Thanks for sharing,

I will say YES, and YES. You make great points here. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could develop inclusive economic courses. I think this can go from having an inclusive student-centered syllabus, to having a PPT presentation that considers universal design.

There is so much room from improvement, despite the field we are in!

LikeLike

Thanks for sharing!

For me, it’s a matter of trying to know my students, in whatever they believe it’s important for them. Yes, in the classroom we should be first learners, but believe it or not, for some people a pronoun shape the way they will become learners or not. I will try to make them feel comfortable and will try to learn as much as I can from their background, if they think is important and want to share it, then I will care about it.

I believe inclusive pedagogy is the ability to create learning environments that promote learning in the students no matter their background or experiences. I was an associate professor in Venezuela for 8 years, and every single student that I had, had the same skin color, I will say 90% or more were catholic, and sexual orientation was a complex topic. For me inclusive pedagogy was on how to make students from the LGBTQ community feel welcomed, even when they couldn’t accept their sexual orientation openly. I find the same struggles that I had there, and use similar strategies here in the U.S. with my students.

Homero

LikeLike

Thanks for sharing!

I really like your post. I agree with you, is our decision to make everyone feel welcome, despite the system and some of its representatives thinking is not necessary.

I wonder, have you thought more about how to achieve the goals that you have for your classroom? What specific things can we do?

LikeLike

Dr. Nelson,

Thanks for sharing some of your magic tricks. I’m so impressed by the posts that some of your undergraduate students are doing. The level of commitment is really impressive.

One question I have, thinking of engineering of course, how would you incorporate the learning of more technical topics, like solving equations, or things that are more mathematical based. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but would like to have your perspective. I do think there is a better way of teaching it beyond giving one problem and making them repeat and repeat problems. I think we can incorporate a lot of student-centered activities.

Homero

Thanks for sharing!

I do agree with you. I feel every semester is different, every group is different, every class is different. I think that being very aware of the process is really important, and also getting to know your students.

For me, it’s so difficult but so necessary. I’m terrible with names, and I don’t trust my memory too much. However, I do use some strategies. I have a notebook where I will have my students profiles. I try to learn their names before the class starts (you usually have access to their pictures), and then I use your strategy, I request a 15 minutes face-to-face meeting with all my students, I count that as a homework. Then I try to make as many notes as possible. I also try to follow-up with them. After every class I take notes on the things that they said, or the comments that we made about a specific topic. I think when they realize that you know who they are (beyond their names) they immediately feel connected to the class.

Two examples, one time one student told me about her cat getting surgery at a specific date, I made a note on my book and sent her an email the day of the surgery. She couldn’t believe that I remembered it.

Another example, I ask them about their career interest and when I’m reading the newspaper if I find something that relates to the student interest I put a post-it with the student name and bring the newspaper to the class and give it to the student. Then they realize that you are paying attention.

I think is really important for creating an effective learning environment.

Homero

LikeLike

What a great post!

I couldn’t agree more. I use all those techniques as well (I love think-pair-share). And also movement, I think moving around provide such a great energy. There was one time I had 159 students in a engineering management class. We were talking about organizational structures and the class was going down, so I decided to ask them to go to different offices in the administration building (just two blocks away) and find a unit and then present to the class their organizational structure. Somehow I decided to do it like an amazing race type of thing. It was great, they were running all over campus and they did great presentations. I think those type of activities they don’t forget.

Regarding your question about engagement, in my experience when you genuinely care about your students they will recognize it and will become more engage, at least I think that is the first step.

Thanks for sharing!

Homero

LikeLike

Thanks for sharing! What a great story, I wish we had more support to create things like this, specially in high school (or even elementary school?).

Great post!

LikeLike

I really like your post. It is so important to be mindful learners and also mindful teachers. It seems like it is really difficult to be mindful these days with all the distractions that we can face, however, I think that we can use the things in our environment in our favor. For example, in freshmen engineering courses we are trying to incorporate cellphones to be used as part of the learning strategy. Instead of the cellphone becoming a distraction we can use it as a tool to promote mindful learning.

Thanks for sharing.

LikeLike

Thanks for sharing. I think a lot is going on right now with the intentions of getting us into the right track. For example several Universities are including the general education model around the world, recognizing the importance for students to learn what they need based on how they will develop their professional identity. In addition, several engineering schools are using spiral curriculums, leaving behind the “assembly line” model.

I encourage you to check out the educational system in Switzerland. They have vocacional schools where students that want to become better in something can attend and get the skills and competencies that they require. I visited a couple and it was great to see people attending school to learn how to cut hair, repair cars, or become a great customer service representative. This schools have the same value in society as the 4 year college. One important point here is that people that attend these schools will make salaries that are decent and not that different than the 4 year degree salary. Also people in the community won’t think less of them because they didn’t attend a university. I think is not only a matter of revamping the educational system, I believe there should be cultural, societal, and economic changes as well.

LikeLike

Thanks for sharing!

It seems that you had a great childhood :)

I agree with you that connected learning goes beyond a professional network or the use of technology. For me is a concept that allow learners to use several resources and interact with other learners or other environments to obtain a better understanding of what a topic, concept, or phenomenon is.

Great post.

LikeLike