Author: pmorita

As a Graduate Instructional Developer, Plinio Morita will have the opportunity to provide support and share his experience with numerous graduate students interested in developing their teaching skills. Plinio completed his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Biomedical Engineering at the respected University of Campinas in Brazil. He spent 2007 in Spain working for the Spanish Ministry of Heath, while working on health technology assessments. In the fall of 2009, he joined the Advanced Interface Design Lab (AIDL) at the Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, to pursue his PhD in Human Factors Engineering. Since early 2010, he has been the AIDL Lab Manager and has been working on several projects in collaboration with military and industrial partners. Over the years, Plinio has been actively involved in teaching, facilitating meetings and events, and supporting other graduate students in professional development. His teaching, presentation, and facilitation skills have been developed through numerous experiences as a TA, invited lecturer, guest speaker, and leader of several groups and societies. He is the president of the Systems Design Engineering Graduate Student Association, Vice President of the University of Waterloo Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Student Chapter, and a member of the Graduate Student Planning Committee - Vision 2015. Plinio is dedicated to always working towards student integration and engagement. Plinio is extremely excited with the opportunity of sharing his experience and knowledge with his fellow graduate students at the University of Waterloo.

Trust in the classroom: is it something we really need? — Plinio Morita

On July 5th, we hosted a CTE graduate student workshop on the topic of Trust in the Classroom. My goal was to foster discussion around the topic of trust in a collegial and safe environment. Based on the feedback that I received from the participants, I decided to devote a blog posting to it as it was highlighted as an important, but unusual topic in teaching development workshops.

This observation is supported by the lack of literature about trust in the classroom in higher education. The literature on trust is extensive, ranging from engineering, to social sciences to business. When it comes to education, the focus has been on secondary and elementary education, as many authors discuss activities and techniques to develop trust and create a trust fostering environment. However, a post-secondary classroom is quite different. When looking for literature on trust in higher education, I was able to find only a handful of studies on this topic. Continue reading Trust in the classroom: is it something we really need? — Plinio Morita

Videotaped Microteaching Sessions – Plinio Morita

Over the last two terms, I’ve been scheduling and running CTE microteaching sessions for graduate students. Our  microteaching sessions (MTS) focus on providing feedback to the participants on their teaching skills. A series of three microteaching sessions is structured as a developmental cycle in which participants are presented with an opportunity to practice their teaching skills in a safe environment, having the opportunity to focus on their weaknesses and try new teaching techniques. The feedback is provided by 3-4 peer graduate students who participate in the microteaching, plus one Graduate Instructional Developer who facilitates the session. However, the feedback provided is constrained to a few components that we, as observers, have the capacity of noticing and writing down. There are still numerous other aspects of teaching that either go unnoticed, or fall outside the standard observation items in which most of the feedback is grounded.

At CTE, we are constantly trying to improve the quality and impact of our graduate development programs. This term we will offer video recorded microteaching sessions. Based on the experience of other teaching development programs that include a videotaped teaching component, video feedback provides one of the most effective, solid, and comprehensive tools to raise awareness of individual teaching strengths and weaknesses.

Starting on April 10th, 2012, we will offer a number of video recorded MTS  as an additional  tool for teaching development. These sessions will be available for all participants of our Fundamentals of University Teaching program and can be scheduled the same way as regular MTS. Each participant will receive a video of their mini-lesson  at the end of the session.

This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to do a self-review of their teaching after the event. Check out the the dates of upcoming sessions that will be video recorded by going to our website and schedule yours.

The safe environment of a microteaching in a peer group  presents the perfect opportunity to try new methods and improve teaching. See you around at upcoming sessions!