Thanks for the post. It amazes me how you can spend hours trying to get people to understand concepts like privilege and never really make an impact. But short, simple exercises like these can really make a point. I think the recycling bin game is especially effective as it takes away a lot of the individuality to make a point. What I mean is, that in a lot of discussions on privilege, those that are “privileged” do not see themselves as so. So when you begin a discussion or even do an exercise like the Bingo game, those involved can sometimes be distracted by whether or they are actually be privileged by being white, not having red hair, etc. Whereas the recycling bin game makes an impact without necessarily stating the individual qualities that make you “privileged”. Really neat ideas though!

(Just to clarify, I definitely understand you are not saying teaching is acting but that rather some similar principles apply.)

Thanks for the post! Like others I also enjoyed your reference to teaching as similar to acting. I also really liked how you discussed the way that good actors make you forget that they are acting and good teachers make you forget that they are teaching. The most engaging lectures I have been in and where I feel I take away the best learning experience is when I feel like the class is a “conversation” between the students and the professor. And I don’t mean a “conversation” that is set up with an assigned prompt and a blurb stating “Be ready to discuss in class”. I mean a class that with some sort of juicy bit f knowledge that completely naturally stimulates the class into a back and forth conversation about that topic.

Hahaha. My apologies for not checking the blog posts before making a title! Thanks for the comment!

Thank you both for the comments. I think this is a really interesting experience to reflect on our own teaching style and I appreciate your personal reflections. As a student, I can definitely see where a professor investing their own time in me as an individual would convince me to invest some time in them and their class, even if I could care less about the subject. However, as a teacher, I also appreciate the sheer ability to remember everyone! I too have a TERRIBLE memory when it comes to names!

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Thank you for sharing! I also agree that humor is not always necessary in the classroom. In fact, if it is forced or “fake” it can actually come off very negatively. I also agree with your choice of starting off using techniques you have learned from advisor and other professors. I see where you might get some negativity from Sarah Deel’s piece regarding this point, but I actually think hers and the piece by Shelli Fowler are supportive of such techniques. They simply suggest that others’ techniques might not always work for you (such as humor) and that though you can often use what you have seen others do as a starting point, it will be beneficial for both you and your students to incorporate some of your own style and technique.

This is a really nice discussion and great use of a metaphor! I do like this idea of a tapas-like approach, however, I wonder if it might not offer too many options. Just as many people get bored and lost in a 90 minute lecture, there are likely just as many people who could potentially lose interest in a 90 minute learning session using 5-10 different types of media/learning styles. I think the issue with a lot of our discussions and proposed improvements in education are simply to be able to find a compromise (or balance maybe?) that works for everyone. I am not even sure it is even possible to find something that “works for everyone”, but I’m sure we would all like to try.

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Great discussion! I completely agree that funding is certainly a limitation to being able to apply your creativity and imagination to research/inventions, etc. Also, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the opportunity in these blogs to learn so much about the education system in other countries. I have learned so much from these blogs and thank you for putting this information out there!

Hi there, thank you for the interesting discussion. Though I also found the use of video games an interesting and useful perspective, I could see some problems with this. Similar to didactic lectures, the technology can only simulate so many aspects of a “real-life situation”. Though you can suffer consequences as a result of your actions in a game, I wonder if this could potentially de-sensitize users to actual real-world consequences. Just a thought.

Thank you for the thoughts. I think the incorporation of more discussion and collaboration are great ways to trying to facilitate more creativity. Sometimes I know, for myself, if I am creating something for a graded project that only my professor will see, I ditch the creativity and go for what I think will give me the A. By asking students to use each other as resources, I think you expand their audience and desire to come up with some interesting. You have the added benefit of students being able to build off one another’s ideas.