Interview summary by Rosemary Vogt, Teaching and Learning Specialist, Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation
NIC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation staff conduct interviews with instructors to explore the perspectives and insights they have about quality teaching and learning. NIC embraces the diversity of approaches each instructor takes as they cultivate a supportive environment tailored to their program and student needs. These interviews share how North Island College is making quality student learning a priority.
Aisling Brady is a biology faculty member at North Island College, the program coordinator for the Island Pre-Health Science program, and the current Education Council chair. Aisling has been teaching at NIC since 2012, and has a background in tropical marine biology, genetics, and molecular biology. Her passion for teaching led her to pursue a Bachelor of Education while completing her PhD in Biology, as she knew her calling was in post-secondary education. Being active in the classroom and staying up to date with changes in pedagogy inspires her to provide engaged and applied learning opportunities for students with emphasis on interactive learning.
Question 1: PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF A RECENT CHANGE TO YOUR TEACHING PRACTICE. HOW AND WHY DID THIS CHANGE COME ABOUT?
In 2020 during the pandemic, I switched to team-based learning in my cell biology class and I’m happy that I did. The reason why I chose that class to try team-based learning is because when I first taught the class in 2018, I thought it was dense material, dry and very detail oriented because it was getting into higher levels of cell biology and I noticed there was a lot of disengagement. As a result, I was concerned because if students didn’t catch on and missed one thing, they were at risk of not succeeding in the rest of the course. So, I did full-on synchronous Team Based Learning (TBL) over BlueJeans which was interesting as a first time try of TBL! Students were not used to it, but they appreciated having an opportunity to engage with their classmates. It took students a while to get the idea of the flow and what it means to be an engaged participant in TBL. It wasn’t until about halfway through the semester that they understood it, whereas I find it’s easier for them to get involved in the process of TBL in person now. I think the students were tired during the pandemic making it difficult to catch on to the TBL flow. Since I’ve made the change though, it’s been fantastic; it’s wonderful to see them getting excited about the material and getting excited about doing the classwork and learning and making connections in their learning.
Question 2: AS A LEARNER, WHAT WAS YOUR MOST POWERFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCE? HOW WAS QUALITY EMBEDDED IN THIS EXPERIENCE?
It was a field course that I did in Barbados when I was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto. Prior to going to Barbados, we met four times at the Scarborough campus, and they gave us the background on the course material. Then we had a choice about what we wanted to do for the research project. My lab partner and I chose a topic, devised the research question, the methodology, sampling, and the analysis. The whole project was driven by us, which was excellent. There were a few other projects that the whole class did as a group and we collectively came up with the research design, the data collection and did the data analysis. I think the quality piece was that the course was well thought out and that it gave students agency. You really got to figure out what you wanted to do and how you were going do it and it gave you an opportunity to feel what it’s like to be a researcher. We were there for two weeks. It was a great learning experience.
Question 3: HOW DO YOU INCORPORATE DIFFERENT WORLDVIEWS INTO YOUR TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES?
I think you bring your personal background into teaching, and I come from a diverse background. My father is from Ireland and my mom is from Trinidad, so that has given me a different cultural view on certain things, like when we talk about genetics. From the Indigenous perspective, I feel lucky to teach biology because I feel like there is a lot of Indigenous knowledge that translates well into the Eurocentric viewpoint of biology. Today, for instance, we were talking about gymnosperms and conifers and how the Sitka Spruce tips are used by Indigenous communities for electrolytes and Vitamin A.
As a department we’ve been trying to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into assignments. In first year biology we do a stream lab, and students spend four weeks on a stream site and they have to learn the biology of it, the physical environment and the plants. We also encourage students to learn about that stream from the perspective of the Indigenous community and we suggest they go to First Nations offices and talk to people to learn about how that stream has been used by Indigenous people. In my invertebrate biology course, I felt it was important to learn about invertebrates on our coast and how Indigenous people have used them. We did a field trip to Ucluelet for a couple of days as part of our labs and we had an Indigenous knowledge keeper come and talk about how one of the nations have used clam gardens and shellfish harvesting over time. In Biology, it’s easy to incorporate different worldviews just because of the nature of the course.
Question 4: WHAT KIND OF EVIDENCE HAVE YOU GATHERED, OR DO YOU GATHER TO KNOW THAT STUDENTS HAVE LEARNED?
Exam results are one way of gathering evidence that students are learning, but it’s just a snapshot of their learning. Trying to capture evidence of knowledge that is evident during class discussions, interpretations of lab results, and overall confidence with material is always a bit trickier. I have this beautiful diagram created through system mapping activities, where students have mapped out their knowledge throughout the semester, which is a great way to see what they have learned and how they can connect ideas that sometimes seem unrelated.
In my invertebrate biology course, one of my students built a clam garden bed using epoxy, wooden structures, and sand, and connected the biology and ecology of clams to Indigenous practices through poetry associated with the diorama. I can see evidence of learning all the time when they’re answering my questions in class, when they’re making those connections in labs when they are writing their reports. It’s sometimes hard to quantify that evidence of student learning when I can see that they know it.
Question 5: WHAT DO YOU DO TO BUILD A COHESIVE COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS ON THE FIRST DAY AND IN THE FIRST WEEKS OF CLASS?
I always do an activity where students introduce themselves, that’s just standard. That way I can learn their names and make a connection, learn what is unique about them and I can remember who they are. It helps to break the barriers that first day. As a biology group, we ensure students work with many different people in the labs. Students have a lab partner for maybe one or two weeks and then we switch it, so they get to know each other very well; and they’re typically not only in biology, but also in chemistry or a few other courses where they are working together.
I also do a ‘getting to know you’ form in that first week of class where they fill out a questionnaire as to why they are taking the course, what they want to get out of it, what are they most excited about, what are they not excited about, and if there is anything that they want me to know about them. So, it gives them the feeling that I really want to know who they are and how to support them. Also, I always make sure to reply to them, as I want to make sure to continue the conversation.
Question 6: IF WE WALKED INTO YOUR CLASSROOM AND THE STUDENTS WERE DEEPLY ENGAGED AND LEARNING, WHAT WOULD WE BE SEEING OR HEARING THAT WOULD HAVE US KNOW THAT?
Yeah, that’s huge. I would say that the interaction with each other in Team Based Learning has made it so clear when they are actively engaged in learning.
I can see them, they might be independently reading the textbook to find the answer, but then they’re talking to each other about what they have read and trying to decide as a team which answer is correct and why they think it’s correct. Then as part of a team they make their decision, but then they also must defend their decision in front of the class. You can see the level of interaction increase when it’s more heated or when they are more unsure. Team Based Learning is so much more engaging, and I have seen great results with it. I need to change all my courses to TBL because me standing in front of the class can get dull, and I can only imagine my students don’t feel engaged when I’m only lecturing.
Question 7: IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU INCORPORATE TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT QUALITY LEARNING?
I love technology! I’ve always used our learning management system since day one, so that has always been there with lots of extra materials to support students if needed. I create videos for students to use in class and clickers are a great way to have interaction but we don’t have them at NIC. I’ve used YoTeach which is similar to Clickers. Now I’m using Poll Everywhere because it gives them that opportunity to interact with those questions and they tend to like them because they’re similar questions that they might see on the exam.
I went to a great conference last year and attended a session on systems mapping. It is a nice collaborative activity, somewhat like building a concept map, but much more prescribed and formulaic. We use Lucid Charts online to make these maps, and it becomes a great study tool for students afterwards.
Question 8: how do you encourage student curiosity and motivation?
I welcome questions that go a little off topic but are applicable to learning and applied to real life. We usually go down that rabbit hole together and we start looking things up together in class. That is one way to encourage motivation. In biology, students have an independent research course in second year that they can take, which we encourage students to consider taking to explore their own personal research interests. I really light up when students ask me a question about something, and it pushes my boundaries as an educator. I think they enjoy the opportunity to see what I know and what more we can learn about a topic. Asking questions is very much encouraged and I see it in the lab too that once they start getting something they become more excited and that usually encourages them to continue forward in their work.
Question 9: who was an impactful, great teacher in your life, and what are some of their characteristics that you work to embody?
I had two excellent instructors. The first one was a physical geography professor during my undergrad, and he came across as kind of cranky, but was really engaging as a lecturer. He used a Socratic style of lecturing, which is what I based my early years of teaching on here at the college. The second person was a new professor when I was in third year, and she also used a lot of Socratic lecturing, had well thought out lesson plans and was engaging. She would come with specific questions or specific activities that she had us do in class, and she was just a nice person that took a lot of time and effort to get to know her students. She took the time to connect with me and tell me that she saw a lot of potential in my writing, so she encouraged me to go to the writing center and then we worked on my writing together. That personal attention was powerful and during that time I blossomed as a student.
Question 10: What inspires you to keep growing as a teacher?
Up until we had the Center for Teaching and Learning, I was kind of doing what was working, and used some of what I learned during my Bachelor of Education and teaching workshops I attended in grad school. When Liesel came, we became more aware of different teaching practices, and I felt encouraged. When I try new teaching practices and see how well received it is by students and how much deeper they are learning and how engaged and interactive they are in the classroom, I am inspired to keep doing it and learning more about different opportunities and different ways of teaching or assessing or just growing as an instructor.
I think it’s up to us as educators to get students engaged so that they can realize that they have the potential to learn, that it’s not me that’s going to make them learn – that they have to do the learning. I think that being an educator is fluid and just to recognize that what you start doing doesn’t mean that you must keep doing that, or that you can’t choose something else or find a different way. I think it’s important to experiment with your teaching practice, sometimes an activity or assignment works well and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s a flop and even if it’s a flop one year, trying it out with a new group of students can completely change it.