Building Themes:

 

We have a problem

 

• "My experience has taught me that students often perceive educators not as people working to help them, but as obstacles or stepping-stones between them and their futures." (Semenza 2)

 

 

• Although channels of communication have multiplied, "...the rearrangement or reinvention of teaching practices has proved more problematic"; though we all want a "decentered" classroom, "it has been harder to position student work in the classroom as something other than that which is produced in accordance with an instructor's narrow (and often artificial) guidelines..." (Pruchnic 1)

 

 

• "Many students accept their cultural contexts uncritically, as merely 'how things are.'" (Wilson 2)

 

I have a concept

 

• "...based upon a philosophy I call meta-pedagogy..." (Semenza 1)

 

 

• "...part of what I call a ‘just-in-time’ pedagogy…”; “…is oriented around the term ‘response-ability’…” (Pruchnic 2; 6)

 

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Answering Questions:

 

How has my teaching affected my students?

 

• "...my students gain a deeper perception of argument that makes them better able to cope with and respond to the mass of information they encounter daily" (Wilson 1)

 

 

• "Students often refer back to this discussion, claiming that it helped them understand that the emphasis schools tend to place on 'standard' English is not value-neutral." (Wilson 2)

 

 

• "Without exception, students return to class after the interview more determined to work and appreciative of the concrete answers they've discovered." (Semenza 3)

 

 

• "Students begin to see knowledge as dynamic and alive, not fixed and static." (Semenza 3)

 

 

• "These projects, and the small self-directed team structures within which students work, help students develop extensive competencies in creative problem-solving, networking, teamwork, leadership, and collaborative writing." (Pruchnic 4)

 

 

What is the X I do in order to achieve Y? (the "for example")

 

• "For example, each semester I assign Amy Tan’s essay 'Mother Tongue,' which focuses on Tan’s mixed relationship with 'standard' English. Class discussion about this essay interrogates the concept of 'standard' English, asking why particular ways of using language are set up as standard as well as who benefits from this standardization. (Wilson 2)

 

 

• "I have embraced an interdisciplinary, multi-media approach to teaching in order to stress the connections between fields of knowledge that students often preceive to be unrelated. For example, in 'Introduction to Shakespeare,' we move from an in-depth examination of each play to musical and artistic reconstructions of Shakespearean drama such as Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry Fuseli's painting of the same title." (Semenza 3)

 

 

• "For instance, in the last several years I have made extensive use of wikis...This exposure provides an immediate audience for their writings, encourages students to critically and productively respond to each other's work, and allows me to keep track of their writing process." (Pruchnic 2)

 

 

What do I do pedagogically that that is desired or progressive?

 

• "multimedia, interdisciplinary approach" to Renaissance literature (Semenza)

   

• Teaching with technology, visual culture (Wilson)

   

• Writing in digital contexts, service-learning, problem-based learning (Pruchnic)

   

 

 

How have I grown as a teacher?

 

• "Several years ago, my response was typical of of the unsatisfactory answers that are usually given..Now I assign interview papers... (Semenza 3)

 

 

• "...I admit that my greatest fear about meta-teaching is that I will be unable to maintain enough authority...I've learned that the fear is unnecessary" (Semenza 4)