Living through a global event which we haven\u2019t experienced the likes of before, there is no better time to focus on the fantastic and innovative work our colleagues continue to do in their online classrooms. Since the University\u2019s shift to online teaching on March 23, there have been different approaches to how best utilise resources for student engagement and cohort building.<\/p>\n
I spoke with Dr Hollie Pich from the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI), about her experiences teaching through this time. This is her story.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In her History Honours seminar in Semester 1, 2020, Hollie noticed that there was a sense that the \u2018intellectual community\u2019 was somehow, missing. \u2018The Honours year is an opportunity for history students to \u201cnerd out\u201d with each other. It\u2019s not that they weren\u2019t getting the work done, but they weren\u2019t motivated, and they felt isolated,\u2019 Hollie explained. \u2018I spoke to students a lot. I had an open dialogue with them, and I asked them what was missing, and they wanted\u2019.<\/p>\n
In response to the student feedback, Hollie set up small writing groups. \u2018I divided my 8 students into 3 small groups, which were organised around research interests and methodological approach. Students met via Zoom for 2 hours each week. It was up to them to decide when they had these meetings. I sent out weekly prompts to give some structure \u2013 for example, \u201cthis week, share a section of your intro with your team, or this week, you should workshop an area you find difficult, etc.\u201d We did this over the course of the semester, until they submitted their essays\u2019.<\/p>\n
Hollie received positive feedback, and noted that the students enjoyed having a space to chat outside the seminar\u2014and without teacher supervision<\/strong>. “It created a relaxed environment, and replicated the kinds of exchanges students might have discussing an assignment while running into each on a lunch\/coffee break”.<\/p>\n Hollie is now in the process of setting up a program for the entire Honours cohort by using writing groups to engaging students, to build a sense of community that keeps students connected online<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The key principle that underpins Hollie\u2019s teaching is the \u2018pedagogy of kindness.\u2019 This pedagogy essentially boils down to two things: we should believe students, and we should believe in <\/em>students.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s believing students, and it means that you believe what they say \u2013 so if they tell you they\u2019re sick and they can\u2019t complete an assessment on time \u2013 you believe them and you work with them to find a solution.<\/p>\n This level of trust is essential if you want to build relationships based in mutual respect with students \u2013 and I believe that without these relationships it isn\u2019t possible to create effective environments for teaching and learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Belief in <\/em>students means believing that students are capable of leading their own learning experience. Rather than thinking of students as passive participants in their own degrees, it\u2019s important to think of them as collaborators \u2013 who have valuable insights into what does and doesn\u2019t work (particularly in the era of online teaching and learning!)<\/p>\n The pedagogy of kindness underpins Hollie\u2019s approach to teaching. “I am student-focused, and adapt my teaching for each cohort by actively listening and talking to students. This approach is fundamentally based in scholarly research<\/a>. Students are the very best part of teaching. I believe we should all work to ensure students are empowered and centered in their own learning experiences.”<\/p>\n “Not personally, but I can imagine existing university governance gets in the way; for example, if a student needs an extension, there\u2019s a policy to follow. If you\u2019re a tutor, navigating through this process is more difficult, as you have less control over how the unit and its assessments are designed to meet governance rules.”<\/p>\n When it comes to believing in students, and believing in what they say, I would rather one or two students take advantage of this system, rather than acting as a barrier to building a relationship of mutual respect and trust with them as a collective.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Kindness is always a practice you can implement.”<\/p>\n To learn more about the pedagogy of kindness, please read about it here<\/a>. You can also contact Hollie directly at hollie.pich@sydney.edu.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living through a global event which we haven\u2019t experienced the likes of before, there is no better time to focus on the fantastic and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2611,"featured_media":13087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,59,57],"tags":[110,405,86,104,371,201,295,302,64,109,97],"coauthors":[575],"class_list":["post-13086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-teaching-research","category-teaching-tips","tag-assessment","tag-covid-19","tag-engagement","tag-feedback","tag-pedagogy","tag-student-engagement","tag-student-experience","tag-student-support","tag-students","tag-students-as-partners","tag-teaching","post-item","post-even"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13086"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13174,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13086\/revisions\/13174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13086"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is the pedagogy of kindness?<\/h2>\n
Have there been any barriers faced in implementing this pedagogical value?<\/h2>\n