On Teaching and Gardening
[Drawing by me, inspired by Youtuber @EveryTuesday]
“How do I even begin teaching students with amazingly diverse worldviews and rich perspectives without enforcing my own on them?” This was my dilemma as I began my first teaching position. An opening to the conundrum presented itself when I mentored my first undergraduate senior. Although we had different research interests at the time, we both realized that Social Psychology was our shared way of understanding the experiences of marginalized groups and our own experiences. Social Psychology also empowers us to be authentic and brave in the face of prevalent hate crimes rampaging throughout the U.S. It dawned on me that the answer to my opening question lies in the question itself: Teaching and learning Social Psychology requires “amazingly diverse worldviews and rich perspectives.” I started to see my role as a teacher like a gardener. Every student is a different seed, with different passions, ambitions, personality traits, learning preferences, and backgrounds. And with the right gardener providing the individualized environment suitable for each seed, the seed will grow to become the best version of that plant. By fostering students’ natural inclinations and interests, I believe they can become their own successful generation.
Starting from the Roots
Firstly, for any seed to grow, a solid foundation in which the seeds take root is essential. Thus, one of my learning goals for my students is to build foundational knowledge and establish a common language through which we can communicate with others and among ourselves. For example, before we have difficult conversations around racial relations and prejudice, we need to learn how to talk about race and what prejudice is. To accomplish this, I use detailed PowerPoint slides with a clear structure, multimedia presentations, and active learning exercises to convey the materials in various ways that fit students’ diverse learning modes. The active learning exercises include (1) think-pair-share activities, in which students formulate their own thoughts before sharing them in small groups of students, and (2) jigsaw discussion sessions, in which students choose the materials they wish to become “experts” on and present to the class the materials before leading the class in a discussion. Students are then assessed on their mastery of foundational knowledge through examinations and personal reflection essays. These exams are not tricky but rather straightforward. I believe exams themselves are a way to consolidate and learn new knowledge. I understand that testing anxiety can be a major challenge for students who complete the exams, so I pair exams with reflection essays to increase my flexibility in assessment. Since the goal is for students to gain knowledge, I give my students a chance to redo parts of the exams to get back half of the points. When I was a student in a Prejudice and Racism class, I was allowed to resubmit a paper for a 10-percent possible grade improvement. Not only did I learn more, but I also appreciated the chance to “redeem” myself and understood learning as a continually self-perfecting process. As a budding teacher, I want to emulate that energy.
Planting the Seeds of Curiosity
Upon reflecting on the sustainability of my teaching, I set a second student learning goal: to foster a self-driven curiosity for continued learning and self-directed research. Foundational knowledge spans beyond mere concepts and terms; it also encompasses explanations, theories, and most importantly, opening questions for those concepts. I want my students to find questions that move them to find answers. My assignment circles around identifying a research topic that moves them personally, and conducting research/literature review to tackle that topic. In addition to the final research paper, I also assess students through a “daily diary” where they document their learning progress, research goals, and common struggles (e.g., twice per week). One challenge for implementing this is providing students with “too much agency.” Students may be confused by the numerous possibilities of conducting their projects. However, as with my opening story, my teaching and mentoring experience are usually more valuable when the students are more self-motivated, tackling issues that move them. To best scaffold students, I have one class period dedicated to identifying research topics that bear personal significance to each student. Then, I teach students how to look up and judge the credibility of different knowledge sources before giving them active learning opportunities to conduct their own literature review. This is similar to my experience as a Crisis Text Line counselor. Most of the texters are people who struggled because their agency was taken away. Providing resources to texters to identify solutions was often more empowering than providing solutions from the onset.
Sharing the Soil
As in any garden, a plant does not stand alone; it shares the soil with other plants. Sometimes, the plants in the same garden can help each other grow. Similarly, my last central learning goal for my students is to instill in them an appreciation for the interdependence of humans in society. This learning goal is closely tied to the first learning goal of building strong foundational knowledge. Through my lectures, delivered with PowerPoint slides and multimedia presentations, I highlight how interdependence is a common thread connecting social, developmental, and cognitive psychology. For example, in social psychology lectures, I emphasize how humans depend on each other to get information (informative reasons) and to feel that they belong (normative reasons). I believe that it is important for students to develop a healthy mindset on the value of interdependence as members of society and as future professionals with different worldviews brought into their work.
The appreciation for humans interdependence is also emphasized through group assignments and classroom community discussions. My teaching style involves equal parts of lecturing and discussion. After I provide students with the foundational knowledge, students engage in both small-group and whole-class discussions to generate open questions in psychology and formulate possible novel research studies to answer them. Specific activities include think-pair-share opportunities and jigsaw discussions, as detailed above. Ultimately, students conduct research in groups before writing up their papers individually. One challenge in facilitating groupwork is managing group conflicts. However, I believe the ability to work in groups is crucial for students as they move beyond academia. Thus, I also obtain students’ evaluations of their group members and work with them to resolve conflicts if necessary. Classmates’ evaluation of the group members, the final research product, and my own classroom observation are all weighted into the final grade of the group assignment.
Coda
It would be untruthful to say I am not frightened of granting my students agency and freedom. Even with the strongest foundation, some plants wither. Despite having the strongest seeds, some never germinate. Even in the same soil, some flourish while some wilt. However, I know I love and care about my teaching and my students. Paulo Freire (1968) wrote that “love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others.” I must muster up the courage to let myself love, be it teaching or my students. Only then can I hope my teaching makes a lasting impact.