In your book Mind Over Monsters, you identify how teachers can support students with compassionate challenge. How might we lay the foundation for compassionate challenge through course design?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nLet’s start with compassion, because compassion needs to come first. I think that a pedagogy of care is rooted in establishing a welcoming class environment with attention to inclusivity. We need to think strategically about how we are going to be sure that all of our students feel seen, feel invited to the conversation, and feel like they’re contributing to the journey of the class. Next I think it looks like what a lot of folks are calling “flexibility with guardrails.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Draconian policies disadvantage many students, but principal among them first generation students, students struggling with mental health, and students with disabilities. On the challenge side of the equation, we do need those guardrails – most students succeed with some structure, transparency, and scaffolding. So instead of no deadlines, perhaps there are a limited number of tokens for missed assignments. Instead of no exams, we drop the lowest exam or have “two-stage” exams where students complete the exam once in a more traditional setting and then have the opportunity to make up some points they missed with an open-book or group setting follow-up. Finally, I think challenge also means having really high expectations for the intellectual contributions and the degree of learning your students can and will achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we encourage our students to embrace the idea of \u201cplay\u201d in our courses?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nI love play! Play gets a bad rap in higher ed I think because it seems frivolous. But play is built into our very biology – lots of other animals play too – and it is all about learning, and about problem-solving, and about dealing with the unexpected. It also has great power to defuse stress and anxiety, because one has to feel a certain degree of safety to engage in play. I think instructors can play in the classroom by lowering stakes (to introduce that sense of a safe setting to take risks), building community and discussions with fun variety like gentle ice breakers and discussions grounded in movement), and infusing course material with some of the latest developments in your field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n