Emily's Reading Notes 4

Davis (pg. 262) discusses encouraging students to engage in deeper learning. Many of us talk about wanting students in our classes to go deeper into material, and during my pedagogical interview, pushing students to go deeper was a key theme. Our earlier readings in Davis (see pages 5-6) discussed focusing on adding in other ways of learning to help students go beyond the basic facts. From our discussions, and all of the information in the readings, deeper thinking and pushing students to go deeper is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. However, looking back over our class and previous discussions, we have not talked about HOW to implement this in the classroom. It seems to be an idea that we all want our students to be able to do and that we want our students to value the idea of digging deeper into material, but we have not addressed the idea of implementation. What are ways we can incorporate deeper thinking into what we do? And, most importantly for me, how do we handle students who decide not to go deeper? I can think of situations where a student would refuse to go deeper and stay at the lower levels of learning (knowledge based).

The second part of the reading that I really feel is important to look at is Lang’s discussion of protecting yourself (pg. 186). After reading this section, I became completely terrified of teaching and being in the classroom. With our society being so “sue-happy”, I had never thought of many of the issues Lang presented. As graduate students, it becomes very important for us to be very, very careful about what we do, say, and how we interact with the students in our classroom. I do agree with Lang that it is important to refer students to on-campus authorities with more information and resources than us, but I also think it is a bit daunting to have the idea of vulnerability hanging above your head regarding everything you do. Based on this information, how understanding and supportive are department leaders to the work we do as graduate teaching assistants? I know that there are situations where people will need to be relieved of their position based on serious breeches of policy (sexual harassment, academic dishonesty, etc.). Also, how can we address student concerns fairly, but yet be firm and not be continually worried about students blaming you for misconduct? How often does this happen?

Finally, I have a question regarding working with students with disabilities (this may be more NDSU policy specific, but it crossed my mind). How do you handle student situations who come to you regarding their disabilities, but who do not want to report their disability to the appointed campus office? I had a student in the past that came in with a disability concern, but did not want to report it to the disability office for fear of scrutiny or embarrassment. In situations where students may not be familiar with the campus resources or fear embarrassment, how do we as instructors encourage and push these students to stop in for help? And how much help can we provide students (regarding their disability) if it is not reported to the disability office?

Based on my notes and reading of the text, I find the following issues important for discussion during class today. First, I feel it is important for us to address the implementation of deeper thinking in the classroom. Many of us (looking at teaching philosophies and from class discussion) seem to value this in our students, along with Davis and Lang. However, none of our texts seem to provide us with insight into how to push students along this path, especially with resistant students. Secondly, I find it important to also discuss Lang’s concept of vulnerability. This concept was new to me, but seems to be very critical for graduate teaching assistants to understand the precarious position we are in as teachers. Finally, I think some discussion about handling situations with confidential student information (regarding disabilities) and how to approach these situations in the classroom without embarrassing the student. Sensitivity and understanding are important for these types of situations, and I think it is important to discuss how to properly and considerately address these student concerns.


Agricultural Communication Course Objectives (please feel free to use the comment feature to give feedback!):

After completing this course, students will be able to:
•Describe and understand the issues currently facing agricultural communication professionals
•Effectively write about agricultural communication
•Effectively speak about agricultural communication
•Prepare effective agricultural communication messages in relationship to the intended audience
•Determine the appropriate medium for disseminating information to the general public and agriculture industry