Vulnerability and Authenticity Look Like in an Educational Begin to Ask Ourselves: “How Do We Increase the Likelihood Setting
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BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY-IDAHO | SPRING 2018 | VOL. 18 NUM.2 Vulnerability and t Authenticity t UPCOMING EVENTS Brown Bag / Pie Talk R&CW Conference May 10 at 1:00 - 2:00 July 12 at 4:30 - 6:30 pm | Conference Day May 11 at 11:30 - 12:30 We invite faculty and students to participate, June 15 at 11:30 - 12:30 & 1:00 - 2:00 mentor and judge in this important showcase of learning. Help students realize their full potential Brown Bag Discussions offer faculty an opportunity while showcasing their newly acquired skills by to share lunch together and listen to their colleagues presenting written works, informational posters, speak about topics related to learning and teaching. and oral or live presentations. Faculty have the freedom to speak about things they feel are innovative and enlightening, items they find successful in the classroom, and best practices. Faculty Luncheon Faculty Banquet May 18 at 12:00 -1 :30 | Faculty Luncheon June 7 at 6:00 - 7:30 pm May 18 at 2:00 - 3:00 | Additional Workshop In the spring of every year, faculty members and their guests come together to celebrate the teaching James Lang, author of Small Teaching will efforts of faculty at BYU-Idaho. The evening program discuss research from the learning sciences is to uplift and inspire faculty in their teaching efforts that shows how a few small shifts in one’s through presentation of the Exemplary Faculty teaching can create incremental, but Awards. Spend a wonderful evening with us as we very powerful, changes in student learning. celebrate the great faculty of BYU-Idaho. t EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE OF PERSPECTIVE In an attempt to measure whether U.S. Universities offer a teacher. I often hear them say that learning must be easy a quality education in proportion to the rising cost and the for someone like me who is a smart and natural academic overall effect of that education on long-term quality of life and writer – everything that they think they are not and for their graduates, The 2015 Gallop-Purdue Index sought to everything that I know I am not. Yet, if we can open up and assess “alumni perceptions of their undergraduate experience allow them to see our own challenges and make them aware and how those experiences relate to their well-being and job of how we also wrestle to understand the subjects we teach quality later in life.”1 The findings indicated that the type of then we can model for them the skill of learning and begin school students attended mattered far less than the kinds of to form genuine connections. A change can take place in experiences they had at those schools. the relationship between student and teacher when we each Graduates reported that they felt their education was recognize in the other the very weaknesses and strengths worth the cost and enjoyed a higher level of well-being after that we find in ourselves. Humility and a willingness school when they experienced a close relationship with a to reveal some of our own shortcomings and failings teacher who made them excited to learn. It is not just simple as intellectuals and human beings create an authentic teacher-student interaction that indicates higher levels of environment where genuine relationships develop. satisfaction and a correlation with a self-reported increase in The following articles come from fellow faculty members well-being, but the quality of the relationship that matters. who discuss and share their own thoughts on what Given the indications of this study, as faculty, we might vulnerability and authenticity look like in an educational begin to ask ourselves: “how do we increase the likelihood setting. Our hope is that this will provide encouragement of developing quality relationships with our students?” Our to consider how we can create better, longer-lasting days are filled with interactions with our students. At times, it relationships with our students and increase the quality feels like all I do is interact with students to the detriment of of education that we offer. grading papers, developing and prepping courses, keeping up with my field, and other forms of faculty development. Yet, it 1. Gallup-Purdue Index Report 2015, 2. is those very interactions – particularly the ones outside of the classroom – which this research seems to indicate will have the most long-lasting impact on our students. So, how do we turn those interactions into quality relationships; how do we make them count? The following articles in this edition of Perspective attempt to explore one possible avenue for creating the type of TYSON YOST environment that allows relationships to take root and thrive: EDITOR vulnerability and authenticity in our teaching and student Publication Committee Learning & Teaching Council interactions. It is hard for me to understand, being as aware of my own faults and weaknesses as I am, the perspective some [email protected] or of my students have shared with me that they have of me as [email protected] EDITORS Contact information for the editors of Perspective Magazine Joseph Anderson Biology [email protected] 245 BEN 496-4615 Lane Williams Communication [email protected] 243 SPO 496-3714 Kirk Astel Religious Education [email protected] 156 BID 496-3937 Ashley Storm Theature & Dance [email protected] 212C MC 496-4855 Tyson Yost History, Geography & Political Science [email protected] 262M RKS 496-4250 Megan Pickard Geology [email protected] 290 ROM 496-7678 CONTENTS 1 Teaching in Motion: Validating 22 Desirable Discomfort Vulnerability ERIKA NORDFELT JOY ESPLIN 25 Building Connection 5 Authenticity and Vulnerability KEVIN M. GREEN by Pacing and Baby Steps KYNDA ROBERTS 28 To the Would-Be Lifeguards ERIC EMBREE 11 Resilience: How to Cope With Life's Pressures, Disappointments, or Losses 30 Striving to Be a "Genuine KEITH BARNEY Person" Teacher KYLE BLACK 15 The Success of Vulnerability TRULEE ANN STOCKING 32 I Don't Belong Here... Or Do I? LANCE NELSON 18 From Ignorance to Passion: Why Writing in Undergraduate 35 Small Teaching: An Interview Courses is Important to Me with James Lang WILLIAM W. LITTLE JAMES LANG & LANE WILLIAMS grading or writing papers. I am sure that many educators can relate. After completing my graduate work, I had difficulty knowing which direction to take my life. I was still teaching, but I was struggling somewhat spiritually (though I did not realize it at the time), and it was difficult to look beyond my current situation. I remember feeling that it was all I could do to get myself to work, teach my classes, grade, go home, repeat. My emotions were on the surface and I lived in fear of the students seeing what I really felt. As a performer, I believe I have mastered some skill in concealing unwanted emotions and putting feelings aside. After all, the show must go on. I did not consider the irony that I had just spent two years studying human behavior and performance in various scenarios, but now I was playing one of the most difficult roles of my Teaching in Motion: life, as myself, starring: me. At this time I happened to be teaching improvisation Validating Vulnerability and choreography—a class which often makes students feel stretched intellectually and emotionally. The student JOY ESPLIN mentioned previously was in this class. Generally, I Department of Dance approach teaching ready to give whatever I am able to my students. This includes my energy, intellect, support, love, time, and whatever else may be needed. However, as About a year ago I received an e-mail from a former I was struggling to simply show up to work, the students student. It was one of those we all enjoy—a student began to give and supply these things to me. It was expressing thanks and gratitude. I was touched, as the transformative. It was healing. I still feel gratitude for the student conveyed appreciation for what she had learned in group of students I had in this class at that time. I believe my classes and continued to use in her dance pursuits. we grew together in the process of transactional learning. My first experience teaching this student was an entry Their spirits touched mine and together we found truth level modern dance technique class for freshman students, and expression through movement. as they enter the dance program. It has been my pleasure to Since then, I have updated this course, become clearer teach this course many times and first introduce dancers to in my course outcomes, and improved my presentation of see beyond the clichés of the field and dance conceptually. the content. While life continues to accelerate its pace, I no This is not always an easy transition. Many dancers enter longer feel threatened by vulnerability. I am comfortable the university thinking there is little left to learn. However, and confident in both my understanding of and experience this student was open and willing to absorb the information with the content. While I enjoy my current state of comfort, cognitively and then embody it physically. As she continued I have also noticed it is necessary to consciously make an to progress in her dance education, I saw a maturity develop in the short time she attended BYU-Idaho. Upon reflection, I have thought about my life at the I did not have all of the time this particular student was enrolled in my classes. In her first year, I was finishing my graduate work and answers, not to life and very busy. I recall thinking that life would be grand if I could enjoy a Friday or Saturday evening without not in choreography.