Led by Emma Yhnell (Twitter: @EmmaYhnell) and EmmaJane Milton (Twitter: @EmmajaneMilton1)
We were delighted to be invited to contribute this blog and questions to the LTHE chat on the back of our recent SEDA blog of the same title and précised here …..
Teaching in any context requires careful thought and preparation. But how often do we ask ourselves how much we really care about both our content and our learners' needs?
Teaching typically means that content is taught by experts who are familiar with the complexities of their field so there is often a temptation to want to include too much in the limited time available. It is easy to forget how difficult it was to learn about the complexities of a topic for the first time. Caring is exactly about getting the balance right - of understanding, appreciating and adapting the amount and level of content so that learners are not overwhelmed but are appropriately challenged.
Caring deeply about the content alongside how to present it clearly is vital and requires a highly sophisticated understanding and level of expertise. Starting from the basics and never assuming prior knowledge is essential, as learners come with a wide range of prior educational experiences, and perceptions layered on top of varied cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds which inevitably influence them and their learning.
Clarity in content is about making content explicitly clear and accessible for the audience, which means presenting it in varied ways with plenty of genuine opportunities for questions. You need to understand your learners, to know where their starting point is and regularly check-in with them to ensure they understand and you are being clear. But this will only work if learners can be honest and you actively demonstrate to them that you:
- genuinely care about,
- want to know and
- will listen to their responses.
It's also absolutely 'okay' to tell learners that you are unsure about the answer to a question, following up with a commitment to get back to them once you've been able to look into their question further. Responding in this vein models behaviours that educators should want to instil – honesty, a curiosity to learn more, commitment and mutual respect towards each other and the shared endeavour of learning.
To teach well demands care for both content and learners, and a commitment to modify your content to meet your learners where they are. At the end of the day, your work as an educator and your content can only ever be as good as your learners' understanding of it. So, remember, teaching is not about you … it's all about your learners and supporting them to learn.
Author biographies
Emma Yhnell
Twitter: @EmmaYhnell
Emma is currently a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at Cardiff University. As a multi-award-winning educator and science communicator, she is a proud teaching and scholarship academic who enjoys supporting others in Higher Education. Emma has an infectious enthusiasm for creating more engaging, inclusive and accessible learning opportunities for students which enhance their learning outcomes. She is also a regular media commentator, willing to share her expertise and change the minds of those who nervously think that science isn't for them by actively challenging commonly held perceptions of who scientists are and what they do.
Emmajane Milton
Twitter: @EmmajaneMilton1
Emmajane is currently a Professor in Educational Practice in Cardiff University. She is deeply committed to thinking about learner experience and how we can best support and enable learning in both schools and HE. Her interests are focused around: professional learning; educational practice, enabling leadership practices, adopting a learner-centred orientation and educative mentoring. Given her varied and diverse career prior to working in Higher Education she often describes herself as an 'accidental' academic :-)
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