Tag Archives: Jason

Our team is undergoing a process of re-articulating its guiding principles, and this is a process we would like to engage in through conversation with our whole team.  Joseph, Shaya, and I will each be initiating a conversation in this blog about one of the principles we came up with in an initial conversation. Please comment, or start a new post to share your own thoughts, respond to what you’ve seen others say, or just reflect. We will read what you write, and the eventual statements of our principles will grow from the conversation we have here.

Deliberate and Connected

When I think of our team, the workshops we facilitate, and the Graduate Student participants we serve from across the UBC campus a few thoughts come to mind.

First is the connection that objectives provide within a lesson, as objectives connect active learning and assessment, and motivation connects objectives to a lesson.  Further, objectives inform deliberate active learning activities, allowing learners to connect a lesson with their own learning and providing deliberate metacognitive scaffolding.

Second, I feel our team promotes reflection as a deliberate practice.  Within workshops, our facilitators introduce reflection to participants in multiple modes.  Self reflection by participants is practiced one-on-one with facilitators following lessons.  Our team has introduced reflection books often used in our workshops and providing opportunity for written reflection by participants.  Peer reflection is also practiced by participants throughout the workshop through activities such as think-pair-share.  In addition to facilitated reflection by participants in our workshops, our facilitators practice reflection throughout a workshop, both individually and with cofacilitators.  Reflection by our facilitator team continues after the workshop within an online space, effectively sharing workshop reflections with our entire facilitator team.  I feel that the conscious, deliberate, practice of reflection is a vital principle of our team.

A third thought related to deliberate and connected is the modeling practiced by our facilitators during workshops.  Modeling active learning allows our participants to be learners in a lesson utilizing a given active learning technique, as facilitators provide a vital connection between theory and practice.

Finally, and I would invite Shaya to provide additional reflection, is the deliberate nature of the TA Training programs facilitated by our team, as Shaya meets with departments and conducts a Needs Assessment, connecting the needs of a department with specific workshop objectives.

What are your thoughts about the Principle of Deliberate and Connected as related to our Graduate Student Facilitator Team?