Pedagogy and Some Factors That Influence How We Facilitate Student Learning

In this session I'll share a personal overview of pedagogy in general. This will include a listing of my personal choices of the major events, from about 1950 onwards, that have had an impact on how I try to facilitate learning. The events occurred in Canada, the United States, UK and Australia. Some were publications; some were local, provincial/state and national initiatives; some were organizations; some were networking. I'll suggest the implications and usefulness of each.

I'll also overview idealized career paths of persons who a) neglected pedagogy and focused on subject-discipline research; b) implemented pedagogy and did subject-discipline research; c) implemented pedagogy; d) implemented pedagogy and did research in both pedagogy and subject-discipline research and e) implemented pedagogy and focused on pedagogy-based research.

From this personal overview of activities in different countries, the evolution of a rich set of pedagogical ideas and a brief look at career paths of persons using pedagogy in different ways, some suggestions are given about personal actions you might take.