Northcentral University

10 Tara Signs, PhD, LMFT Part-Time Faculty, Department of Marriage and Family Sciences TEACHINGTIPS When I began working at NCU, I felt incredible pressure to provide students with detailed feedback and corrections in every area of the assignment. My comments and suggestions trailed throughout every margin to ensure students understood the material and got what they needed to be successful, or so I had thought. Over time, I began to notice that even with my detailed feedback, students were submitting poor quality or late work consistently. I felt frustrated with the students, myself, and the overall process. This awareness opened up space for meaningful exploration and self-reflection. I learned it is significant to be with your students, rather than focused on doing. I began to focus less on providing detailed feedback or corrections in every area and more on how I gave feedback and its usefulness to students. • First, be authentic and genuine. I had forced this idea of what feedback was supposed to look like, that I began to lose authenticity in how I gave feedback. My feedback was not clear, nor did it fit for me and my teaching style. I had to connect with my authentic self. It was through this connection that I saw teaching as opportunities for rich and meaningful discussions with students. • Second, create time and space for providing feedback. In the beginning, I had developed a routine where my feedback became part of a checklist to complete, rather than being be a part of the learning process. Now, I create more intentional time each day, to be with students and their work. • Lastly, show passion. One of the most effective ways to teach and provide feedback at a deeper, more meaningful way, is to show your students your passion and enthusiasm about the material, and most importantly, their learning. I connect my feedback with experiences, suggestions, and questions to create space for students to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the couple and family therapy field. In summary, I found that being my authentic self creates a greater connection with my students in a more meaningful way. There is a similar process for our students. Students learn to be more engaged and present with the course materials, thus, creating a greater connection to their work and how it fits for them as MFT's. I often tell supervisees, we cannot expect our clients to be vulnerable if we ourselves are not willing, and I find this is true for our students. I cannot expect students to slow down and be present with their work if I am not willing. At some point in our teaching careers, we have all struggled to provide feedback in a meaningful way. I believe that students can sense our commitment to the teaching process and will have much more meaningful learning experiences when we are genuine in our intentions. As Tara noted, being authentic and genuine in our role as teachers is vital. This ties in really well with Alycia's point that we are indeed in a partnership with our students. We are learning from each other every step of the way. Very often, I find myself telling my students during our welcome meetings that we will be working on the course collaboratively. I have learned that when students recognize that we are moving through this journey together, it leads to a much more engaging and connected learning environment. Thank you Alycia and Tara for your helpful teaching tips! DO YOU HAVE AN APPROACH, STRATEGY, OR SUGGESTION YOU THINK OTHERS WOULD FIND USEFUL OR INTERESTING? Please share! You can send your ideas to Mindi (mmull@ncu.edu) or Siva (sperera@ncu.edu) and we would be happy to include them in an upcoming faculty newsletter. Thanks! Mindi Mull, PhD and Siva Perera PhD, LMFT Associate Directors of Faculty Support and Development, SSBS

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