#pidp3620

Post PIDP Professional Development

The PIDP program has been eye-opening. Through it, I have learned how to design my lessons to meet the needs of a wide audience of learners and become more learner-centered. I want to focus on this aspect of my continuing learning.

Complimentary to PIDP, I have been taking graduate courses at the University of the People (UoPeople), a tuition-free online school. This program will lead to a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Advanced Teaching. While nothing in life is free, this school has minimal fees, and when I began looking at it, my search was more of an experiment than anything else. There are certain things about this program that I am really enjoying so far, which are also complimentary to the PIDP program and are informing my practice at Northern Lights College (NLC).

At NLC, as Chair of the University Arts and Sciences (UNAS), I am responsible for course quality. While our courses have excellent content, we are not using Brightspace, the institutional LMS system, to its full potential. This means that at UoPeople, courses in every program are organized similarly, and learners can find their materials easily, as they are the same for every course. For example, the syllabus and course policies can always be found in the same spot, and every week, there is an agenda with lectures, readings, and assignments listed similarly. At NLC, each course follows a unique sequence, and learners often have difficulty finding course materials. This is an area of quality improvement that I am keen on, and I would like to work with my colleagues to create an “NLC standard” that will be used for all courses. Of course, this is one of many examples.

As a lifelong learner, I am keen to continue my education by taking courses past PIDP and M.Ed. in various institutions. For example, I am interested in becoming an effective online instructor. Thomson Rivers University (TRU) has a graduate certificate in online teaching and learning that I am keenly interested in taking. While most of my education has been in person, I have taken many courses online. Initially, I was increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of online education. However, I have learned more about the benefits, using my learning as evidence. While it is only effective for some learners, it is a practical way of learning when living far from physical colleges and universities, and it provides an essential pathway to education when no others are available. 

My favourite TED Talk of all time is by Dr Amy Cuddy. Dr Cuddy describes her own story after having a major car accident that resulted in a brain injury that lowered her IQ. In this TED Talk, she speaks about a transformation using an old cliché, “Fake it until you make it,” which transforms into “Fake it until you become it.” Today, I want to share a bit of my own story.

I grew up in Greece with my grandparents until the age of 13. During this time, I had no success in the Greek educational system and barely passed my classes. I was utterly overwhelmed and had no energy to catch up. It did not matter how much tutoring I got or how much encouragement or punishment came with each report card; the results stayed the same. At 13, I moved to the USA to join my mother, who was completing her medical residency in Houston, Texas, at the time. I spoke no English, and it was apparent that I would have to stay behind in school to catch up. I spent the first year feeling sorry for myself and did the bare minimum to survive. This changed after my mother had a very blunt conversation with me about my responsibilities as an adult. At that point, while I was initially insulted, I decided that I would put in effort no matter what. I chose not to give up, and after a few tries, my high school experience changed utterly. Five years later, I graduated from high school with numerous awards and attended university. Four years later, I graduated from university, ranking number 2 in my graduating class, with multiple offers to attend graduate school. The rest is history.

So, what happened? I got mad and stubborn and decided that no matter what happened, I would always work hard. The outcomes were positive and encouraging, and I met some excellent teachers and professors along the way who became my mentors and, later, my closest friends. So, I can relate to Dr. Cuddy’s statement, “Fake it until you become it.” This is precisely what happened to me. I kept trying and never gave up. It has paid off. I still love this TED Talk.

Küçükkaragöz and Meylani (2023) define learners' resistance to learning as "a learner's unwillingness or incapacity to absorb new knowledge, ideas, or abilities—even when given sufficient opportunity and support" (p. 72). I am familiar with this feeling, as I was once that learner. Imagine studying for exams, purring in your heart and soul, and making an honest effort. One feels that one is learning a lot and expanding one's body of knowledge. Confident in the knowledge, the exam is harder than one thought possible and comes out completely deflated. What is next? If you put in more effort, something will happen numerous times. At that point, it seems that nothing one does makes a difference. This is the exact point where learners often give up.

This was me many years ago until I met teachers who became my strongest advocates and supporters. Growing up, Math was not my favourite subject. In fact, it was my worst and most hated subject. Reasons included that people kept telling me how hard it would be and that I would have to always memorize concepts to do well. My biggest fear was that I don't do well when asked to memorize concepts. Memorization does not equal understanding to me, which is an area I have struggled with all my life. This was until grade 10 when I met a teacher who clarified that memorization was unnecessary in her class. I did not believe this at first, though she seemed so confident that I was willing to try it. Well, she was right. By removing the need to memorize concepts and enabling me to come up with formulas by thinking them through, I could go from an F to an A math student.

So, what happened? It's pretty simple: I developed trust with an educator willing to give me a chance, and I gave her a chance. As a result, not only did I succeed in math in high school, but I also took math classes in university as electives because math was easy for me after that. Also, I tutored math as an adult for extra money in university. If it seems that it is all about trust, that's because it is. I felt this teacher was on my side and wanted me to succeed. She believed in me, so I decided to start believing in me. That is my secret to success in math, and I am very grateful for these experiences.

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Teaching at Northern Lights College (NLC), has made me become more sensitive to diversity. This is surprising because as a person of diverse ethnic background I thought I was already very sensitive to diversity in the classroom. This is a topic that I find increasingly interesting as I speak with international students, and the skills that they come with. As most people know (or perhaps don't), writing in North America is formal. School essays and papers must be properly formatted and cited, and while the content is important, the format plays a large role.

Growing up in Greece, I was taught that writing is about the content, and about the substance. The formatting comes after the content has reached the finishing line. This is something that I had to adjust to when I reached North America. So, why did I find it challenging to have this aha moment with my students? While the answer is complex, I feel that it has taken a while to understand that others might have faced the same challenge as me. While I was going through the difficult period of adjustment, all I could think about was survival. When I came out of that period, all I could think about was the fact that I survived.

When I see learners struggling, I do understand that the struggle is real. By allowing them to express their need for help, I can simply understand how I can address their needs more effectively. How I can pair students in groups that can help out one another, and how I can adjust my teaching to share content that I normally would not. For example, I now spent time in teaching the APA style that I until recently assumed everyone had education on. Reaching out to several of the international students, they said that they had never seen it before. It is now part of my curriculum.

Brookfield identifies numerous methods to teach in diverse classrooms. As the teacher, I have responsibility to set the tone, however, I don't have to do all the teaching alone. I can rely on methods such as team teaching, and use the opportunity to learn to read what students are trying to tell me with their silence. By staying silent, I can perhaps more easily hear their struggles and challenges, and can come up with ways that will be helpful to them as they grow in a different country. Aha - this is what I needed when I first arrived and everything was new to me, and this is what my teachers did to build me to succeed.

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