Teachers share secrets of success
Each of the faculties at Concordia recognizes excellence in teaching. With well over a century of experience amongst them, this year’s recipients of Teaching Excellence/Distinguished Teacher Awards have much to share with students and their colleagues. Here they are in their own words.
Svetla Kaménova, Études françaises, Arts and Science
Je considère l’enseignement comme une vocation. D’après moi, c’est un processus structuré à trois composantes inséparables l’une de l’autre: le professeur, les étudiants et la matière enseignée.
Le professeur se doit d’offrir à ses étudiants les dernières acquisitions de la science qu’il enseigne et ce, de façon diversifiée: présentations à l’aide des nouvelles technologies d’enseignement, interactions, exercices d’anticipation, etc. Son rôle est également de tester les connaissances en donnant une rétroaction rapide. Et une chose très importante: il faut être très patient et traiter tous les étudiants avec beaucoup de respect. Nos étudiants ressentent la rigueur, l’objectivité et la ponctualité du professeur et ils lui en sont reconnaissants.
Shannon McSheffrey, History, Arts and Science
I try to teach students, especially at the introductory level, that learning about history is not memorizing “facts” and dates, but rather striving to understand the complexities of the past from our vantage point in the present. I also like to design assignments and lead class discussion about contemporary uses of the past, particularly in my medieval history classes.
Many students are drawn to the subject precisely because of their previous experience with some popular cultural manifestation of the Middle Ages, in film, books, or video games. By encouraging students to think harder about the ways in which history — even a long-ago, seemingly irrelevant part of the past — is used to underpin arguments about the present, I hope to make them more informed and reflective people.
David Moscovitz, Marketing, JMSB
For me, teaching includes both what goes on inside and outside the classroom. My job is not lecturing but mentoring, and this means being available to my students when they need me.
I am a part of their lives during the time they are at university, so I work with them for events like Commerce Games and Marketing Happening. It’s all part and parcel of teaching.
As much as I am an enthusiastic participant outside the classroom, I expect my students to be enthusiastic participants in the classroom. I do not lecture, but create a space in which they actively create their own learning.
Marielle Nitoslawska, Cinema, Fine Arts
I consider good class dynamics to be essential in studio courses where collaborative and experimental approaches are promoted. With each new group of students, I revise and change my strategies and contents, thereby engaging in my own personal growth as a teacher and artist, which is as stimulating as it is demanding.
I believe that effective studio teaching is at its best when it is project-oriented and student-directed, and consider my role as professor to be that of an instigator, agitator, animator, and facilitator. I teach students how to initiate, direct and critique their own learning, inviting them to probe their personal interests and explore professional paths that will provide future challenge and satisfaction.
I am convinced that when students engage in self-directed strategies of study, their motivation increases, and their learning process is intensified and accelerated.
Chris Taillefer, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Engineering and Computer Science
Teaching is just a facility for learning. So the real question in my mind is “Why is learning important?” Learning in a university environment is necessary to discover and enhance knowledge and skills, to obtain an efficient approach to problem solving, to acquire and assess information quickly.
My approach to any class is to help students develop these skills by reaching them on a personal level. My goal is to encourage them to “choose” to learn.
Imants Paeglis, Finance, JMSB
My goal as a teacher is to give students the best possible opportunity to learn. The achievement of this goal is based on the following four principles.
First, effective feedback from students allows for continuous and real-time improvements and adjustments in my teaching approach. Second, availability to students, either in person or via e-mail, provides students with an option to learn at their own speed and in a way they feel most comfortable with.
Third, supporting materials and effective feedback on students’ performance ensures an effective learning environment.
Fourth, application of the theory discussed in class to a real-world problem makes learning more interesting and prepares students for the business world.
Christopher Trueman, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering and Computer Science
I think of myself as a specialist in courses taught to undergraduates at 200 and 300 levels. In the classroom I can really help those students who find the course difficult and are struggling to learn the material. My lectures provide an alternative to the textbook presentation. My job is to make clear the material that is not presented well in the textbook.
Twenty years ago most students copied the lecture material from the blackboard onto paper for self-study at home. Now, they don’t seem to do a lot of writing in class because they can download lectures and notes from my web site.
It’s an improvement. I prefer students to be thinking and trying to understand, rather than simply transcribing what I have written on the blackboard. I really admire students who work hard and put a lot of effort into the course materials.
Rachael Van Fossen, Theatre, Fine Arts
I am passionate about teaching because I am passionate about learning. Learning should be exciting. I want to create a classroom environment that encourages curiosity, creative and critical thinking, imagination, discipline and a passion for lifelong learning. Active or experiential learning is at the heart of my approach to undergraduate teaching: learning by doing, and theory through practice.
I believe students learn best when they are each considered as whole, individual human beings. I hope that students can complete my courses with more confidence in their ideas and abilities, thanks to an increased critical awareness of where their own work resides in historical and contemporary theatre, performance and other discourses.
For me, teaching at the undergraduate level is fundamental to all other aspects of a university’s role in society, especially to research.
Sara Weinberg, Education, Arts & Science
The joy of teaching, whether it is in elementary school, high school or university is that we, as teachers, can make a difference in students’ lives. We may, however, never know the impact of our influence.
As long ago as 1869, J. Currie (The Effective Teacher) suggested that the quality of the relationship between teacher and student has an impact on the student’s motivation to participate in class.
One of the keys to positive student-teacher relationships is the willingness of the teacher to be regarded as a “real person,” one who is trustworthy and who shares ideas, perceptions and feelings in an honest manner. An effective teacher is a reflective teacher; a teacher who thinks about what s/he is doing and teaches with enthusiasm, creativity and openness to diversity.
For more than 20 years, I have had the privilege of working with students in the Early Childhood and Elementary Education Program at Concordia. Together, we have learned and grown to become better teachers and better people.