This is how I teach
鈥淒iscovery learning begins with a good question or purpose. It takes you on a journey down pathways. Some may be well-lit, others dark and unexplored. You may be alone or in a group. You will use a range of tools, methods, and resources on your journey. There may be leaders, guides, and followers. You will have decisions to make. Some may lead you down blind alleys. Others will lead to discovery鈥.
This definition of Discovery Learning was formulated in 2018 by John Murphy, a Learning Designer with LEI, and an active Discovery Learning CoP member, and it has become the CoP鈥檚 motto.
Discovery Learning, or as it is also called, Inquiry based learning (IBL) is a learning strategy where educators develop real-world problems that students need to solve. This way students can see the meaning behind doing the work and how these skills will transition over into the real world. This also makes the course content more engaging for students and often increases participation because students genuinely want to talk about their solutions. Some instructors consider this approach complicated, thinking they need to use advanced software tools and simulation. But in reality, it is often unnecessary 鈥 it all comes back to careful planning, research and creativity to make the real-life scenario relatable to students.
For this month鈥檚 鈥楾his is how I teach鈥 we spoke to three active Discovery Learning CoP members to learn more about their experience applying Discovery Learning in their courses: Dr Viythia Katharesan, Lecturer and Coordinator of Essentials of Pathology course, Sally-Anne Bessell, Lecturer for School of Nursing, and Dorothy Missingham, Lecturer and Coordinator in Engineering Professional Practice (Mechanical Engineering).
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What do you like most about teaching in your discipline?
Dr Viythia Katharesan with students
Viythia: I love the range of courses that I can teach into 鈥 Anatomy, Pathology, Histology, Neuroscience. I also love running into the graduates in clinics, hospitals etc and seeing them feel confident about their knowledge base, which assists them in making highly significant decisions in their profession.
Sally-Anne: I like the student interaction, the clinical relevance and opportunity to promote our profession.
Dorothy: An exciting听thing is working with students听to听facilitate听them to听develop听their听skills听in critical and creative thinking听- then getting to see them apply these skills听not only throughout tour third year course听but also across their year-long Honours Project.听I 鈥榣ove鈥 being able to train and support peer and near-peer tutors to work directly with younger students. To mentor tutors and to co-create relevant, authentic curricula content and learning activities is an absolute joy.听听What I get a 鈥榖ig kick鈥 from is when the听tutors and students take control, and they lead the class, learning activities and content input.听 It presents unique learning moments听鈥 democratic knowledge building from which we all benefit.听
How would you describe your approach to teaching/your teaching philosophy?
Viythia: I strongly believe that academics are no longer pure 鈥渢eachers鈥 but instead are becoming holistic 鈥渓earning coaches鈥. My coaching style is guided by learning objectives but aims to encourage student engagement and real-world preparedness (not to be confused with 鈥渞eadiness鈥 for jobs that may or may not exist in the future).
Sally-Anne: I am very open minded about how to approach various teaching tasks. I am always mindful that students have numerous learning preferences and I need to try to support them all in their learning, somehow.
Dorothy: Complicated.听Grounded in听social constructivism, active learning, PBL (project-based learning),听and听experiential learning.
What are you most proud of from your teaching in 2020?
Sally-Anne Bessell
Viythia: In a really short time frame, I transitioned face-to-face tutorial content into interactive online modules, in response to COVID. It was very touching to receive emails from students expressing their gratitude for this.
Sally-Anne: I鈥檓 most proud that I survived the course delivery of a complex clinical course, teaching it for my first time, with a cohort of 300 students, whilst also managing a post grad course. All during COVID.
Dorothy: The 2020 Honours Project students 鈥 they听took the COVID restrictions 鈥榠n their stride鈥, making changes to their already approved project investigations to overcome听bans on access to听workshops听and labs for experimental work, being able to meet productively online and still develop a听team approach to their learning, adopting flexible approached to working with their听industry sponsors,听supervisors and other lecturers听- and importantly maintaining high standards in their learning outcomes.听
What is your favourite way to use technology to enhance learning?
Viythia: My current favourite is using H5P to embed interactive questions into online lectures/videos.
Sally-Anne: I see technology as one of the ways to improve connectivity with students and the cohort.
Dorothy: As an adjunct to F2F learning.
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Details of the 2021 meetings for the Discovery Learning CoP can be found on the Learning and Teaching website.听
They hope to see you there!
Story prepared by Discovery Learning CoP members.
Disco Learning CoP co-facilitators: Beth Loveys and Natalia Zarina.