Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/1040675
TEACHINGTIPS Kristi Harrison, PhD, LMFT Full-Time Faculty, Department of Marriage and Family Sciences Hello, fellow colleagues! If you've been following these Teaching Tips from one edition to the next, you may have noticed a common theme running through our colleagues' tips. These Teaching Tips have consistently pointed out that our learning environment at NCU is unique, as are our students, and effectively teaching in a one-to-one model involves tailoring our teaching to our unique learning environment and to the specific needs of our students. I would venture to guess that many of us would say similar things about our experiences at NCU. As we work with our students at NCU and get to know them, our teaching tends to evolve. In this Teaching Tip, I would like to take the opportunity to share some thoughts about the "uniqueness" of our learning environment and of our students, taking into account ideas around equity, diversity, and inclusion. This Teaching Tip is not so much about offering tips ("Hey, try doing this!") but rather about sharing ideas that may shed new light on things you're already doing with your students. Recently, I had the chance to learn more about the history of higher education in the United States. While I have been aware that higher education is a place where important social justice movements are continuing to play out, looking more closely at the history of higher education has encouraged me to think about where NCU fits into the bigger picture of higher education. As part of this, I've found myself thinking critically about the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we've identified as ideals in graduate education. What is traditionally considered "good work"? What kinds of learning goals do we consider "typical" in graduate school? What knowledge or skills do we view as "remedial"? How much do our answers to these questions take into account our own cultural backgrounds? Do they leave space for the real-world experiences of our students? In my own work with students, I have been shifting my responses in order to see things like grammar or professionalism as opportunities to bridge cultural differences, to increase equity, and to promote greater diversity in our learning community and in the professions we're training people to join. Viewing our work at NCU in the context of the larger higher education system, and in the context of our society at large, is helping me to think differently about my interactions with students, particularly students with marginalized identities. We can be mindful of things like race and class as we work with students. This is relevant in our interactions with our strongest students as well as our students who struggle the most. It may be particularly important in interactions with students whose academic skills may be lower than what we expect in graduate school. Teaching online, we may miss some of the relational aspects underlying our interactions with students, because we're relying more on written communication to send and receive messages. Being attuned to the social context surrounding our teaching interactions with our students can prepare us for having more authentic, helpful conversations