Team Building and Creative Cooperation in the Classroom

Utilizing Reflective Teaching Practices

Contributed by: Marisella Rodriguez, PhD Candidate, Political Science

The first session of the 2018 winter quarter focused on promoting and utilizing reflective teaching practices. The objectives of this session were to better understand the definition and qualities of contemplative pedagogy and discuss how we can apply these practices in our own teaching. Contemplative pedagogy “uses forms of introspection and reflection that allow students to focus internally and find more of themselves in their courses” (Barbezat and Bush 1995, 9). There are a wide range of contemplative practices that can be used in and out of the classroom to the benefit of both teachers and learners, including yoga, deep breathing, journaling, purposeful listening, and reflecting thinking (see “The Tree of Contemplative Practices” below). Contemplative practices are deeply rooted in the long-practiced traditions of religions and cultures, such as Buddhism and Indigenous cultures. The ancient traditions of contemplation and reflection have been shown to significantly improve attentive capacities, immune systems, empathy, and self-compassion, all leading to increased learning capacities (Chugh & Bazerman 2007; Pace et al. 2009; Lutz, Dunne & Davidson 2007; Birnie, Speca & Carlson 2010).

In our session, we practiced contemplative pedagogy by reflecting on our time and experience as graduate student instructors at UC Davis. The objectives of this activity were to take time for quiet, individual self-reflection on our experiences in and out of the classroom and to examine how our capacity to instruct undergraduate students can be improved. We spent time free writing on the following questions:

What has enhanced your ability to instruct undergraduate students effectively?

What has hindered your ability to instruct undergraduate students effectively?

To make our reflections a productive process, we discussed the importance of developing measurable and realistic strategies to improve our future teaching experiences at UC Davis. We organized ourselves into small groups of 2 or 3 and responded to the following question:

What suggestions do you have for UC Davis as an institution to improve your ability to enhance undergraduate student learning?

As a group, we collected and discussed a wide range of recommendations for how our respective departments and/or UC Davis can facilitate the development of our teaching skills as graduate student instructors. Our recommendations include department-specific courses on instruction and teaching pedagogy, opportunities for team teaching and/or teaching mentorship, establishing consistent expectations for Teaching Assistants across courses and departments, and abolishing grading as a primary responsibility for Teaching Assistants to permit practice with alternative instructional skills.

References:
Barbezet, Daniel P. and Bush, Mirabai.1995. Contemplative Practices in Higher Education.

Birnie, K., M. Speca, and L.E. Carlson. 2010. “Exploring self-compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).” Stress and Health, 26(5): 359-371.

Chug, D. and Bazerman, M. 2007. “Bounded Awareness: What you fail to see can hurt you.” Mind and Society, 6: 1-18.

Lutz, A. ,D. Dunne, and R.J. Davidson. 2007. “Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness: an introduction.” In P.D. Zalazo, M. Moscovitch, and E. Thompson (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pace, T.W.W., L.T. Negi, D.D. Adame, S.P. Cole, T.I. Silvilli, T.D. Brown, M.J. Issa, and C.L.

Raison. 2009. “Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress.” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(1): 87-98.