In Teaching and Learning JOURNAL
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CurrentsACADEMIC In Teaching and Learning JOURNAL VOLUME 9 NUMBER 1 MARCH 2017 CURRENTS | MARCH 2017 Table of Contents About Us EDITORIAL CURRENT CLIPS & LINKS Currents in Teaching and Learning is a peer-reviewed electronic journal that fosters “ Making connections, crossing divides” 2 Websites Related to Teaching 41 exchanges among reflective teacher-scholars across the disciplines. Published twice — Martin Fromm and Learning a year, Currents seeks to improve teaching and learning in higher education with — Kayla Beman short reports on classroom practices as well as longer research, theoretical, or con- ceptual articles and explorations of issues and challenges facing teachers today. ESSAYS BOOK REVIEWS Non-specialist and jargon-free, Currents is addressed to both faculty and graduate “ Seeking Rapport: Emotion, Feminist 5 students in higher education, teaching in all academic disciplines. Pedagogy, and the Work of Long-Term David Wiley’s edited volume, 42 Substituting in Writing Intensive An Open Education Reader Courses” — Kara Larson Maloney Subscriptions — Sara Hillin If you wish to be notified when each new issue of Currents becomes available online Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber’s 45 and to receive our Calls for Submissions and other announcements, please join our The Slow Professor Currents Subscribers’ Listserv. Subscribe Here Subscribe Here TEACHING REPORTS — Vanessa Osborne “ Scholars in Training: Moving from 17 Benedict Carey’s How We Learn: 48 Student Engagement to Student The Surprising Truth about When, Empowerment” Where, and Why It Happens — Todd Olszewski, Danielle Waldron, — Geoffrey B. Elliott and Robert Hackey “ Using Pedagogical Interventions to 26 POETIC NOTE Quell Students’ Anxieties about Source-Based Reading” “ Banana Trees and Rooster Calls 51 — Ellen C. Carillo — Matthew Johnsen PROGRAM REPORTS THE BACK PAGE “ The Teaching and Learning of Intensive 33 About Us, Subscriptions, Submissions, Inquiries French at Ekiti State University: A Literacy Based Model for Second Language Acquisition in Nigeria” — Odey Ebi Veronica and Moruwawon Babatunde Samuel Source of Cover Image: Impakter (http://impakter.com/deconstructing-empathy-in-the-digital-age/) CURRENTS | MARCH 2017 EDITORIAL Making connections, crossing divides — Martin Fromm At a time when the world has become dangerously frac- in the academic enterprise, the scholars featured in this online research. She argues that “exploring the largely the teacher as “substitute,” Hillin suggests that “teaching tured, it is more imperative than ever to explore new issue refashion and revitalize the relationship between neglected affective components of students’ develop- practices that acknowledge and bring emotion into the channels for building relationships based on empathy teachers and students, transform hierarchy, and envision ment of digital literacy practices is an important step forefront” are critical to alleviating obstructive anxieties and mutual respect. In the field of education, are there a more holistic vision for academic success. toward quelling students’ reading-related anxieties.” and distrust, building classroom relationships, and find- systematic, academically rigorous approaches that we as This perspective drives her crafting of assignments and ing a productive balance between personal vulnerability Re-envisioning the relationship between instruc- teachers can use to create and sustain these empathet- in-class activities that introduce to students reading and professorial authority. tor and student, according to Todd Olszewski, Danielle ic bonds in and beyond the classroom? What forms of strategies that give students a greater sense of control Waldron, and Robert Hackey, involves a new approach Looking beyond the student-teacher dynamic, collaboration, assignment structure, curricular and ex- over a seemingly overwhelming amount of information. to collaboration that “emphasizes the potential of com- Odey Ebi Veronica and Moruwawon Babatunde Samuel tra-curricular opportunities, and in-class practices can In particular, Carillo proposes ways to “foster a deeper pressed hierarchy” in “encouraging students to develop define productive intellectual work in terms of forging we adopt that will alleviate student anxieties and alien- engagement with fewer sources rather than a superficial research questions, conduct an independent inquiry, empathetic connections across cultures. In “The Teach- ation in contexts of disruption and dissonance, guide engagement with many” that “compels students to slow and develop a collaborative academic product with ing and Learning of Intensive French at Ekiti State students toward higher levels of self-awareness and down both as they search for sources and as they read faculty members.” In “Scholars in Training: Moving University: A Literacy Based Model for Second Lan- relational competence, and cultivate transformational (and re-reread) these sources.” In this way, the author from Student Engagement to Student Empowerment,” guage Acquisition in Nigeria,” Veronica and Samuel partnerships between teacher and student? The articles identifies a close synergy between emotional subjectivity the authors share their experience in moving outside highlight areas of academic practice where teaching and in this issue address these questions from a variety of and academic rigor, suggesting that addressing students’ and beyond traditional credit-bearing models of facul- learning, state policy, and cultural subjectivity collide. perspectives, but with a shared conviction that conven- underlying fears and anxieties is key to promoting effec- ty-guided student research such as honors theses and in- Discussing the specific post-colonial context of Anglo- tional approaches to and structures of learning are not tive intellectual performance. dependent studies. As an alternative, they incorporated phone Nigeria’s proximity to Francophone countries in adequate for engaging students in an increasingly unset- a student (who is one of the co-authors) into a larger Sharing this view of emotion as an important sub- Sub-Saharan Africa, they examine the development of tled and confusing environment. state-level project as co-investigator with faculty mem- ject of academic analysis, Sara Hillin applies feminist pre-degree programs designed to cultivate skills in “lis- One area of shared concern in these articles is the bers, operating on a professional co-peer basis with both pedagogies to the problem of how to address the issue of tening, speaking, writing and representing” a second importance of emotion and empathy as subjects of anal- her instructors and collaborators outside the university. student anxiety, distrust and resistance when unforeseen language “in an integrated manner” prior to introduc- ysis for conceptualizing challenges in areas ranging from The authors suggest that that this mode of collaboration circumstances disrupt course routines and continuity. In ing other academic subjects. The holistic approach to language acquisition, research endeavors, and informa- “provides a deep, rich, and multifaceted professional “Seeking Rapport: Emotion, Feminist Pedagogy and the second language acquisition that the author propos- tion literacy to the predicament of long-term substitut- socialization experience” that empowers and challeng- Work of Long-Term Substituting in Writing Intensive es extends beyond technical proficiency to the deep- ing. Some of these articles examine empathy building es the student to view herself/himself as a co-equal in Courses,” Hillin argues that professors acting as long- er and more transformative level of students’ cultural and collaboration as essential tools for learning beyond research undertakings with real-world applications and term substitutes need to move beyond “quick fixes” and consciousness. Noting that “speech acts” constitutes a and outside traditional curricular structures or when stake-holders. “administrative logistics” such as relying on the previous “glimpse into the rich field of intercultural pragmatics,” predictable classroom routines are disrupted. Other ar- instructor’s materials and methods. While not dimin- Veronica and Samuel argue that the acknowledgment While Olszewski, Waldron, and Hackey look out- ticles design ways to build empathy into institutional ishing the importance of access to these resources for of cultural identities in the classroom is critical to the side the traditional curricular structure, Ellen Carillo and curricular structures at the university and classroom a smooth transition, particularly when the need for a acquisition of skills needed to engage with the intercul- demonstrates ways to empower students within the levels. These perspectives challenge conventional defini- substitute arises suddenly, the author suggests that we tural realities within and beyond the university. framework of a writing and research-intensive course. tions of academic achievement and rigor, extending it “invite emotion into the classroom” in a way that fosters In “Using Pedagogical Interventions to Quell Students’ The issue ends with a brief poetic meditation on the beyond the formal curricular, degree, and credit-bearing deeper bonds of empathy and rapport between the stu- Anxieties about Source-Based Reading,” Carillo turns intercultural experience of teaching and learning. Based model while re-interpreting academic rigor through the dents and their new instructor. Contending that a major our attention to student anxiety and lack of confidence on his experience teaching