ISSOTL 2012: where teachers become students
This article was originally published in McMaster University’s Alumni Blog in 2012.
When asked to comment about professors and their role in academic institutions, it is assumed that their main interest lies on research – and teaching takes the backseat. This belief is not purely anecdotal; it is also perpetuated in mainstream media, most recently through this Globe and Mail opinion piece by Margaret Wente.
Wente's criticism of higher education and its proponents (i.e. professors) provoked a passionate outcry from the academic blogging world. University of Waterloo's assistant professor Emmett Macfarlane stood up on behalf of the teaching community, calling Wente's assessment of the university a "misguided" one.
The balancing act between teaching and research does not go unnoticed. Yet, this public opinion of academics, not working "hard enough," is sadly a common one. That was exactly the impetus behind the 2012 International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL): to bring to the forefront discussions and scholarly work on teaching and learning. Organized by the Centre for Leadership in Learning, McMaster played host to this annual international event that unites academics deeply passionate about advancing student learning. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a whole is an ongoing meta-assessment and exploration of teaching, as teachers themselves take a step back, to become learners to understand how to teach better.
ISSOTL 2012 was a week-long conference (Oct. 22 to Oct. 27), hitting close to 600 delegates from 19 countries, putting their heads together to tackle this simple yet complex question: how can we teach better for our students to learn better? About 100 McMaster professors from various disciplines also took part in this event. The number of delegates was not enough to demonstrate the sheer impact of the conference. With 4 plenaries, 14 pre-conference workshops, 24 panels, 188 individual papers to choose from, the conference promised an invigorating week of exchanges between scholars from all walks of life.
As a recent grad, I was in a unique position where I'm no longer a student, but still vividly remembered how it was like being in class. It seemed only yesterday where I was listening, furiously taking notes from condensed 50-minute lectures. I recalled those "A-ha!" moments, where something that was being said in class clicked and made more sense than just words lifted out of the textbook.
Seeing accomplished and highly accredited individuals reflecting on their teaching practices, recognizing their shortcomings in their attempts to engage students, was (surprisingly) reassuring.
This self-reflection was apparent in one of the panel discussions I had the pleasure to sit in. Titled Students as Knowledge Makers: A Collaborative Inquiry across Disciplines, the panel offered an overview of a Collaborative Inquiry (CI) project, a joint project between teachers from Borough of Manhattan Community College and City University of New York. Through CI, four panelists discussed how to enlist students as agents of change and creativity, to be independent knowledge makers. CI is described dialectical, where participants go through a process of dialogue and action to tackle questions of importance to them.
The panelists revealed many of the challenges, discomforts, and disputes that they themselves experienced in attempt to collaborate with their peers. As one panelist pointed out, "You don't make students knowledge makers until you yourself ask 'what does it mean to become a knowledge maker?'" In doing so, the panelists – all highly knowledgeable professors – were thrust in environment where they became students themselves. Through the CI inquiry process, teachers could relate to their students, as they recognize the challenge in doing collaborative work, including the need for trust and combating this fear of conflict between peers.
Those who participated in the sessions were all professors; it was expected in a conference about teaching and learning. But it was refreshing to see them opening up to their flaws, recognizing that they too are not perfect, realizing that they need to do better to help their students. I wonder if current students, the people from the receiving end, are aware of all these initiatives and attempts to improve teaching. Teachers really do have students' best interest in their hearts. As one of the panelist reflected, "I had to be the change that I want to see in my students." I only wished that more students could hear her say that.
It is not to be mistaken that there was no mention of enlisting students in SoTL work. A plenary discussing students' role as "change agents" deserves special mention, as a laudable step to get them engaged in pedagogical research and studies. It would be erroneous to assume that students are not interested to learn how to learn better. Input from students would create a two-way conversation about what learning truly is, bringing it to a personal level, instead of being reduced to another "task" to tick off in a list of things needed to be accomplished in order to graduate.
This reflection of ISSOTL 2012 is far from comprehensive; it merely scratches the surface in addressing the many institutional challenges that confronts postsecondary institutions in Canada. The diverse voices from the conference have spoken loud and clear: there is no "one-size fits all" approach to improve student learning. Acknowledging that, the conference ended on a realist note, by asking, "What are the most important changing conditions for education, global or local, that will shape the practice of SoTL over the next 10 years?"
It's a conversation worth having in the next class you sit in.