{"id":22159,"date":"2019-02-20T08:15:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T13:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=22159"},"modified":"2022-01-13T13:53:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T18:53:38","slug":"blog-embedding-change-as-a-principle-in-our-pedagogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2019\/blog-embedding-change-as-a-principle-in-our-pedagogy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Embedding change as a principle in our pedagogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Rooney, Educational Development Coordinator, EDC<\/em><\/p>\n

Change is hard. It can be hard to see when it\u2019s necessary, or to envision concretely what it might look like, or to actually implement it. When it comes to teaching, there are a lot of factors working against change: our workload, our perceptions of ourselves and our teaching efficacy, and our awareness of the many and intractable problems that hinder and constrain universities, professors, students, and learning generally. As a recent series of events in the new year have reminded me, however, perhaps the thing that gets in the way the most is habit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The last leg of my commute home provides the pedestrian with two options: one can either take the pathway through a little park area that ends with a set of stairs, or one can take the sidewalk in a right-angle fashion. When there\u2019s no snow, the former saves you about twenty seconds and allows you to fleetingly enjoy a tiny slice of nature. When the snow comes, the stairs are gated off and the pathway isn\u2019t plowed. You\u2019d think that would be the end of the first option. But no, after each snowstorm, people dutifully blaze a trail, bypassing the stairs via a side route that can quickly transform into a treacherous streak of ice. If you\u2019re one of the first to attempt it after a fresh snowfall, the \u201cshortcut\u201d ends up taking much longer than the more circuitous route. Even when the trail is well worn, the icy, uneven conditions ensure that no time is saved.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been watching this phenomenon play out for a few weeks now\u2014a fresh dumping of snow followed by, without fail, the re-emergence of that trail\u2014with a sense of bemusement tinged with chagrin. After all, not only do I use the trail when it\u2019s there, but lately I also find myself trudging through the snow when it\u2019s not, joining the ranks for those who work to re-establish it. No time is saved; nothing is gained. The original function of the \u201cshortcut,\u201d in fact, is entirely undermined by the conditions I can\u2019t help but acknowledge, but I trudge on anyway. The obvious question arises: \u201cWhy am I participating in this stubborn ritual?\u201d<\/p>\n

This absurdist drama\u2014in which I am a consciously critical but nevertheless cooperative actor\u2014has reminded me of the tyrannical force of habit in general, but especially in relation to teaching. In defence of my own practice as an instructor, I will say that I pride myself on taking a student-centred approach to my teaching, incorporating active learning into every lesson and implementing a number of strategies to empower my students with a sense of ownership of the class and of their own learning. But that said, I have lately found myself wondering how often habit is actually, and perhaps secretly, driving my decision making. How many times have I taken a well-known trail, so to speak, that saves no time or labour, or that no longer delivers on the promise that was its raison d\u2019etre<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Two examples immediately spring to mind. First, I routinely collect feedback from my students about how a class is going, but I\u2019m starting to suspect that I\u2019ve been using those opportunities to explain myself more than to initiate student-driven changes. Similarly, I have long bemoaned students\u2019 failure to complete weekly readings, and yet my assessments haven\u2019t changed much in the last few years. These, too, are instances of me stubbornly participating in ineffective rituals that, in other contexts, don\u2019t escape my notice.<\/p>\n

Like others, I imagine, I had been consoling myself with thoughts such as \u201cI\u2019ve been at this for a while and know my business\u201d and \u201csome problems are too systemic for any one instructor to overcome.\u201d New lesson plans and assignments take time and effort, and students work more and read less. There\u2019s no sense \u201ctilting at windmills,\u201d right?<\/p>\n

Well, actually, thinking back to the novel from which that expression derives, there is <\/em>some sense in tilting at windmills. The loveable but absurd Don Quixote might have been off his rocker, mistaking windmills for giants, but every decision he made was fueled by one simple, worthwhile idea: that we must fight to make the ideal real. It is not enough to do things this or that way, to embrace seemingly intractable realities as inevitable, just because that\u2019s how it\u2019s always been done. Embracing that position, Cervantes wants us to see, is even more mad than Quixote\u2019s fantastical knight-errantry.<\/p>\n

When it comes to teaching, the challenge is to take or make new paths, even when so many things seem to scream at us, \u201cThere is no other way to do it.\u201d Conscious self-reflection on its own is not enough, either, or at least it hasn\u2019t been in my case. The only way to combat the tyrannical force of habit, I have recently concluded, is to actively seek out and embrace change. When I collect feedback from my students, I\u2019m now committing myself in advance to implementing at least one or two changes they suggest regardless. When I see, as I have long seen, my students failing to keep up with the readings, I\u2019m now seeking out new ideas and developing new assignments and grading schemes in search of something that will do more and better. Any improvement is better than the status quo, and any ground gained is precious.<\/p>\n

By their very essence, re-trodden trails cannot lead us anywhere new. To find new paths, we have to jealously guard ourselves against a deference to habit, and we have to demand change of ourselves even when so many forces seem to insist that no change is possible, necessary or desirable. If you can make only one change in your approach to teaching this year, I would urge it to be this: commit to change. Commit to it not as a one-time event or temporary aberration but rather as a foundational principle in your pedagogy\u2014not because your teaching is flawed or wanting but because, as Cervantes reminds us, the miraculous, absurdist impulse that drives every step forward in the human enterprise is simply that search for better, even if (especially<\/em> if) we\u2019re not entirely sure it exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Rooney, Educational Development Coordinator, EDC Change is hard. It can be hard to see when it\u2019s necessary, or to envision concretely what it might look like, or to actually implement it. When it comes to teaching, there are a lot of factors working against change: our workload, our perceptions of ourselves and our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlog: Embedding change as a principle in our pedagogy - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Morgan Rooney, Educational Development Coordinator, EDC Change is hard. 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