Reflection on the Program

The final signed version of my learning plan is here ILP3-SP.

NOW, is the time to reflect upon my readings, thinking and learning activities,  or, recapture the lost raptures as it were. I am happy that I decided to apply and feel  lucky to be part of this cohort. At the outset I would like to thank my Department, Faculty, Peers from and the Instructors of this program. Tony and Harry have made this journey enjoyable with their silent presence.

What did I learn?

• That SoTL is a complex yet inviting field with fertile ideas to develop one’s teaching and learning perspectives. The literature is voluminous and the task is made slightly easier by the pointers provided by Tony, Harry, and my peers.
• The cohort meetings are intense at times, but, educative overall. I had to miss two meetings due to my parental leave and a visit to India. Keeping up with the tasks is a challenge, especially when one has zero social sciences research background. My working mode is that of a student entering  a class with no pre-requisites other than curiosity piqued by the monthly readings. Lots of underlined sentences that I wished to discuss if time is infinite.  This vantage point and some of the expertise that already exists within the cohort added a lot to my own learning.
• I learnt about the diversity in teaching and learning environments across the campus during my class visits.
• I learnt about my own teaching perspectives and recognize other valid and equally good teaching perspectives.
• I am impressed and overwhelmed at the same time by some of the scholarly seminars from my peers. Thankfully, videos on VISTA helped  me to listen again, only after reading a bit more.
• I now know the differences among excellent teaching, scholarly teaching, and scholarship of teaching!
• I learnt about developing learning centred approaches both in course syllabi and assessment.

What did I wish I knew earlier?

• I was prepared to learn at the outset. A challenge with SoTL literature is to find ‘good’ entry points. The pointer papers help, but the language is so far removed from engineering vocabulary that one is tempted to google for a SoTL dictionary! I wish I had done more literature search on my own prior to attending the first meeting. I  discovered the paper by Mia O’Brien on “Navigating the SoTL Landscape: A compass, Map and Some Tools for Getting Started”  (ISoTL, Vol. 2, No.2, 2008) very helpful to my learning in this regard.
• I wish I knew that the education literature has its own taxonomy and structure.  Ordinary words can have profound meaning.

Where do I go from here?

• I will continue with my SoTL project beyond this course for the next couple of years. After all, an ounce of practice is worth …
• I am eager to know how students receive the changes in my classroom teaching, assessment, and learning environments created.
• I would like to read and learn from the SoTL literature and go back and re-read some of the books that I have read and read many online books that are sitting on the web.
• Above all, I hope to continue to interact with my peers listen to their wise words of wisdom, even if I half-understand them!