GAET

This page is a showcase of my teaching and learning approaches in support of my 2021 Griffith Award for Excellence in Teaching (GAET) – Sessional Academic Staff application.

*Update for the reader:

I was successful in this application!

I have been awarded GAET 2021 Sessional Teacher of the Year Award!

I attend the official ceremony in July 2022 to receive my award.

Woohoo!

Nina holding her GAET teaching award wearing an academic gown — Nina Ginsberg received the Sessional Teacher of the Year Award (2021)
Griffith Award for Teaching Excellence (GAET) – 19th July 2022

Context

I started this blog in October 2015 because I had applied to do a part-time Ph.D. at Griffith (EPS). This blog was a way I could share my research, teaching, and learning interests as well as keep myself accountable to write regularly and write publicly.

My Ph.D. uses feminist New Materialisms to explore how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to secondary education and I am in the final throes of writing up for final submission. This blog is my way to celebrate the lesser-known projects, people, and initiatives I’ve discovered during this journey. From humble beginnings, this blog currently has a wide local and international readership of over 190,000 visitors and has been the basis for several awards.

Regular readers know that I share a range of projects I am involved in – and this page is one of them. The GAET application requires an application form, a 5-page written statement, 2 letters of support, two supporting documents (I chose to do a 3-minute video and this website), and a 3-page resume.

The below is content that supports my GAET application claims about how my teaching practice responds to these four criteria:

Criteria 1: Approaches to teaching and the support of learning that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn
Criteria 2: Curricula, Resources & Services
Criteria 3: Assessment practices
Criteria 4: Innovation or leadership

In my GAET application, I outline several methods I use in class to engage students in learning. Here, I share the details of two activities in more detail, which are:

my 1205MED Bootcamp (course review and exam preparation)
Kahoot! gamified course content multiple choice quizzes

1. 120MED Bootcamp

In 2020, I created a Bootcamp that boosted student engagement and produced a significant increase in the student exam results. The Bootcamp was part of an 11-week 1205MED course. This course has a 2-week Interprofessional Learning (IPL) module in Week 10 and 11. Students study the social determinates of health for nine weeks solid and I was concerned that doing two weeks of IPL right before the exam might confuse or interrupt students’ retention and recall of course content, thus negatively impacting exam results.

This Bootcamp covered two areas: course review and exam preparation. All Bootcamp materials were student-created and participation was optional. Nine student teams collectively produced a 1205MED week-by-week (1-9) Course Review Handbook.

Students self-managed the quality and accuracy of contributions and each Bootcamp participant received a copy of each booklet to help guide self-study.

Course Review

Practice Exam Questions and Case Studies

Together, they also created 74 of their own original practice exam practice questions and 32 Case Studies – with full answers. These were collated into a second self-study, exam prep booklet. See what the students produced below:

READ-FIRST-Exam-Bootcamp-1205MED Download

Short Answer Questions

Practice Short Answer Questions

Practice Short Answer Questions (with possible answers)

Case Studies

Practice Case Studies – readings and questions

Practice Case Studies (with possible answers)

Student-created exam prep (master copy)

Master copy: student-created Bootcamp Practice Exam Prep Booklet.

2. Kahoot!

I incorporate digital modalities into my teaching to build assessment confidence and competencies in students. In my application, I explain how I use Kahoot! (a gamified quiz platform) with my classes as a collaborative activity for weekly course review and exam preparation. I used my 1205MED Social Determinants of Health class as an example.

For this activity, the class is divided into teams: one for each week of the course (Week 1-11), plus an extra team for key course definitions. Each team reviews their material and creates a 25 question Kahoot!! quiz, which is double-checked by other students before going live. Once the quizzes are live, students can access all quizzes for self-study.