Thinking like a Jedi to re-think learning and teaching
It is the dawn of 2020. It is the beginning of a new decade. We have been content creators as well as content consumers for nearly a decade now. TikTok is one of the popular media to create content. Video calling is the norm to the extent that we tend to worry a bit if we get an actual phone call. Exciting and interesting times ahead, is what we think.
Yet the world of teaching and learning is largely stuck in practices from quite a while ago. We still plan most of our classes the same way we have been doing for a while and we assess learning the same way too. I shouldn't be too hard on all teaching and learning practices because there are several tried-and-tested techniques that are valuable. It isn't that they're not valuable, but I fear that we have not kept up with the pace and the way we have evolved as an Information Society.
How do we better meet the needs of our learners? How can we support our teachers to help students learn?
Perhaps we can draw inspiration from the Jedi Code (below) and see what best to do...
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
- The Jedi Code
Golden, Chrisite (c. 2016). Dark disciple. London: Arrow Books
We often hold our thoughts and beliefs very close to us. This further implies that we carry these beliefs to our work places and they often end up informing our actions and interactions. As teachers, these will influence our teaching philosophies and how we teach each day.
As teachers, if we were to approach our interactions and lessons keeping aside our own beliefs and work to support our learners to the best of our abilities, the focus moves away from us and towards supporting learners. Each interaction and class then becomes a learning opportunity for us to look for what works and what doesn't as we teach. This iterative improvement helps focus on knowledge -- acquisition and dissemination.
In a calm manner, we can understand the needs of our learners better and find ways to support their learning better. Of course a lot of what we need to do depends on the nature of the course we're teaching at any point in time, but literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning has so many strategies that we can use in many different teaching contexts.
We then begin to move away from chaos, confusion and other such emotions in our minds about our teaching styles and choices, and things start to flow together, harmoniously.
Anyway, if you've made it this far, thank you. In this blog, I will share details of the projects we will work on through the JEDI SoTL project, and will share some lessons learned along the way. JEDI is an acronym for Just a Learning Engagement Design Initiative. We are a group of instructors and educational developers working to design engaging learning experiences.
I hope to share some lessons or thoughts based on literature in the domain here periodically. And of course, occasionally some nerdy stuff too -- I love Star Wars, Marvel (and some aspects of DC, too), recording parody songs, and so much more.
If you are interested to know more about our work, email me -- raghav<at>cs.dal.ca
Thanks for reading! May the Force be with you!
