“What are YOU going to do?” Becoming genuinely student-centred
My first official lecturing post outside of assisting my PhD supervisor with his teaching was at a college in Nottingham, UK. During this time I was fortunate enough to be given the freedom to lead a module largely based on my areas of research, and over three years I was provided with enough space to refine the content while at the same time developing my teaching ability.
I had some great feedback from staff and students alike and looking back I see some of the formative steps that I was taking in developing my own pedagogical philosophy and style (you can read more about this here). One moment in this process still stands out to me, and I have drawn on this experience throughout my career to help work through some of the more challenging issues I’ve faced in terms of learning and teaching.
My first meeting with an external examiner
The programme’s external examiner was visiting to ratify the marks we had awarded. At this time I had no clue that such meetings even existed, let alone how seriously institutions took them. I rolled into the meeting wearing shorts and a t-shirt (it was summer after all) to find my colleagues all in formal work wear. I remember thinking that I’d not grasped the importance of this event and while I could not sharpen my clothing I certainly tried to sharpen my mind. So, I set about taking in as much information as possible to help me prepare for what might lie ahead.
The reality of the day was much like all the external examiner events that I have been involved in since; a positive and encouraging process of reflecting on the critical commentary of a senior colleague who shares a passion for educating. I learned a lot that day, although the most crucial of these lessons came when I was asked to describe how my module had gone. I’d considered the individual lectures and made notes on how they could be improved next year, but I had not at that point thought about the module as a whole. I suggested that it had gone well, but that “some of the students didn’t quite get all of the theory” I was delivering to them.
My focus when explaining this was on the students who had not attended every lecture, or had not kept up with the assigned readings, and the external examiner pulled me up on this; “well yes, students don’t always attend and they often won’t do all the readings, but what are YOU going to do?” Initially this struck me as a little odd. What am I going to do to make them attend? What am I going to do to make them read? Surely it was the students who had not held up their side of the teaching and learning relationship?
Flicking a pedagogical switch
Through pushing me to reconsider my role in this process the external examiner flicked a pedagogical switch for me. While it is certainly necessary for students to understand and fulfil their side of the teaching interaction, I now understood the central role that I occupied in enabling them to do this. Furthermore, I was now armed with a way of understanding teaching and learning which, rather than accepting certain factors as outside of my control, focuses on understanding and developing the various ways that I can have positive impacts on students’ behaviours. With hindsight, informed by years of teaching and a more formal reading in pedagogy (the science of teaching and learning), this seems so obvious now. Of course I should be concerned with the manner in which my actions can help students make the correct choices, even if those choices are not directly under my control. Because of this early lesson in pedagogical orientation I have a ‘go to’ position when issues arise with student attendance, engagement, or attainment: What can I do better to help them?
This simple way of considering teaching and learning has led to me solving and managing a variety of pedagogical problems that others had considered outside of their control. I find this orientation provides me with an almost endless supply of energy with which to confront the hurdles and stumbling blocks that our students face. It might seem obvious that someone involved in education might adopt such a stance. But my experience in various HE institutions has led to me think otherwise.
Still shaping my practice
In my previous position as an undergraduate course leader, I was able to ensure that this pedagogical orientation was employed across the learning and teaching on my degree programme. I have seen first-hand the positive manner in which students respond when one’s focus is shifted in this way. I have also seen similar good practice during my own experiences of being an external examiner at the University of Stirling, the University of Bedford and Sheffield Hallam University. And I still draw on this pedagogical moment to help guide colleagues in reorienting themselves to what I believe to be a more positive manner of conceptualising the lecturer’s role in genuinely student-centred learning and teaching.
You can read more about this here.