Reflection

Before starting this program, I thought that I only needed to learn some effective teaching activities and techniques to start teaching a class. Although that is a big part of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), I quickly learned that I would need to start by being aware of who I was, my identity and background, and how these factors would affect the way I was perceived by the students. In the same way, I would need to be aware of my own unconscious biases, and how those same factors would affect my perception of the students. Even before thinking about preparing a lecture, I would need to be aware that not all students learn the same way I learn, and that not everyone enjoys the same topics I enjoy. This type of awareness may or may not change the way I was going to prepare lectures in the future, but at this point it was clear that general awareness was an important first step. After this introduction to the program, I was introduced to many concepts and techniques such as categories of misconceptions, knowledge organizations, mental models, motivations for learning, feedback, assessments, learning objectives, and active-learning techniques. I also learned about the importance of reflecting on our teaching and seeking support from teaching centers and faculty members. By the end of the first semester, I had realized that learning to teach involves a lot more than learning to prepare good lectures.

An important topic that I look forward to continuing learning about is inclusive teaching. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the experts talking about some of the challenges I had as a student, that I didn't know were considered in SoTL. For example, thinking twice before participating in class because the instructor and classmates might not understand my accent. It was encouraging to learn that there are state-of-the-art teaching techniques that add equity to a classroom, which start by reflecting on who is unconsciously not being heard and who might be left behind. An inclusive learning environment has to start with some productive discomfort and with a growth mindset, in the sense that we need to accept the fact that we have unconscious biases and that we create microinequities, such as making more eye contact and paying more attention to the students that initially feel more comfortable participating in class, thus slowly moving away from an inclusive classroom.

After learning the theory, it was time to put it ALL into practice during the co-teaching experience, or at least that is what I thought. I quickly realized how hard it is to include all techniques in a lecture. Preparing a good lecture is in itself a challenging task, but now I knew that it had to be entertaining, inclusive, and that it should include active-learning techniques. I also had to consider preparing a lecture that I would teach with confidence and fluency. My approach was to add one or two active-learning techniques in each class. At that time, preparing lectures that would include all the techniques I learned the previous semester felt overwhelming, but looking back, the lectures I prepared and my teaching methods were strongly influenced by everything I learned. As is the case with every skill, becoming a good instructor requires practice. Now that I know the importance of SoTL, I expect that with practice it will get easier to include all those evidence-based teaching techniques in my future lectures.