Daniel Brown shares more detail about their practice us and how they felt about being shortlisted for a Bristol Teaching Award.
- Which Award were you shortlisted for?
Inspiring and Innovative Teaching Award – PGR’s Who Teach
- How did you feel when you found out you had been shortlisted for an Award?
I was very surprised and flattered that my students would nominate me. Though several of the students in the seminars had given me very good verbal feedback I still wasn’t entirely sure how they were finding the sessions. Therefore, this nomination and shortlisting has really given me confidence in my ability to teach and makes me excited to do so more and further improve.
- Can you tell us a little bit about your practice and why you were nominated?
I was nominated as my students believe that I am passionate about the subjects that I teach. Also that I provide space for them to express their own opinions and form their own conclusions about the topics we discuss. However, I still provide a framework for each session and guide the flow of conversation. I believe that teaching should function as a conversation between everyone in the room wherein everyone can contribute and explore the topic together. By students taking an active and critical role in sessions I believe they get much more out of a session and it helps build in them the integral academic skill of interpreting texts and critical thinking.
- What inspires you to go the extra mile with your teaching?
I believe that learning is essential. By learning about human cultural diversity in particular I believe we can become much more empathetic people. We can start to interrogate our own lives and wider societies and hopefully start to change it. By teaching others these skills I believe it makes them more empathetic people who will strive to make these changes.
- What would you like to share with others about your teaching practice?
That teaching in a very active and participatory way requires a lot of trust between teacher and students. However, it does build independent thinking and I think is a very effective and rewarding way to teach.