Teaching Summary
My primary goal as an instructor is to create a classroom environment that does not cause distress in my students but instead amplifies their interest and excitement. An important component of my affect-aware pedagogy is to cultivate a classroom environment where curiosity flourishes. Since many students enter the classes I teach with pre-existing knowledge about the course material, I create space in the classroom to explore both what students already know and what they can learn about biblical texts or the ancient world. For example, we begin each class with two discussion prompts. First, I ask students what they already know about the day’s topic. This affords students the opportunity to explain how our class material relates to their own lives without fostering a sense of competition. Second, I ask my students what surprised them about that day’s readings. This allows students, from any background, to answer openly and honestly. It also creates time in class for students to reflect on their immediate responses, emotions, and reactions to the day’s topics. Students have reported in their course evaluations that they enjoyed beginning class with these questions because it slowly introduced them to the material without experiencing anxiety about a lack of knowledge.
I also incorporate active learning techniques, which I acquired through Duke’s Certificate in College Teaching program and the Kenan Institute for Ethics’ Teaching on Purpose fellowship. This involves integrating various activities, such as think-pair-share, small-group discussions, mini-lectures, and close-reading assignments in class. This not only allows students to explore their ideas in different formats with various students, but it also avoids the monotony of their other lecture-based courses. Students regularly stated on their course evaluations that they valued this structure because it invited them to engage with most of their classmates and learn from them.