Teaching as Learning & Learning as Teaching

My first day of the uOttawa teaching program—when we as first-year teacher candidates gathered for PED 3150 as a group for the first time, learned about the different cohorts, and about expectations in teaching as a profession—is a bit of a blur now, months later. However during the orientation day, there was a couple of words that stuck out, and still stick out when I reflect on my first semester: “adaptive experts” and “community of inquiry.”

In my notebook, I wrote down and defined “adaptive experts” as using a way of thinking and reflecting about how you want to teach in different situations. Timerley’s framework states that,

“adaptive experts are able to flexibly retrieve, organize and apply knowledge to new problems. [They] know what to do when known routines do not work, and when they need to expand the depth and breadth of current expertise by integrating knowledge from various domains to solve new problems that cannot be solved by what they did previously” (Timperley, 2010, p. 6).

Since starting my CSL and December practicum, learning how to adapt like an expert has been essential to any success I may have had. I came into this program with classroom experience, so I did realize that teaching a lesson is not a straight line: it’s a curvy line that doubles back on itself multiple times—as sometimes teachers need to repeat themselves for the students to reach the learning goal. As I’ve applied the “adaptive expert” framework to my own teaching methods, where teachers learn best when they are actively involved in thinking about, engaging with and listening to the students in their classrooms. Teaching is not a solitary profession. Rather, teaching is all about collaboration, and since day one of classes I’ve come to realize how important that collaboration with students is.

For my CSL, I was placed in an Integrated Studies classroom, with one class of 32 and one class of 9. For practicum, I was tasked with creating a unit plan for the 32-student class on Digital Literacy. This was something I was excited about because I feel like I’m part of a very digital literate generation, though as the unit started, I quickly realized that I wasn’t the only one in the classroom who was digitally literate. While I grew up alongside the internet, the students grew up with the internet, which gives them a unique kind of skill set and understanding of the world. By asking the students questions and seeing what parts of the digital world they’re most interested in, I was able to create a unit that the students were invested in with a summative that the students were eager to do, because I listened and worked with the students to capture their interest. In the classroom and since starting the program, I’ve felt like I’m constantly learning as I teach (reflecting on lessons, watching understanding or the lack of understanding bloom across students’ faces) and in university classrooms, I’m learning by watching others teach. A teacher is a life-long learner after all.

“Community of Inquiry” is a phrase that popped up during different PED 3150 classes during my first semester, and it’s one that has really struck a chord for me. Teachers are learners as well as teachers, which is a part of the profession that I believe is incredibly important. As a white educator, it is especially important for me to be a learner to ensure that I am never speaking over anyone or any groups, and do not perpetuate harmful stereotypes in my teaching practice. Working within a community of inquiry framework has allowed me to examine curriculum and the institution of education, as an adaptive expert. Most importantly to me, it has allowed me to examine the profession of teaching, and where I fit on it, through an anthropological lens in which doing no harm is the most important aspect of my practice.