In this episode, host Bob Dignan welcomes Ava Wolf (CITL) and Nic Flores (Latina/Latino Studies) to the studio where Flores reflects on his teaching philosophy statement and how he merged it with the realities of his semester.
Flores touches on various ways his teaching practices reflect his philosophy, including structuring the learning community (classroom) with no hierarchical order, sitting with his students in a circle when possible, calling each other by their names and using each others’ preferred pronouns, and co-creating ground guides (rules) and knowledge production. Another practice –no final exams. Instead, students write a paper reflecting on their research they and their learning process and then share those thoughts with their peers.
“It’s all about the process for me,” says Flores, who believes reflection at different points in the semester promotes deeper learning. “I think I’m learning … that learning is a lifelong process. It’s not these four years of undergrad education or even the … five-plus years of post-undergrad of education. It’s about learning and the process and not the product.”
Did you enjoy this episode, or do you have a story to share about your experience with reflection or another teaching topic? Drop us a note at ttll@illinois.edu.
This podcast was produced by the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning at the University of Illinois. Episodes can be found on our website, citl.illinois.edu, and major podcast platforms. We hope you’ll find us there and join the conversation!
Nic Flores is an assistant professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in public and sexual health, HIV/AIDS prevention, ethnography, comparative ethnic and racial studies, and gender and sexuality studies with additional interests in queer of color critique, disability studies, and feminist science and technology studies.
Ava Wolf is an assistant director at the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning.