Building My Scholarship Through Teaching

Building my scholarship through teaching.

I have been on the tenure track for my position for the past two years. Within this time, I have learned there are many aspects of my role that are helping me to grow to the point at which I will be ready to apply for my full tenure ship .  One of these aspects is the role I play as a teacher, which was an ancillary role previously but has now become a primary role in my current experience.  With no formal educational preparation other than my librarianship courses, I am an advocate of including educational teaching principles and pedagogical frameworks into the basic librarianship preparatory courses. That being said, my experiences have led me to adapt my current philosophy that teaching is sharing and learning is a continual process.  With this in mind, I have come up with three quick thoughts that I include in a self-reflective moment  that  I try to have prior to meeting with either  one- on -one sessions or group trainings ,that I have found helpful when I have to “teach” (share learning).

1.Concepts can be difficult, so consider your audience – change how you present foundational concepts and ideas   

2.Vocalize support and show empathy and understanding. Learning environments should be safe spaces to grow within.

3.Reinforcing concepts and gauge how the audience is feeling . I ask myself, am I making any sense in conveying the main points?

Happy Teaching!