The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) employs a number of UBC undergraduate and graduate students every year. The largest group of students who work at CTLT are the 20 – 25 graduate students who develop and facilitate many of CTLT’s Graduate Student Programs, including the Instructional Skills Workshops (ISW).
In December we asked Jason McAlister, Coordinator of the Graduate Student Facilitator Team at CTLT and a doctoral candidate in Oceanography, to talk about his experience with teaching and learning at UBC. We started by asking Jason to introduce himself.
Jason McAlister (JM): I am originally from San Diego and after completing a BS in Biology at San Diego State University I was off to the University of Nebraska for a MS in Geochemistry. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to live and study in the prairies, as it completely changed my outlook on the meaning of home, family, and directions in life. Having become thoroughly enthralled with academia, I came to UBC to pursue a PhD in Oceanography, studying trace metals as indicators of carbon flux and water mass distribution. My experience at UBC has been more than I ever could have imagined, a twining of both the fascinating research opportunities, along with the opportunities to facilitate and teach.
Q: What sparked your interest in teaching, learning, and facilitation?
JM: My interest in teaching and facilitation stemmed directly from the graduate student ISW and being introduced to active learning, learning objectives, and the [lesson planning model] BOPPPS*. Prior to learning these three fundamentals, teaching seemed daunting and overwhelming. When I started using BOPPPS, however, lesson planning became a logical, directed process. Learning objectives set the stage for pre- and post-assessment, along with content organization and management. Active learning has been, for me, not only a unique and inspiring way to teach and learn, but has provided a creative outlet that I did not know I was missing.
*BOPPPS represents one of the lesson planning models that is introduced in the Instructional Skills Workshop. The elements of this model are: Bridge, Objectives, Pre-test, Participatory learning, Post-test, and Summary.
Q: Please describe your experience with the Graduate Student Program at CTLT. How did you first participate with the program, and what path have you taken since then?
JM: I took the ISW when I first started my PhD and then I was invited to apply to be on the facilitator team. Receiving that invitation was a wonderful surprise and truly changed my path at UBC. Training to facilitate the ISW was an amazing experience. The group I trained with remains in contact, and each of us applies facilitation within a myriad of applications. The facilitation skills I have learned and practiced at CTLT have been invaluable while working as a Teaching Assistant in my department [Earth and Ocean Sciences]. I have TA’d the graduate course “Learning and Teaching in the Earth Sciences” and an undergraduate Oceanography course for non-science majors. The latter course provided a fertile ground for the application of active learning.
Another highlight has been the International ISW Institute at Bowen Island, a professional development opportunity that allowed me to learn exciting twists on the ISW model and to meet facilitators from across the Lower Mainland, the island, and up the coast. Perhaps my favourite part of my experience with CTLT’s grad facilitator team is the innovation in every workshop that comes from every facilitator. We co-facilitate the ISWs, and every facilitation experience I have had is profoundly unique, for which I am indebted to every co-facilitator from whom I have learned. Finally, I have recently been humbled by the opportunity to serve as the Graduate Student Facilitator Team Coordinator at CTLT, assisting in supporting our team of amazing facilitators.
Q: How has your teaching, facilitation, and grad-leadership experience informed your research, and vice-versa? Do you experience a relationship between your teaching self and your research role?
JM: I find that the confidence that comes from facilitation and teaching transfers to research in the form of taking risks, time management, explaining content to a broad audience, and considering different ways to approach a problem – the latter inspired by different ways to approach a lesson and the creativity inspired by active learning. I also find a calm in facilitation that has permeated my professional, academic, and personal life.
Q: In addition to working at CTLT, you’ve been a Teaching Assistant in Earth and Ocean Sciences, and this past fall you won a Killam Teaching Assistant Award for that work. What does winning that award represent for you?
JM: I found a self recognition of my own achievements. I can find it difficult to allow myself to enjoy accomplishments. I was able to reflect on my practice and realize that traits I had seen only in mentors, and perhaps felt unobtainable, were not only possible, but seemingly an inevitable outcome of involvement with CTLT and the UBC teaching and learning community.
Q: What are your plans post-PhD? Do you imagine using your teaching, facilitation, and leadership skills moving forward?
JM: I wish to bring CTLT activities, and particularly culture, to any future institution. I always find myself feeling very inspired at CTLT, and anywhere I go, I want to be able to provide similar motivation and encouragement to a colleague. Above all, my facilitation experience has provided me with the confidence to take risks, and I am thus able to embark on post PhD plans of post doc, family, and academia with a sense of reckless calm.
Q: Anything else you would like people to know?
JM: I like to cook, run, bowl, be passionate, and have little adventures every day. I am recently engaged to my fiancée Jennifer, and we love going on runs with our Doberman.
This article was published in the January 2013 CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues. Below is a list of the articles included in the issue:
- Open Education Interview
- Massive Open Online Courses at UBC
- Teaching and Learning Spotlight (currently viewing)
- What’s New at CTLT
- New Faculty and Staff Welcome Orientation
- Other Professional Development Opportunities
Find out more information about the CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues.
