About

Dr. Sam John is a Senior Lecturer in Neural Engineering at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne. He has a passion for translation of medical technology from the laboratory to real world application. This website explores teaching pedagogies that have influenced my approach to engaging in the classroom. My experiences as a university student back in early 2000s, tutoring and demonstrating and then to lecturing all add to how my approach to teaching has evolved. As I reflected on my past experiences and engaged with students, I have evolved my own learning and teaching style. In particular, a few key teaching pedagogies have influenced my thinking and approach. 1. Constructive learning theory (Bruner, 1966, Weimer, 2002, Wadsworth, 1996), 2. Social Constructivism in its many emergent forms (Herrington and Herrington, 2006a, McLoughlin and Lee, 2008b), 3. Communities of Practice (Wenger et al., 2005).

I have written a few blogs on this topic but I would like to explain some of the key drivers to my approach to teaching. There are two main aspects to the way I approach teaching and can be summarised as ‘Project Based Learning within a social constructivist framework’. Social costructivism proposes that knowledge is created/constructed through social interaction and project-based learning proposes that knowledge is depended/made richer with engagement in real world problems. In the early years of my teaching, I focussed on project-based learning alone as the main principle however, I have now also adopted the social costructivism theory. This was further strengthened by the idea the Community of Inquiry framework. That is there is a need to need to develop community-centred framework where students can engage in different spheres of influence (Shea & Bidjerano, 20). It suggests that learning takes place in more than one arena, social presence, Teaching presence and cognitive presence (Garrison et al., 2009). Social presence focuses on the encouraging group cohesion between learners. Cognitive presence focuses on the development of motivation for inquiry, toward seeking out the knowledge. Teaching presence points to the need for design and understanding the focus of instruction types (facilitation and direct instruction) (Garrison, 2007).

In my subjects I now have a strong focus on social presence in reading using Perusall, tutorials, workshops, and project work. I changed the classroom from lecture theaters to flat floor discussions allowing a way for students to interact with each other in class. I’ve also incorporated an transparent approach to engaging with students in class and out of class. I disclose not just the rubric but how I use it by marking mock assignments with students. I also encourage student sharing their work and collaborating all the way up to the assignment. I instruct my tutors and help them engage with students one on one in problem solving, in the feedback my language has changed from pointing out what students have done wrong to point to what they can do better.  

Overall, I aim to help students focus on their learning by engaging with the activities in class and out of class. Providing several instances for student discussion before talking about the correct answer, encouraging discussion in class and out of class. In the workshops I hope that students will become more confident and not be scared to make mistake.