Concluding my Learning Journey at UWC - Part V

Hello Everyone, 

I have successfully completed my teacher placement at UWC Pearson college. Since my previous blog, I had some time to reflect on the nature of experiential learning I have been exposed to at UWC. Now on my last blog, I would like to share a number of takeaways on experiential education. Furthermore, I will be discussing social justice, eco-justice and global citizenship in community-engaged learning environments. Finally, I will be sharing my reflective thoughts on how I progressed as a teacher and ways in which I would improve my actions if I could do this placement again.  

Personal insights on Experiential Education at UWC 

My time spent observing and teaching a few classes at UWC helped me develop a deep appreciation for the values of experiential education. I have found that the learning process of experiential education starts with learning a new skill. This is contrasted with a more traditional approach that emphasizes the learning of definitions. I noticed from the very start of the learning process that experiential learning engaged students’ whole mind and body in a context-rich learning environment. I have found that this high level of engagement then translates to students knowing the learning material at a deeper level that is unlikely to be forgotten. For example, one of the biology classes I observed included a hand-on component of marine biology. Students interacted with living creatures from the sea (Seals, otters, elephant seals etc.) this allowed them to translate academic concepts to real-life examples. Students were involved in tagging animals and performing weekly counts to obtain data on population change. In a traditional grade 12 biology classroom, students typically study abstract concepts related to population dynamics including tagging and population counts. At UWC, seeing the application of knowledge transfer to real-world settings helps appreciate the importance of what they are studying. This hands-on experience gives students valuable skills that are more applicable to a job in the field. 

Experiential learning engaged students’ whole mind and body in a context-rich learning environment.

Students study International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum at UWC Pearson which has a highly demanding course load. These students spend 2 years at UWC preparing for the final IB exam and participating in numerous other extracurricular activities. These extracurriculars consist of a stage performance called “One World”, fitness class (yoga, meditation, biking etc.) and other involvements that they refer to as creativity, activity and service (CAS). During my time at this school, I identified some challenges that students may be facing. For example, there was often limited class time due to the demands of the heavy IB curriculum. This demanding schedule often left very little time for students to reflect on their experiences. I have found that students require downtime to internalize the lessons they have learnt so that they can retain the knowledge for a long period of time.

Furthermore, the approach to teaching at UWC Pearson college may not be able to be replaced by other schools. UWC is privileged to be located next to the ocean and is near to a beautiful island called Race Rocks.

This island functions as an ecological reserve and gives students the opportunity to study sustainability through solar panels, water desalination and observing marine wildlife. Students can also investigate whale deaths giving them experience examining the morbidity of nearby ocean-life. Unfortunately, not every school will have an opportunity like this nor will most schools have the resources to fund this style of learning.  

My experience at UWC showed me that experiential learning has a transformative effect on the lives of the students who partake in this style of learning. I have noticed that students are not only enriched academically from experiential education but this style of education helps them grow as individuals. Students start to take responsibility for their actions and gain the ability to work in teams when engaged in experiential learning.

Social justice, Eco-justice and Global Citizenship Education in Community Engaged Learning

My time at UWC has also shown me the value of teaching social justice and global citizenship. What I have come to realize is that the role of the teacher is not only to teach the academic curriculum but also to help students on their learning journey towards becoming productive members of society. With this goal in mind, students need to understand the concepts of equity as it relates to all parts of society and nature. Additionally, the goals of eco-justice include the preservation of nature in the face of ever industrialization. Moreover, the goals of social justice aim to treat all members of society fairly and with dignity.

What I have found from my time at UWC is that Community-Engaged Learning contributes to promoting these social/eco-justice and global citizenship goals. At UWC, these goals are woven into the format of every classroom lesson and the learning environment itself. Students from all over the world are treated with respect and taught to value community, sustainability, and social equity. These goals were often supported by a number of student-led initiatives.

For example, to acknowledge cultural diversity students organize a performance where they perform dances from various cultures with dignity and respect to the originating culture. Moreover, students organized a community-run compost site that diverts waste from landfills to be recycled. This is one of many contributions of UWC to sustainability. Furthermore, the resulting compost that is produced is then upcycled into the community-run greenhouse which then grows plants and vegetables. UWC encourages students to be knowledgeable about different cultures by serving diverse food selections at their cafeteria for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This allows students to respect one another’s culture and creates an environment for students to discuss with each other over a meal.

In terms of pursuing and realizing this social justice, eco-justice and global citizenship goals, I didn’t find myself particularly experiencing any significant obstacle at UWC. Given how integrated the school is with their students and the community, in order to thrive as a student-teacher one needs to be open-minded and be willing to embrace different perspectives. The demanding schedule requires the student-teacher to engage from breakfast to bedtime, there is always something to do and student- tteacher to engage with students. My activities involved tutoring after dinner, social demands throughout the day, and juggling my own school work. I often found myself having no extra time to just enjoy the beautiful campus of the school. 

Moreover, I want to emphasize the necessity of being open-minded for future student-teachers coming into UWC - Victoria, because there are a wide array of students with diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Since students come from at least 80 different countries, the level of English proficiency varies widely amongst students. Students vary from speaking fluent English to not knowing any at the start of their education. The aims of these teaching goals of Global Citizenship Education are at odds with the exclusive nature of UWC. Unfortunately, the reality of operating any high-performance IB programs is by definition exclusionary to a large number of students. However, I found this tension was not acknowledged at my time in UWC. 

Final Reflective Thoughts

In my first blog, I outlined my learning goals and discussed my plan to achieve each objective. Firstly, I discussed the need for deepening my understanding of the challenges faced by teaching a multinational group of students from diverse geographic regions. Secondly, I wanted to learn the ways of incorporating outdoor and nature-based experiential learning into science and math classrooms. However, after a few days of observing various classes at UWC, I realized that I could expand my learning goals. I identified the need for me to increase my familiarity with the IB curriculum and its implementation. Moreover, I had a brief discussion with my associate teacher. Together we discussed areas to further develop my learning goals and ways I can help the school with their needs. This discussion resulted in two other learning goals. These goals highlighted the need to internalize the idea of sustainability to help me grow as a better science and math teacher. Also, we discussed the need for me to develop a sense of appreciation for the environment to use this perspective in my future teachings. Furthermore, the needs of the school included helping to run evening tutorials in chemistry and math. Another need of the school was that I could temporarily instruct small boat sailing. Finally, my associate teacher suggested my involvement in assisting with the creation of a curriculum-based heavily on sustainability. This new curriculum anticipated students travelling to a nearby island called Race Rocks and performing activities related to marine biology, ecology and green energy.

...internalizing the idea of sustainability to help me grow as a better science and math teacher.... develop a sense of appreciation for the environment...

In terms of achieving my learning goals and meeting the needs of UWC, I feel that I was able to meet my personal expectations. What I did to meet the need of teaching a multinational group of students was to talk with all of my students to get a better sense of their own personal learning context. For example, I went out of my way to socialize with students as much as possible over meals and during extracurricular activities. Luckily, my time at UWC was spent living on campus so I could fully devote my time teaching and interacting with students. This allowed me to see the school’s positives and negatives. For example, I thought that there were limited ethical issues worthy of consideration. However, I did note that non-English speaking students had the same learning expectations as native English speakers. In my opinion, this poses an ethical dilemma for the school as they need to be both consistent with their academic expectations yet treat each student with fairness. 

During my time at UWC, I became familiar with the IB Curriculum. My experience allowed me to learn more about the IB curriculum as it consists of many components such as internal assessment (IA) and external assessment (EA). These components are self-directed and based heavily on the students’ interests and ability to demonstrate learning in a subject matter.

Aside from these assessments, students also need to participate in two “Group 4” projects once each year of their 2-year program. By assisting with the instruction of group 4 projects and observing classes, I was able to have some idea about incorporating outdoor and nature-based experiential learning into classroom teaching. For example, during one of the Group 4 projects that I assisted, students were given the task to develop an experiment to find the specific heat capacity of a concrete block.

Students were formed into a group of 4 and given 75 minutes to come up with a procedure and a solution. The group dynamics of the experiment were interesting as each student had a different academic focus such as chemistry, biology, physics and marine biology. These groups were able to benefit from experiential learning while benefiting from cross-discipline collaboration. I was able to see how real-life problems can be great learning experiences. Moreover, I was able to see how experiential learning can be applied to the chemistry classroom. In a chemistry class, students were asked to measure the density of ocean water. Students collected their sample at a location they desired and implemented their measuring techniques.

After observing teachers at UWC, I realized their method for incorporating experiential learning involved problem solving and creativity in a collaborative work environment.  This hands-on learning experience required students to translate their academic understanding of density into actionable steps to measure density in the real world. My takeaways from observing implementations of experiential teaching were that the real-world is filled with uncertainty that needs to be accounted for.

In summation, my time at UWC has gifted me with unforgettable nature experiences that showed me the ultimate teacher is nature itself. My time was spent assisting with the creation of a curriculum-based heavily on sustainability. This new curriculum anticipated students travelling to a nearby island called Race Rocks. In the course of my stay, I went on several trips to Race Rocks, explored ways of desalinating water, and generating energy using solar panels. Furthermore, I went on an exploratory trip with Canada's coastguards. I met with the eco-guardian who spends his time living on the island and protecting nature.

At this point, it is my hope that future students of UWC will respect nature and cherish the opportunity to study this new curriculum at Race Rocks. As a result, these students will fully immerse themselves in the concepts of sustainable living in what will likely be a transformative learning experience. The calm waters that surround UWC were a delight to explore by sail as well as swim in. I was also happy to give back to the school by instructing sailing and committing to extensive tutoring sessions.  Furthermore, the woods that embrace the campus provided me with the opportunity to hike and breathe fresh west coast air. All of these nature experiences reinforced the idea that nature needs to be protected through teaching sustainability. This prerogative of sustainability coupled with community service will be infused into my future science and math teachings.

Thanks for reading my final bolg as part of a 5 post series. I hope that you enjoyed reading about my learning journey at UWC.

Until my next blog series, stay healthy and happy!