Perhaps the greatest honour that can be bestowed upon teachers are the praises and testimonials that they receive from their students. At the Awards Night 2019 held in AKU, Karachi, three faculty members were recipients of this coveted prize, the student-nominated best teacher award: Dr. Sadia Bhutta (Assistant Professor, IED), Dr. Zehra Jamil (Assistant Professor, Medical College) and Ms. Yasmin Parpio (Assistant Professor, SONAM).
To both celebrate this achievement and have a sense of what
teaching and learning means to these admirable faculty members, we spoke to them about their teaching journey at AKU.
Teaching is not easy, and often comes as an afterthought in many higher education institutions with the pressures of academics, research, and clinical service. However, many faculty members rise up to meet the challenging demands of teaching, because, after all, they are only faculty because they have students to teach!
To these teachers, creativity and innovation in the classroom is a cornerstone to their practice and philosophy of teaching and learning. “I am always so amazed to share my creativity to melt harder concepts into simpler form for learners" Ms. Parpio told us as she mentioned a number of strategies she utilizes “I use jigsaw, mentimeter, silent wall, one-minute reflection, scenario-based discussion and snow ball discussion as effective teaching and learning strategies to keep sessions more engaging in order to enhance students' critical thinking and problem solving skills." Dr. Jamil similarly appreciated how creativity and innovation make teaching rewarding, sharing that she enjoys challenging students with scenarios and questions in an effort to create “an interactive environment without any fear of judgement." Of course, good teaching is not just rewarding for the teacher, but also rewarding for students. Quality teaching evokes a deep relationship between student and teacher.
Dr. Bhutta emphasized this partnership in her philosophy, citing the importance of interactive pedagogies and being visible outside of the classroom to establish contact with students and entertain their thoughts. “Being visible outside the teaching arena," Dr. Bhutta emphasized, is “what makes my teaching stand out."
Faculty members come to academia with their PhD content expertise but usually have no formal training in teaching.
How did they come to these ideas about teaching and develop their skills along those lines?
Both Dr. Jamil and Ms. Parpio highlighted programming offered by AKU's Network of Quality, Teaching and Learning (QTL_net) that support faculty members in honing their teaching practices.
“I have recently attended a workshop on Rethinking Teaching, Instructional Design, and Teaching in a Virtual Classroom and Clinical Simulation Educator Programme (of CIME) that actually helped me to revisit my teaching philosophy and improve my teaching pedagogies." Ms. Parpio mentioned. Dr. Jamil cited QTL_net and the Department of Educational Development (DED) workshops, saying “these workshops have empowered me to make the best use of the diverse teaching pedagogies as per the need of the discipline." Even Dr. Bhutta, trained as a teacher and with the formal educational qualifications of an MEd from IED and a PhD in Education from University of Oxford, said that QTL_net's Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) was an “eye-opener," calling it the “most challenging yet rewarding experience of my professional career."
Dr. Bhutta also emphasized how collaboration was a major part of her teaching journey. She recalled fondly her early teaching years where she became involved with a group of young and serious teachers. They helped shape her teaching habits, but the real benefit was the support they offered one another. That kind of collegial support has helped Dr. Bhutta develop herself as a lifelong learner in her teaching career. Today she credits other senior colleagues and mentors as part of her professional development, particularly Dr. Tashmin Khamis whom “was instrumental in helping me to practice learnt skills and add more to my teacher development repertoire." Peer-mentoring and communities of practice are cited in literature as the most powerful way in which faculty enhance their teaching practice, and hence is the approach of QTL_net programmes use to support teaching enhancement.
It became evident to us that these faculty members held onto many factors that helped define and elevate their teaching.
We wondered what advice they had for other faculty members wanting to pursue a similar path?
Dr. Jamil said faculty must be aware of the importance of the learning environment that enables every student to grow, from those with brilliance to those that struggle. Ms. Parpio reiterated the importance of interacting with students, not just in the classroom, in an effort to understand their context and circumstances, which can profoundly impact learning and engagement.
The air around teaching and learning at AKU is tinged with optimism and motivation as we celebrate the achievements of these impactful teachers. The innovations, creativity, and passion around teaching and learning continues to grow at AKU as more faculty look to refine their own practice as a way to enhance and strengthen the learning experience of their students. Luckily for them, there are plenty of opportunities to do so at QTL-net, CIME and DED.
AKU's TEACH scheme offers high quality professional development and the incentive of an internationally recognised higher education teaching qualification for faculty. In addition the new AKU Teachers' Academy will recognise many inspirational colleagues that mentor other faculty who will continue to build strong foundations of teaching and learning at AKU.
