By: Sabrina Doyle
Adrian Chan likes to think of his classroom as more of a community. In many learning environments, he says, the onus is on the instructor to make the learning process a success because both teachers and students are caught in a cycle of thinking that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
“But then it’s a battle. I don’t think that’s what students want. They appreciate the fact that they need to be tested, but I think they’ve lost that ownership,” he says.
Chan, who was one of three 2012-13 winners of the Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award at Carleton, works to instill in his students a sense of responsibility for their own learning.
For instance, in a graduate class that he taught this year, he led the students through an experiment: He spent the initial lecture talking about “what education is” and why the students were at university. Then Chan had them write a letter of justification for their final mark, far before they’d even done any of the work or received a grade.
“It was kind of like a ‘this is what I promise to do’ type thing,” he says.
Chan then took all their letters and made word maps out of them.
“A lot of what they were talking about was assignments and deadlines. They are being driven by these externalities. Others were talking more about knowledge and learning and self-motivation.”
It was the first time Chan had done such an experiment. He can’t say for sure whether it had much of an impact but he says that he found the class was very engaged and that students seemed to have an understanding that they had to take responsibility for their own learning.
“My lifelong goal is to make a difference in the world. What are the stories that my children’s children’s children are going to say about me?”
When he teaches, he says his impact is amplified through his students and how they go on to live their lives.
“I don’t kid myself into thinking that they’re doing these things because of me, but I’d like to think I made some small contribution to who they are right now. “