The Resilient Pedagogy podcast with your host Travis Thurston. On this episode we discuss Integrating a Whole-Person Experience from resilient pedagogy. This is the space where we discuss practical teaching strategies to overcome distance disruption and distraction. We also explore how approaching course design, classroom communities and pedagogies of care can humanize our learning environments. Today, we welcome two guests. Christina Fabrey is the Associate Dean of advising and academic achievement at Prescott College in Arizona. Christina is a certified life and ADHD coach and is a contributing author of Becoming Self-determined: Creating Thoughtful Learners in a Standards-Driven Admissions Frenzied Culture from editors Field & Parker. Heather Keith is the Executive Director of faculty development and Professor of Philosophy at Radford University. She is co-author of Intellectual Disability Ethics, Dehumanization, and a new moral community, and Lives and Legacies of People with Intellectual Disabilities, and co-editor of Pragmatists and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience. Welcome to the show.
Thanks, Travis.
Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to our conversation and discussing some of the ideas from your chapter. But before we get started, I'm going to ask you the question that that I asked all of our guests, as an emerging term resilient pedagogy has been defined in a number of different ways. And it continues to be applied in different or varying contexts. What does resilient pedagogy mean to you?
So we take our definition of resilience from study of ecology, where resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure. And we apply that in resilient pedagogy to both creating more resilient students and faculty, but also to creating a pedagogy and courses that are able to withstand disturbances. And we have seen disturbances in spades this last year. So a great opportunity to really put some of our resilient practices to the test. We know that what resilience has had to mean this past year is that we're helping students and faculty to withstand unprecedented disturbances, and not just the ones that are publicly obvious, like COVID, and increasing awareness and cultural reckoning around racial injustice in our in our society. But also we know as a result of some of these things that students are battling loneliness. 39% are showing major depressive symptoms. 13% considered suicide this year. We know that this past year has led to students who, like all of us are in a state of constant worry, fear, anxiety, brain fog. And we also know that in the past year that almost half of college students have reported being in some state of food insecurity. And so we have an economic crisis on top of racial justice crisis on top of a public health crisis. And none of that is particularly helpful for student learning, and for faculty teaching. And so we put together some ideas that we call RAFT: resilient and flexible teaching, that are aimed at creating a sort of whole student experience around well being and student motivation and learning that we hope allows the learning process to be resilient this year, and we're really excited to think about what lessons we've learned this year that we can take into the future.
So Heather and I have worked at a small, private, liberal arts environmental college for a decade together, and really combined our work in expertise around teaching and advising. And sort of breaking down those silos that typically exist within institutions in order to provide holistic and student centered care. And so RAFT is really our holistic and student centered pedagogy which engages learners in those best practices of sort of our brick and mortar environment, but also within a flexible setting that allows them to navigate turbulent situations. So we will combine the flexibility the resilience in a way that also helps students gain resilience themselves. So our chapter really explores incorporating simple but holistic support strategies into the classroom. And we really hope that many of the strategies that we present in terms of a COVID world also exist after COVID. So post COVID, to empower resilient teaching experiences and also prepare students to negotiate uncertain futures.
We know that resilient and flexible teaching really is just great teaching, and great student support. Because we know that what we're doing is not just about student learning, the student learning doesn't happen in isolation. But it's really about well being about treating people humanely about being good humans and good teachers. And we because we know that learning doesn't happen without well being. And you can't teach for well being in a siloed environment.
That's such a great point there. There are so many things, pushing against our students pushing against those who are teaching, especially right now, especially what we've seen this past year. And, and I love that point that, that we we have to be taking care of ourselves, we have to be taking care of our students before we can even really see before we can have an environment where learning can take place. And, and I love that point as well. Thinking about resilient, flexible teaching as good teaching practice. Things we should be doing.
I was just gonna add that Christina sent me a podcast, an article from the New York Times It was great on using the word languishing for what we all are feeling this year, not necessarily clinical depression, though, that certainly is a very real problem for students and for faculty. But really thinking about that we're just not kind of operating optimally this year, that we're just not having, you know, a flourishing experience by and large. And so what we want to do with resilient pedagogy is try to bring back some of that flow and flourishing to the teaching and learning experience where great learning happens. Because if we're not doing that, we know that that learning isn't happening anyway, we don't have that engagement, motivation and flow experience.
So it was very confirming, actually reading this article in The New York Times and also thinking about, you know, what we wrote in terms of our RAFT model. Because we do address things not all like, you know, working with students fragmented attention due to side effects of the pandemic, really thinking about mindfulness and reflection, engaging deeply in relationships and conversations, but also integrating that flow experience, so that students can sort of buffer the emotions and the feelings that they're having during the pandemic, within the classroom.
I really like that, thanks for adding that. I think that's an important point to acknowledge that, that things have been hard. And and that we can, we can continue through, you know, mindfulness and care, continue to try to help each other and support each other. I want to kind of zero in on this, this idea of flexible teaching. Many of us have been, have become keenly aware of, you know, hyflex, models and things like that. But there are other other great things like universal design for learning that that can provide helpful frames for teaching, anytime in any modality. I'm curious to know though, how do you approach flexible teaching?
Well, we at both of our institutions at Radford University and Prescott college, we've got faculty that we're working with and ourselves as well, teaching in all of the different modes, right, we've got hyflex, we've got blended, we've got completely in person, we've got completely online, and we've been doing that all year, across all of these modalities. And so in our work with faculty, we know that part of flexibility is simply helping faculty to adapt to whatever mode they are teaching in from day to day, with students in class in quarantine, having COVID sometimes in the hospital. And so, we what we're trying to do with faculty is to go from what we all did last spring, which was this Hurry, you know, remote turn, kind of seat of our pants adaptation and teaching to kind of building a little more structure. It seems strange to say but building some structure into our flexibility and figuring out what really is going to work well to help faculty to adapt to various situations. So Everything from you know, that are great practices, as I said, already providing a lot of low and no stakes assignments to build in both students ability to meet deadlines and to know that the deadlines exist and how to get things done, especially first year students, but also to scaffolding those major assignments sometimes providing floating deadlines, or sometimes no deadlines. And really thinking about what we're giving to students to do, and being very transparent about it. If we don't need deadlines, we should think about that. Whether we need hard strict deadline policies, if it's not good conducive to student learning, thinking about a process where we heavily scaffold work so that we can give a lot of feedback to students, so that they can improve their work and stay engaged. And and keep up and keep that motivation level up is important. Providing flexible materials to students and a variety of materials to students. And there are some of the best practices of UDL, which we think Christina can talk a lot more about. But really making a variety of resources available to students focusing on when we can on low and no cost UI our materials for students this year. And really thinking about how our classroom design makes it possible for students to succeed in a variety of modes. So perhaps, for example, it's not just giving an exam that students complete individually. But having students be available to each other on a back channel, maybe a Google Doc during an exam so that they can share in the learning experience can share some of their notes together can work on questions together. Because we know the exam isn't just to penalize students, and not just to showcase their learning, but it should be that, but it's also an avenue for their learning itself. So really thinking about everything that we do. And if it's meeting the needs of our particular students right now.
Yeah, so our main themes really in the chapter are around flexibility and building in support. And we know that, you know, before the pandemic, people were using universal design of instruction. But we really talked about kind of leveling up our teaching, right, increasing best practices that combine both great teaching, but also advising and mentoring, so that education and services are offered in a way that can be easily accessed and integrated into students, complex lives. And so when we think about flexibility, it really is being able to serve students that are in different situations. So certainly during the pandemic, and quarantined or at home, or sick, school closures, but also really thinking about parents and caregivers, and working students, maybe even times of natural disasters that come forward in terms of global climate crises, short term need when students need to travel for whatever ever reason. So a lot of the flexibility in terms of the Universal Design and instruction, flipped classroom design, flexing and floatable deadlines, just make it easier to manage the stresses of our day to day world.
I wrote down a few key things here that stood out to me in your comments. And so I want to circle back to those. The the comment you made Heather about, you know, providing flexibility in our structures. It reminds me so much of what we learn in self-determination theory with autonomy support, right, providing structures, but but also providing space for autonomy for for our learners within those structures. You know, and you pointed specifically, providing some choice in providing, you know, flexible deadlines. And another thing that stood out to me was, was thinking about, is there a purpose for this deadline? Or is this just, is this just something I had in my syllabus, right? And being reflective on some of those choices that we're making in the way that we're, we're assigning students work, and even in assessments. Another point that stood out to me was this idea that that assessment is also an opportunity for learning. Right and and letting students engage in that process and being flexible in our expectations and what we expect them to or, you know, how we expect them to engage in that process. And and circling back, Christina as well. I think your points. Your points also remind me that, although we should have remembered this in times past, I think sometimes we forget that our students exist outside of the walls of our classroom, right they, they they have, they have lives, they have things going on and, and if whether it's disrupt disruption, you know, or it's it's hardship from, you know, caretaking if they if they're dealing with childcare if they have when they're dealing with work. There's all sorts of things that are that are competing for for our students attention. And and that we we should be mindful of as well.
I think too often, we assume that if students aren't successful, they're just unmotivated, or unengaged. But we know, we've known since the time of John Dewey, that learning is a social endeavor. And if we don't have those social relationships, then learning just doesn't happen, or it doesn't happen well. And we also know that it may not be that students are unmotivated. And so they don't learn, it may be that if students aren't learning, they become unmotivated. And so we really have to think about that social and engagement piece with our students, both for their learning, but also for their continued motivation and engagement.
So our model really is about thoughtful and awareness and intentional students embedded into teaching. And we also know that as we do that, you know, the positive effects really are around student retention and engagement. And so in a sense of belonging in the classroom,
I do want to kind of continue on that that whole person idea and and thinking about mindfulness. You really you explore some really great ideas surrounding wellness, and deep breathing, take a moment of silence some of these things in our classes. I'm curious to ask, how can these things these contemplated and reflective strategies, help our students and help their wellness?
Great question. So in the chapter, we really sort of break apart resilience, perhaps in two different ways. One is we're looking at what are some resilient pedagogy strategies that you can use classrooms, so you know, everything from sort of what you described, as, you know, icebreakers, temperature checks, you know, creating norms in the classrooms, so essentially creating a community of care, syllabus statements around mental health and accessibility. But the other piece is building resilient learners and creating resilient mindsets for our students. And those are the things around deep breathing and visualization, you know, allowing a moment of silence, embedding growth mindset language into our work, it's really thinking about what are those practices that students can take with them, beyond the walls of the classroom, to be more resilient individuals and to take care of their own well being.
We pair that in our work with our faculties, with including information that's always available to students. So every time they get on the LMS, to figure out, you know, when when their assignment is due, or where the dropbox is, they'll see a widget that allows them to know that we see them as whole people. So the widgets might include links to the Student Counseling Center in every class, they might include information about a food pantry on campus, where they can go, if they're food insecure. It might include information about tutoring and coaching that's available to them. So that they know both in the class experience itself, where we're really focusing on resilience and mindfulness and contemplation and well being, that we care about their success as whole people. And so every time they're on the LMS, they see information about resources that they can access that aren't necessarily part of the class.
It's rethinking how we take care of ourselves. It really is the whole wellness principles, not necessarily you know, that you have to feel deep depression, or burnout, but whole wellness principles that just help us to think and feel better in our everyday lives. And we really hope that these are some of the principles or some of the strategies that can extend beyond COVID.
And on that point, you know, there's there's been talking about going back to the way things were before COVID you know, now that we can return to the classroom and you know, these types of things. And, you know, reflecting on my own practice, and the way that I've changed some things, I hope that I don't lose everything because I think there are some strategies that I've that I've employed that have actually been better than I was doing them pre-pandemic. And so I want to kind of want to kind of pose that question to you as well reflecting on this this last year. And things that you've changed either in your own practice or things that you've seen colleagues change, what are some things that you would like to see continue moving forward?
For me, there's sort of two parts. One is about dispositions or attitudes, and one is about great pedagogy. So when I think about what to carry forward, and myself and the faculty that I work with, I really think about empathy as number one, right? I'm thinking about students, as whole people, as individuals, even in a large class, finding ways to help students know that they belong, and their interest and their motivation is something we care about. So really engaging with students on that level, and really trying to pay attention to and listen to what they need to be great learners. And then I think, you know, we've kind of developed in this chapter, a checklist of resilient flexible teaching, that we just think are great practices to carry forward. So everything like we discussed about information to put on an LMS, to incorporating contemplative practices in the classroom, to creating other opportunities for community that are both resilient and flexible for students, so not just face to face interaction, but backchannels, you know, doing collective note taking and the students things that we've had to do this year, because in person engagement has been so difficult. But it turns out, those things are great for student learning. And so we really want to take a lot of those things forward with us. But I think Christina and I would both agree that one of the most important things we can take forward is breaking down the silos. So Christina, and I come at faculty development from different angles. I'm a faculty person, I teach students regularly. And I work primarily on faculty teaching and research. And Christina works with faculty development around advising and student achievement and student support. And so at a, you know, at a normal institution, we'd be miles apart, right, both working for student success, but not at a large campus, perhaps not even knowing each other. But breaking down some of these silos allows us to work together from both angles of student success, from the student perspective, from the faculty perspective, from teaching from advising, and really mean working with our colleagues in student affairs as well. Things like food insecurity, and student wellbeing, working with our recreation colleagues, on how students can have a more sort of whole-person approach mind and body approach to their education. So I think that's something that we've had a great opportunity this year to break down some of those silos. And I really hope that's one of the things we carry forward.
I agree, I really think it is around permission, right? Giving faculty permission to connect with students support services, to go beyond content, and really more deeply connect with students and build community, provide resources and information and feel comfortable with that, and feel comfortable asking, you know, the person on campus to that are experts in that area. So I think it is around breaking down silos, it really is about well being and treating people well. And carrying that more deeply forward than we ever have, because the heightened circumstances have really given us a peek into how we can better support student well being.
I love those ideas. And I'm gonna leave that right there. Those are so great. Thank you so much to both of you for taking the time and and talking today.