As we come to the end of our seminar, please consider the questions below and post your answer as today’s final reflection.
Discuss your experience of the seminar.
What is the role of reflection in your classroom practice?
The following list of categories of reflections may be helpful.
40 Reflection Questions
https://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-replicatingPBL-21stCAcad-reflection-questions.pdf
The Seminar has been a great experience for me! It feels like true professional development: I have additional ideas, resources and solutions. I feel energized about the new semester and challenged to re-vist the existing assignments as well as Beta test the new assignment. I also have some new friends at the College. As an adjunct (with a day job!) it is hard to find the time and space to connect with other instructors. And we need a community as much as the students do.
The seminar also provided an experience of being a student, with a job and family responsibilities. The stress of trying to meet all of my obligations was a good reminder to be as empathetic as possible with my students. As Alejandro noted today, it won’t work to drop all deadlines for the assignments, and because the course I teach is now part of a well-defined professional course sequence, I can’t accommodate every request for an extension, or lower the standards for minimum competencies. But I can stay aware that students may want to do more than they are able to at a given moment. And that I can help them meet their goals by making it clear to them that I want them to do their very best. Even though I felt the stress of preparing for the presentations today, I knew that all of the people in the room would be committed to the best possible outcome. I am sometimes disappointed to find out that a student I’ve given an extra chance to has still failed to complete the work. But that disappointment is far out-weighed by the gratification I get from those that do.
Reflection, and it’s sister strategy, iteration, do not come naturally or easily to my students. But both are absolutely required in the process of design. Most of eight main studio class assignments require an initial attempt (physical or digital model, or drawing) and one or more iterations to develop the ideas or strategies. It seems to me that they fall at the first hurdle – reflection and analysis of their own work. Or the work of other architects, because certain assignments ask them to analyze precedents. There are probably many reasons for this shortcoming, but I am confident that they need to practice, practice, practice. And the new reading assignment will be a slightly different way to work on the skills they need to analyze, reflect and propose a new iteration.
The new reading assignment for the Lab section will require analysis to tease out information from the reading, and critical thinking to find examples and counter-examples to complete the Frayer Model. Hopefully the presentations will generate conversations that help the students understand what practicing architects think about, and what their challenges are. And if I’m lucky, they will bring that understanding back to their own process and projects, helping them see ways in which they are dealing with similar issues.
I want to add my thanks to Susan and Javiela, and to all the fellows! I look forward to keeping in touch, this semester and beyond.
One of my favorite parts about becoming an adjunct is all the opportunities to learn and grow personally and professionally. The General Education Seminar did not disappoint! I was challenged in ways I haven’t been in a few years, learned more about academia, and made new connections from other departments.
I agree with Libby’s assessment of becoming the student and walking a little in their shoes. Connecting with the students and hearing their stories and their struggles is humbling.
Going into this seminar, I knew I had to create more opportunities to absorb content and instill reflection practices. The last two professors of Event Management have weekly reflections on their syllabus, and I plan to keep the tradition. I like to ask the students to write what their goals are in class at the start of the semester and then come back to them mid-semester for review.
I truly hope we can continue to connect and reflect as a cohort.
I put all of the presentations and readings into NotebookLM. There’s a podcast feature that gives an overview of the information. Here’s a link to the audio if anyone is interested. Jose did a seminar on it two months ago, and my mind was blown. I’m still playing around with it, but happy to share the notebook with all of you. I can try using your City Tech emails, but it might only work with Google accounts. The program doesn’t let me create a hyperlink, but can add emails.
Break a leg on your first class of the semester!
OOF. The uncanny valley on that podcast is deep! Thank you for sharing
Overall, the seminar was an excellent program. I deeply appreciated the highly curated, relevant, and applicable content shared with us. The opportunity to test different tactics and techniques among peers was invaluable. While I have already shared recommendations for refinement—such as allowing more segmented time for conversation, venting, and instructional pieces—I feel the experience was highly rewarding.
One key suggestion I have is to incorporate more workshop time within the seminar. While we had the independence to adapt the models, techniques, prompts, and exercises shared, on our own, additional structured time for collaborative work would have been beneficial. This would enable participants to leave with a more tangible set of finished tools ready for immediate application. As it stands, I feel inspired but also constrained by the limited time available to prepare and integrate these approaches into my course.
For example, even a seemingly small change—such as altering how students introduce themselves on the first day of class—requires thoughtful preparation, which feels challenging when classes start imminently. Nevertheless, I value the inspiration gained from the seminar and hope we can continue to grow and share these insights. Expanding access to the resources and information developed through the seminar would be ideal. Whether through the OpenLab or other reporting mechanisms, it would be beneficial for department chairs, course leaders, and staff to be directed to the body of work being developed. Increased awareness and access to these resources could help spread best practices across the college.
The Role of Reflection in Classroom Practice
Currently, reflection plays a limited role in my classroom practice. While I engage in a great deal of personal reflection, I have not consistently incorporated reflective practices for students in my current class. In other courses, reflection has been more present, but time constraints often make it difficult to prioritize.
I recognize the importance and value of reflection, both for students and instructors. Reflection fosters a deeper understanding of material, encourages critical thinking, and provides valuable insights. However, my hesitation stems from the concern that reflection or evaluation processes might not lead to actionable outcomes. If there is no acknowledgment or tangible result from these practices, it can feel unproductive. Reflection should be part of a design-thinking cycle where gained information informs changes, updates, or improvements.
To address this, I need to reconcile how to build reflection into my courses in a meaningful way. Reflection does not feel wasteful when it leads to insights or adaptations that enhance the learning experience. Even if immediate changes are not always possible, acknowledging and valuing the reflective process itself can add depth to the classroom experience.
Final Thoughts
I want to extend my gratitude to Susan, Javiela, and everyone who participated in this seminar. The openness, willingness to engage, and acceptance of diverse perspectives created a truly enriching experience. This seminar exemplified the kind of generative dialogue that is essential in academic settings. I leave this experience feeling inspired and better equipped, thanks to the collaborative and inclusive environment fostered throughout the program.
I am a returning participant, and I learned more this time. I never associated Math teaching with General Education practices, and I remember the first time I attended that I was not able to come up with a learning focus. I was sharing my question with Susan in the van to the place-based learning site, and she gave me a very thoughtful idea on focusing “initiative” under life-long learning.
This time, I was able to find my focus, Oral Communication, by talking with colleagues around me again during the place-based learning site-MOF. This again shows the importance of oral communication. If I just kept questions to myself without sharing or asking, I might be still confused about what I want to do with the project. It was a great learning experience to me because the assignment really keeps us focused.
For reflection, I did it with my Spring 2023 class after the 1st time attending the learning seminar. I used the Blackboard to post weekly Discussion forums for students where students need to formulate questions. Then, their peers will need to answer the posted questions from the peers. Around the middle semester, I also give them in-class surveys where they are asked to reflect on their study habits and hours for me to understand students’ behaviors and their learning outcomes.
I think reflections is an excellent way to gather data from students and adjust our lessons as time goes.
This was the first time joining learning lab. Honestly, I was not sure what to expect from the workshop in the beginning. My coworker, Diana was the one who informed me about the workshop and told me it helped her last semester in teaching her class. I like learning new things and wanted to improve my teaching so I gave it a try to see what I would learn in this workshop.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed and learned a lot during these 6 days of workshop. I thought it would be boring, and I would learn the stuff I already know. I met amazing Professors, and I learned a lot about gen ed and how these workshops can help me become a better instructor. I didn’t realize how much disciples gen-ed is in. I just thought it was for the common classes like English and Math.
I enjoyed all the talks and the different activities that instructors provided throughout this workshop. I didn’t know that some of these ideas and activities can be used in other classes. It was great to see the different disciples using these techniques and the reactions they received from their students. It made me more open to the idea to try all of these techniques for my class.
I enjoyed the trip to the Food Museum it was fun. I liked the fact that I was able to experiment, and I learned why food and its culture is important. I also learned more about vanilla and its origin.
The role that I am focusing on from these workshops is oral communication. I wanted to focus on this because I think it’s important for students to communicate amongst their peers and also to professors and just communicating in general. I feel like since covid a lot students lost their sense of interaction with one another because of social media and them always being on their phones or device.
The activity I will try will be an escape room activity where I will have students try in groups. Then I will do a similar activity for students to try individually and then present their work to the class. I wanted to do this because I would like to assess and observe how students learn best. That is why I will include a pre and post survey before they get into groups just to get a sense of how they learn.
Hopefully my activity will be useful to other Professors and myself. I know there will be pros and cons to this activity, but it’s my first time performing it so I will see how it goes.
Overall, I enjoyed the seminars and was definitely influenced by what other Professors did in their class. I would recommend this workshop to other Professors because it helps and I think people will greatly benefit other ideas.
Thank you for making me part of the team.
I am grateful that I was accepted to be part of ,the Living Lab Seminar and to meet my motivated cohort from whom I have learned a lot. During the six days of seminar, I also learned a lot from presenters.
The presenters brought forth a lot of ideas as to how we as instructors could improve our work in the classroom. One way is by engaging students. Some ways to engage students are to have group activities, field trips and have guest speakers. These were played out in the seminar. We were placed in groups to come up with different ideas about an item and to see which group would have more ideas, which was a gamified learning experience. I did not think about having groups competition in this way, which helps to motivate them, and to stimulate them to come up with ideas in a competitive way.
The guest speakers were motivational. They help us to look and see things differently, by exposing us to different theories and teaching experiences. Guest speakers will help students to get different viewpoints and ideas which will help to enhance their learning. The field trip was one way to help students to relate concepts to real life and encourage students to be curious and excited and therefore make learning more enjoyable and broaden their perspectives. It also motivates students to ask questions.
The Seminar Reflection helped me to evaluate the effectiveness of what I have learned, and what I need to improve on. It helped me to identify my strengths and areas that I need to improve. I did not think of asking my students to do reflections. However, from this experience as a student, I realized that reflection could help both student and the instructor. It will help the instructor to adjust his or her teaching style according to students feedback, and will help the students to analyze their learning experiences, improve their critical thinking skills, help them in making informed decisions, and to take responsibility of their learning.
I am grateful that I was accepted to be part of ,the Living Lab Seminar and to meet my vibrant cohort from whom I have learned a lot. During the 6 days of seminar, I learned a lot both from presenters and from my cohort.
The presenters brought forth a lot of ideas as to how we as instructors could improve our work in the classroom. One way is by engaging students. Some ways to engage students are to have group activities, field trips and have guest speakers. These were played out in the seminar. We were placed in groups to come up with different ideas about an item and to see which group would have more ideas, which was a gamified learning experience. I did not think about having groups competition in this way, which helps to motivate them, and to stimulate them to come up with ideas in a competitive way.
The guest speakers were motivational. They help us to look and see things differently, by exposing us to different theories and teaching experiences. Guest speakers will help students to get different viewpoints and ideas which will help to enhance their learning. The field trip was one way to help students to relate concepts to real life and encourage students to be curious and excited and therefore make learning more enjoyable and broaden their perspectives. It also motivates students to ask questions.
The Seminar Reflection helped me to evaluate the effectiveness of what I have learned, and what I need to improve on. It helped me to identify my strengths and areas that I need to improve. I did not think of asking my students to do reflections. However, from this experience as a student, I realized that reflection could help both student and the instructor. It will help the instructor to adjust his or her teaching style according to students feedback, and will help the students to analyze their learning experiences, improve their critical thinking skills, help them in making informed decisions, and to take responsibility of their learning.
I am grateful that I was accepted to be part of ,the Living Lab Seminar and to meet my motivated cohort from whom I have learned a lot. During the 6 days of seminar, I also learned a lot from presenters.
The presenters brought forth a lot of ideas as to how we as instructors could improve our work in the classroom. One way is by engaging students. Some ways to engage students are to have group activities, field trips and have guest speakers. These were played out in the seminar. We were placed in groups to come up with different ideas about an item and to see which group would have more ideas, which was a gamified learning experience. I did not think about having groups competition in this way, which will help to motivate them, and to stimulate them to come up with ideas in a competitive way.
The guest speakers were motivational. They help us to look and see things differently, by exposing us to different theories and teaching experiences. Guest speakers will help students to get different viewpoints and ideas which will help to enhance their learning. The field trip was one way to help students to relate concepts to real life and encourage students to be curious and excited and therefore make learning more enjoyable and broaden their perspectives. It also motivates students to ask questions.
The Seminar Reflection helped me to evaluate the effectiveness of what I have learned, and what I need to improve on. It helped me to identify my strengths and areas that I need to improve. I did not think of asking my students to do reflections. However, from this experience as a student, I realized that reflection could help both student and the instructor. It will help the instructor to adjust his or her teaching style according to students feedback, and will help the students to analyze their learning experiences, improve their critical thinking skills, help them in making informed decisions, and to take responsibility of their learning.
Hey everyone,
I wanted to take a moment to share an update on how my semester has been going. We’re quickly approaching the mid-semester mark and the deadline for submitting our work to the Living Lab, so I thought I’d recap my recent assignment.About a week ago, I wrapped up a group research project with my students focused on pricing ingredients. The goal was to have students work in teams to research costs for a set number of ingredients, which would then serve as the basis for the pricing component of their term project—scaffolded throughout the semester.
I decided to keep this assignment ungraded for now, partly because it was my first time running it and partly because we’re still considering whether to integrate it into the department’s standard curriculum. The assignment was introduced in one class session, and in the following session, we spent half the class troubleshooting, refining, and finalizing the pricing together. This structure allowed students to get started independently, recognize potential challenges, and then work collaboratively—both in small groups and as a class—to resolve any issues. This felt like an almost magical moment, because the students took a lead in correcting their own work and encouraging each other to get the work done well.
A key takeaway from this assignment was that it also served as an introduction to using formulas in Excel. Interestingly, a few students realized they actually enjoy working with numbers, which was exciting and reaffirmed the value of incorporating this type of work into the curriculum.
Moving forward, I’d love to deepen the integration of this process into my future classes and, ideally, see it become a standard part of how this course is taught. Beyond the core learning objectives—such as group collaboration and real-world research—the ability to work with Excel is an essential skill that will benefit students in their careers.
I hope everyone else’s projects are going well, and I look forward to seeing your updates in the next few weeks!
Our learning lab was a powerful and meaningful experience. It helped to produce a foundation for thinking and rethinking experiences I’ve had in the classroom but never had the opportunity or tools to articulate or to share with other educators. Being an adjunct, even in a department or school that prizes and tries to include the adjunct pedagogically and professionally, can, by it’s nature, be extremely isolating. The opportunity to discuss these issues with other professionals who are concerned with effective pedagogy in a public college context was enlightening and enlivening. It helped me rethink settled ideas, it helped me nurture other ideas that were merely nascent, it helped me rethink my practice; to understand why some things had been working well and how to make them work even better, or to rework activities that I was fond of but had never quite come to their full potential.
There are the challenges we all face: students’ uneven educational backgrounds, barriers to reading comprehension and vocabulary gaps, and the uncertain historical moment and all that has come before (the pandemic, isolation, learning gaps)… and, too, there are the range of strategies presented to address these challenges creatively: framing reading as an active, strategic process rather than a passive one; not just inviting reflection but supporting it; building collaborative knowledge through group structures, peer scripts, and shared note-taking.
Reflection is not an afterthought but central to the process of learning; we have an idea of the world, we have a sense of the tools available to us. We undertake a course of action in a given context; it turns out how it turns out. When we reflect on that, we have an opportunity to modify our idea of the world, a chance to expand our sense of the tools available to us, which produces the possibility of developing new courses of action to better suit the contexts we find ourselves in. We make meaning of the world, we make meaning through learning, we ourselves are agents in that process of doing-and-undergoing-and-reflecting. The seminar modeled this, offering a space for faculty to reflect on our own assumptions, share practices, and borrow from one another’s work; and it’s easy to see, based on the interaction with returning scholars, that it occurs not just within but across seminars – and there’s a notion that occurs, a vision of what education might look like with this cycle of doing-and-undergoing-and-reflecting not just implemented top-down but through the kind of encounter and discussion that this seminar offered, and offers still.
It’s funny that reflection is at the heart of what I do in the classroom, and I am constantly challenging students to formalize that practice of reflection; and it is at the heart of my intellectual investments… but this seminar helped me realize that I don’t necessarily formalize the process in my own practice of education! And the seminar and the community of practice we formed helped me see the value of doing this not only for myself but for others and with others, in encounter, and over duration.