"The Skillful Teacher" by Stephen Brookfield


Comments on The Skillful Teacher 

Brookfield, S. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass


Week 7 September 17

Comment on Chapter 20 Staying Sane: 16 Maxims of Skillful Teaching

            As I reach the conclusion of this book I recognize again how practical it has been, but even more so how I have emotionally recognized myself is some of Brookfield’s statements. Many of the maxims about professional behaviour are very similar to what is important to maintain a nursing registration as well. Self-care as described in the first maxim is one of the tenants of professional responsibility and accountability professional standards of the RN in BC (CRNBC, 2015). A realistic self-concept is also emphasized in the idea that perfection or even balance are illusions that we can strive for but not realistically attain. Knowing yourself, not relying on student satisfaction and recognizing your role as a helper of learning also relate to that realistic self-image. Trust your instincts is where I think a pragmatic self-concept is important. Another professional responsibility maxim is that of being a life-long learner in the process of education as well as your area of expertise. Being able to internalize and disseminate that professional knowledge shows a maturity in your professional responsibility.
            Most of the other maxims relate to the instructor’s relationship with the students and their courses. An educator learns to understand the power dynamics of that interpersonal relationship(s). The recognition of ambiguity, emotional influences, and the understanding of student learning styles are all ways of facilitating the relationships with students. The maxims are knowing and implementing teaching models, the creation of safe diverse learning environment, and the need to challenge your students, show your professional responsibility to the facilitation of learning.
            Finally, I see the ability to take risks and to be honestly critically reflective of your practices moves the instructor from an ordinary teacher to an excellent teacher. Even though Brookfield seems almost negative about the achievement of that excellence (perfection), it is a reasonable challenge to keep up from stagnating.
           
CRNBC, (n.d.). Professional Standards for Registered Nurse and Nurse Practictioners in British    Columbia, Vancouver, BC Retrieved on September 17, 2016 from: https://crnbc.ca/Standards/Lists/StandardResources/128ProfessionalStandards.pdf

Week 6 September 10

Comment on Brookfield Chapter 6 (Lecturing Creatively).

Brookfield defines a lecture as a time when there are sustained periods of instructor speaking (2015, p. 70). He goes on to give five reasons for continuing to lecture in Chapter 6. He explains how a well-organized lecture that is broken into 15-minute sections with some learning activities can be a good way to disseminate some difficult content, introduce alternate ways of thinking and encourage interest in the topic. How often have you listened to a well-orchestrated lecture (like a TED talk) that peaks your interest in a topic?Brookfield’s fourth reason was the one that interested me the most, 'modeling intellectual communication' (2015, p.72). He goes on to set out another five ways of doing the modeling. The idea of modeling critical thinking was what caught my attention. Using questions before and after one’s lecture points, and “introducing alternative perspective whether from another instructor or from the literature or encouraging the students’ interest by allowing them to question assumptions” were ways to model this critical thinking behaviour (Brookfield, 2015, p. 80-82). Brookfield cites the work of Freire and Shor when they state that if critical thinking is encouraged in a lecture, this method is a good way of instructing (2015, p.70).I was able to find another article that quoted Freire as well as Vygotsky when defending the lecture instructional method (Webster, 2015, pp. 88, 90, 93). Because a lecture is given to a set of actively living listening students, their brains are automatically thinking about the words that are said and interpreting them. "There is an inner dialectical activity taking place within each individual who is present in the room" (Webster, 2015, p. 93). If instructors follow Brookfield’s method of encouraging that thinking in a critical manner through example, the instructor not only disseminates that information but allows the students to develop a way of critically thinking about the concepts as well (2015). So if an instructor lectures there are ways and better ways to present the information in a lecture format.Webster, R. S. (2015). In Defence of the Lecture. Australian Journal Of Teacher Education, 40(10), Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Retrieved on September 10, 2016, from ERIC http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1078748.pdf 



Week 5 September 2

Chapter 16: Understanding Students’ Resistance to Learning

Brookfield’s premise in this chapter is that resistance to learning is a fear of change (2016, p213). I would say that it is more than that. He mentions fear of public shaming, but I think this stems from a fear of failure. (2016, p.) In the same way, the fear of cultural suicide is the fear of failure of a relationship. Bledsoe and Bascoe speak of how “some students all have a sense of nervousness and fear when they first start a class, but some remain consistently fearful”(2014, 2015). I postulate that the students who remain afraid are the ones that become the resisters whether overt or hidden.I think learners fear change because there is a greater chance of doing something wrong when attempting something new. Why is it that some people enjoy change? They search for diversity and excitement, they are not afraid of change and can withstand the fear of failure when doing something new.While I was teaching in Egypt, I realized that resistance to learning came from fear. When they failed at something in the learning arena, the public shaming and often-punitive measures doled out when they made mistakes were greater than their desire to do/learn something different.In Egypt, I also learned that I was not afraid of failure and therefore could withstand change. When I learned Arabic, I was not afraid to speak even if it was imperfect, because my desire to learn the language was greater than my fear of failure. I was not afraid to fail therefore I was not afraid to change.Angela Duckworth speaks of grit being the true assessment of learning motivation. I think developmental context allows some learners to have this grit while others don’t. Why are some students able to take risks and enjoy challenging the unknown? It would be interesting to look at Angela Duckworth’s research regarding this idea of fear of failure, Brookfield’s fear of change as they relate to resistance in the classroom. The poor self-image of learners would fall under this fear of failure. If a person grows up with unconditional love, not just acceptance, there is something built in the character of a person that allows them to take risks and persevere through mistakes. With empathy, we encourage students who have not had the developmental encouragement to take the risks to overcome the fear of failure inherent in learning.Another autobiographical lesson I learned from learning languages was what Brookfield calls the normal rhythm of learning. After a period of learning vocabulary, there would be a period of assimilation before I could use the words effectively and be able to absorb new words again. As Brookfield states, it is in the assessment of learner resistance that we can indeed mediate resistance to acceptable levels that don’t destroy the learning. Assessment of our obsessions, the disjunction of learning and teaching styles, the irrelevant classes, the learning levels and speed of learning, as well as instructional clarity, are all areas where good assessment is needed in a formative manner to decrease the levels of resistance. The former are all areas of resistance reasons that an instructor can manage to a certain extent. The developed “fear of failure” and personality clashes are not something that we can change, but they will often be a reason for resistance in the classroom. Brookfield’s suggestions in the following chapter go a long way to deal with this fear as well as the instructor controlled areas that we can change.
Bledsoe. T.S., & Baskin, J.J. (2014). Recognizing student fear The elephant in the classroom. College Teaching, 62(1). 32-41. And summary retrieved August 30, 2016, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/strategies-for-addressing-student-fear-in-the-classroom/De Castella, K., Byrne, D., & Covington, M. (2013). Unmotivated or motivated to fail? A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation, fear of failure, and student disengagement. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 105(3), 861-880. doi:10.1037/a0032464Duckworth, A. http://angeladuckworth.com/  Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. (2013, April). Retrieved August 31, 2016, from https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?language=en



Week 4 August 27

Chapter 8: Teaching in Diverse Classrooms

            I teach in a community college setting and as Brookfield states those are often the most diverse classroom settings. I would tend to agree with this statement. The history of the cosmopolitan nature of the lower mainland BC, means some of the other cultures have been Canadianized for an extended period already. Some of the students that are “multi-cultural” are more Canadianized than I as a second generation Canadian am. It all depends on context.Understanding the diversity of learnersVancouver and the lower mainland as I stated before, as well as the entrance requirements for VCC, make teaching a challenge of diversity. The different types of learning styles are added to cultural diversity. I am even able to recognize the diversity of what are called the Asian cultures. The cultural mix is compounded by a generational diversity in each nursing cohort. Diversity is something I had come to understand since working in the lower mainland even before I started teaching. I have worked in Russia, and Egypt both of these situations were uni-cultural (just not western European/American white cultures). I had spent my earlier years working in less diverse more white-dominated cultures. The Prairies and the Atlantic Provinces are predominantly bastions of white colonialists. The white-dominance may have changed as some of the urban areas have grown but not where I was raised or at the time I worked there. The past 15 years I have spent in the lower mainland the diversity of clients, and now the diversity of students that I encounter are a fact of my teaching career. But as Brookfield notes, culture is not the only factor in the understanding of diversity.

Wolff, A.C. (2009). Understanding the Influences of Diversity on the Nursing Workforce.

Gauging diversityBrookfield continues to promote formative assessments as a way to help in the understanding of the diversity in the classroom. As the image above indicates the idea of using only “cultural” diversity as the gauge is very short-sighted. There are many levels to diversity. In the relational inquiry book that I teach in collaboration, the definition of culture is given a much broader meaning. Culture is contextually situated. Doane and Varcoe give 5 dimensions to that context, historical, socio-political, economical, physical and linguistic (2015). If one then takes into account the learning style diversity, the generational diversity, the ethical, empirical, aesthetic as well as context and the idiosyncratic differences in students, the gauging of that diversity can only be done with a formative assessment like Brookfield’s ICQ (Doane & Varcoe, 2015), (2016, p.101).Mixing student groupsSomething that I took away from the chapter is the idea of mixing student groups is not to do it too early in the term. It is after there is a level of comfort with content and an understanding of the instructor’s ways that one could create a “pedagogic bouillabaisse” (Brookfield, 2016, p. 103). For a course in collaboration especially in nursing like was noted in the diagram, it is important that students learn to work with a diversity of individuals and school is a good place to start.Team Teaching - Mixing modalities – Visual or oral communicationAll of these situations allow for the instructor to increase their ability to affect a broad base of diversity in students. Teachers bring their own context of diversity to the classroom. The ability of the instructor to use multiple instructional activities also helps to accommodate diversity. The visual/ oral diversity is a very strong difference. I enjoyed a recent class where I was able to get the students to draw a UTM “Ultimate Team Member”. (They had to laugh, not a UTI? – urinary tract infection? - okay, that is a nursing in-joke.) It was interesting to see the diversity in the abilities to draw a character and create an oral story about the picture they drew. It appeared to be an enjoyable experience for the students; I didn’t do the formative assessment.Silent or speech filled classroomsI enjoy the strategy to deal with the issue that speech is privileged in our classrooms. The use of the newsprint dialogue that is done as individual students, not groups was an interesting diversion from the usual way that I have used newsprints on the wall.We will always fall short            The “we will always fall short” seems to be a pattern for Brookfield (Chapter 8). In Chapter 3 were reminded we will never be a perfect 10 in the eyes of the student evaluation. In chapter 16 “resistance will always be a hand on our shoulder.” In chapter 1 we are told we will always feel like an imposter. Are we ever going to feel good about our teaching? Well, I guess not, if we are always striving to be better and if we want to be an example of life-long learners to students in a craft that involves learning.
Doane, G. H., & Varcoe, C. (2015). How to nurse: Relational inquiry with individuals and families in changing health and health care contexts. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Wolff, A.C. (2009). Understanding the Influences of Diversity on the Nursing Workforce.       Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0067703


Chapter 2: The Core Assumptions of Skillful Teaching

“Assumptions based on critical reflection are more likely to be accurate and valid” (Brookfield, 2015, p.21)The four core assumptions that Brookfield states in this chapter are common sense yet require a reflexivity that informs me in my profession as a nurse and an educator. The first three assumptions are particularly reflective, while the last assumption is more about respect and understanding the adult learner. An instructor needs to be reflecting on practice to be positively reactive to the nuances of “adult” students and the mentorship of peers, and continuing education such as the PIDP program.It is the reflection on the nuances that I see in the classroom that guides my statements and actions. As a nurse we are taught that to promote a client’s health, we need to be aware of relational space: what are the client’s aesthetic and ethical realities, their “social” contexts and the empirical data that we gather about them (Doane & Varcoe, 2015). In the same way, I can help students learn by understanding the students’ realities; we can personalize their teaching while still following the “empirical” prescribed curriculum of a set program. Brookfield’s ideas of gaining honest feedback from students involve the ability of students gives frequent anonymous comments. Reflexive action toward the knowledge or data that we gain through personal intra and interpersonal reflection and education is what allows us to adapt our teaching and become more skillful.The fourth assumption Brookfield makes is about practically relating to our students with respect as adults. The adult learning theories referred to in this chapter were transformative learning theory (students learn and change through the crisis) or by dialogue (Taylor & Cranton, 2012; Horton & Freire, 1990; Vella, 2007; Lakey, 2010 as cited in Brookfield, 2015, pp. 24-26). This theory and method involve a relational expectation of working with students. In transformative learning, an instructor needs to challenge the learners’ perspectives so they will want to change, while dialogic methods a teacher must be involved in relationally conversing with a class to make them desire a change, as in informal learning (Brookfield, 2015). When Brookfield actualizes transformative learning theory, he describes observing the steps of how “disorientating dilemmas” change learners’ preconceived notion and then changing the order of his curriculum and classroom activities (2015, p. 26). In dialogic methods of education, Brookfield comments on the natural tendencies of adults to learn in conversation or relationship with each other whether it is informal or formally in the classroom. So whether using the method of dialogue or understanding the theory of transformative learning, a skillful instructor must respectfully allow for dialogue of the adult learner or be aware of their steps to transformation. Both of which require reflexive practice to understand the process of learner change and promote respectful dialogue in the classroom facilitating learning.Doane, G. H., & Varcoe, C. (2015). How to nurse: Relational inquiry with individuals and families in changing health and health care contexts. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Smith, M. K. (2012). Paulo Freire: Dialogue, praxis and education. Retrieved August 20, 2016, from http://infed.org/mobi/paulo-freire-dialogue-praxis-and-education/


A reflective comment on Brookfield Chapter 1: Experiencing Teaching.

Experience needs Reflection to make you a ProfessionalWhen I read the first page of Experiencing Teaching, I was amazed at how much I could relate to the author. I remember when I first started formal teaching in 2013 the feeling of being a confused teacher was immense. Oh, I had done a lot of teaching in Russia and Egypt, but that was in 1995 and before that 1987-1990. I had come back to Canada and gone back to being a Registered Nurse on the floor. I had many opportunities to teach clients and mentor co-workers and students, but it just wasn’t the same as teaching in a classroom setting. The expectations of the adult learners had changed, the theories of adult learning had developed, and technology increased those expectations even further. It was the feeling that I was not worthy to be a teacher, that I was an incompetent imposter that made me cringe and question why I had chosen to instruct at the college level (Brookfield, 2015, p. 9).This chapter speaks to this feeling of incompetence, and the two general responses to that feeling. Brookfield calls it “boredom, lack of motivation and tiredness” and that we will either feel guilty or deny the feelings (Brookfield, 2015, p. 7). Neither of those feelings is productive. I am not a shy person, so I often spoke to my mentors about my feelings. They reminded me that I can be authentic and acknowledge that I don’t know it all (a humbling experience); or I was informed by my mentors that, “no, Ruth you have a lot of life and nursing experience that is why they hired me in the first place.” These statements like the “experiential truths” about teaching Brookfield mentions on pp. 9-10 helped me deal with the disabling feelings that would have crippled my natural ability to be an effective teacher. My life experiences in relating to people daily in my nursing job had prepared me to be a person who could relate to adult students in the classroom as well. As a clinical nurse on the floor we often didn’t have the time to reflect on our experiences; so we were unaware of what we did well as we made it through a particularly busy shift. In the same way, Brookfield states that experiences in and of themselves do not make us good teachers, but it is the teacher who can reflect on those experiences that can learn from them to be a better teacher. So the past two years, especially while taking the PIDP course, I have learned to reflect on what I do as an instructor and hopefully become more expert and professional as an instructor as well as in my initial profession as a registered nurse.The reflection and reflexive practice are inherent in what makes a good professional whether they are a teacher or a nurse.(This is what I will elaborate on in my first reflective journal for this course. If you wish an extended version of this comment I am happy to publish more of that journal.)


No comments:

Post a Comment