly an
art. The best educators possess a commitment to life-long learning and
collaboration. The examples of classroom success in this DVD will make a
difference in the quality of education for students in BC and around the
world,” Nilson said.
Smith emphasized that The Art of Teaching is not a
“how-to” instructional DVD. Instead, it invites viewers to reflect on their own
approach.
“There are so many good teaching models. It’s just a
sampling,” said Smith, a former International Teaching Scholar and continuing
associate of the TLC. The video has added value because students agreed to be
interviewed to provide feedback, Smith said.
“What captured teachers’ attention was hearing the students’
perspective of what they were experiencing and how much they appreciated
teaching that was somewhat out of the box – outside the traditional chalk-talk
lecture,” Smith said. “The students could see the teachers were taking some
risks and challenging themselves.”
“You see lots of discussion and debate,” Randall said.
“Learning is taken seriously. This takes the abstraction of preparing a lesson
and demonstrates effective teaching as it is practised. It's active and
dynamic.”
BCcampus,
an organization
that supports online learning province-wide, has provided funding so
that VIU can distribute a copy of The Art of Teaching to each
post-secondary institution in BC. UNESCO has also contacted Randall about
the DVD because it is available online free to educators around the world.
Smith, who established Pacific Leadership Design to produce
the DVD, plans to work once again with videographer John Dawson and editor
Kevin Mazutinec of media studies at VIU to produce a second DVD that focuses on
the nature of student inquiry.
Smith noted that the video production has been a personal
learning experience. He pointed to an earlier film project on teaching in which
he appeared on camera behind a podium “looking very professorial.”
The approach was dropped for The Art of Teaching DVD
after he and Dawson talked about ways to convey enthusiasm for the
profession. Dawson asked Smith, “What do you feel passionate about?”
The result was an engaging opening scene with Smith tackling
a steep slope on cross-country skis. He plans to use the mountain environment
for future videos on lessons learned in and out of the classroom.
To
view The Art of Teaching on YouTube, visit: youtube.com/watch?v=F9Ny0T3THuk&feature=related
A thumbnail version of the DVD is on the TLC website: viu.ca/teaching/index.asp
Visit the Vancouver Island University TLC: viu.ca/teaching
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For more information, contact Neil Smith at Pacific
Leadership Design, email: smithneil@shaw.ca
or Nancy Randall, email: Nancy.Randall@viu.ca
Tags: In the Community
