Teaching Dossier
“The well frog loved his well. Every day he would marvel at the depth, clarity, and coldness of the water. One day another frog appeared in the well. He was a friendly sort of frog and both of them began to compare their water histories. The new frog was an ocean frog. He said to the well frog, “Why don’t you come and see the ocean. I have seen your water well and have not found it to be pleasing.” The well frog replied, “Is the ocean as big as the quarter of my well?” The ocean frog nodded. The well frog persisted, “Is the ocean as big as half of my well?” The ocean frog nodded again. Finally the well frog agreed to see the ocean. Together they hopped through the woods, over hills and finally they came to the sandy shore of an ocean. “Here it is!” exclaimed the ocean frog “What do you think?” The well frog looked from left to right and from right to left and then exploded.
This story captures the privilege of teaching at the University of Alberta. It is a place of dynamic interchanges where new knowledge is created, and people of all cultures gather together for a common good. The story is also a metaphor for how I view teaching and learning – an explosion of possibilities.
Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
I am a passionate, enthusiastic, master teacher. I view research, teaching, community service and administration as intersecting lines, the point of convergence being the student. Gage (1972) makes a distinction between theories of learning and teaching; the first pertaining to ways in which a person learns and the latter to ways in which a teacher influences a person to learn.
I believe a teacher must know ways of learning and teaching. This means applying learning theories, teaching theories, adult and student development theories; mastering education-based competencies such as assessment, intervention, and evaluation; and fully committing to creating a climate of trust, respect, safety, and debate in learning and teaching interactions. Teachers must be ethical, focused, organized, and learners themselves. They must also be role models for critical thinking skills and nurturers of encouragement and hope.
Teaching is an interactive process, which incites critical feedback, ongoing assessment, being on the edge, risk taking, learning new technologies, and content expertise. The following quote from a graduated undergraduate nursing student demonstrates my beliefs and actions. “Dr. Yonge is the epitome of a professor. She expresses genuine interest in her students, and it is obvious by her inspiring words and actions that she believes each person possesses the potential to be and achieve the extraordinary. Her beliefs in my abilities as a nurse, and as a person, evoked much of the self-confidence I carry today. Continually optimistic, Dr. Yonge conveyed to me that the present is mine to mold, and it is my duty to continually challenge and educate myself.”
Recognition of Others
A teacher stands on the shoulders of others. I credit the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, particularly JP Das, my thesis supervisor, for teaching me about the theories of learning. Courses and practicums taken in counseling psychology helped direct me to understand the dynamics of change. Change is growth, experiences, discovery, or as Carl Rogers states, “a process of becoming” (1961, p. 122). In the area of nursing, I experienced and facilitated change at patient, family, and community levels. Through reflection, writing, questioning, and interacting with other scholars, I saw my own constant change as part of student change, and student change as part of societal change. I have had, and continue to have, a number of mentors ranging from my third grade teacher, to academics and administrators. It is now my turn to mentor and I have mentees that I meet regularly, both within my discipline, and external to the discipline and the U of A. I believe the environment shapes an academic and that the U of A provides a vibrant learning community and outstanding educational opportunities for all to grow. Mentorship is part of this vibrant learning community and we know those who are mentored grow in their confidence twice as fast in half the time compared to a non-mentored worker.
Recognition from Others
In 1971, I received an award for Bedside Nursing. I did not realize then that my abilities would be recognized with prizes, awards, and scholarships throughout my progression from student to academic. My most prestigious teaching award was the 3M Fellow given in 1993, the inaugural Senior Women Administrators of Canada award for competence in administration and leadership in 2010, nomination for the YWCA Women of the Year in 2014, Centennial award given to the top 100 nurses in Alberta 2016 and the Vargo Teaching Chair in 2010. However, the most meaningful recognition was when my peers organized the Dr. Olive Yonge Teaching and Scholarship Day, an annual conference highlighting teaching and learning. Now in its eighth year, the peer-reviewed format has not wavered. Each presenter has one hour to present on a topic related to teaching and learning. They are discouraged from using PowerPoint and must submit critical thinking questions; thus the participants always leave the day having had the opportunity to be fully engaged. Many graduate students use the day for poster presentations and the format gives them a chance to present at a safe conference. There is also a Dr. Olive Yonge Scholarship for a graduate student who is studying in the area of teaching and learning. This too was started by my peers.
Assessment of Teaching Activities
Beginning in 1982, I have taught undergraduate nursing courses in Fall, Winter and Spring terms for over 10 years. I taught 16 hours a week in the clinical area for Fall and Winter and full time for six weeks of clinical in the Spring. I also lectured 100 students for 30 to 36 hours per term, and initiated, coordinated and taught a preceptorship program in Spring Session for 100 students, with each having two placements. In 1989 I obtained my doctorate and began working toward graduate supervision and obtaining research grants. In 2005 I left the faculty to become the Vice Provost (Academic Programs) and returned to the faculty seven years later, only to teach one and one half years before returning to the Provost Office to first serve as the Deputy Provost and eventually as the Interim Provost. While serving as Deputy Provost I taught two courses.
In the undergraduate area I have taught psychiatric mental health nursing, inter professional nursing and becoming a professional nurse. In the graduate program I have taught leadership, trends and issues, philosophy and all three courses in the teaching and learning stream. The course numbers are: N366, N367, N464, N494, N495, N490, N340, N403, N404, InterD 410, N502, N505, N540, N560, N586, and N556. I have also taught a number of independent studies and mentored WISEST students. I have developed new courses starting with preceptorship course in the early eighties. See Appendix One for more details.
Teaching Methods
I have taught using many forms of delivery, including lecture, clinical teaching, seminar, WEB CT and then switched to Moodle. My teaching evaluations are always 4.7 to 5.0, regardless of the course evaluation rating, the numbers of students in the course, or the structure of the course (CBL or lecture). These course ratings do not provide useable feedback on how I can improve, so I use other methods for feedback such as the quick cue card, qualitative writing, one page surveys, and direct verbal feedback sometimes after every three hour class and always at midterm. Peers and a UTS (now CTL) peer consultant have evaluated my teaching.
I am a curious person and teacher, and thus I am always searching for new ways of teaching. On a micro level, I have developed games, interactive journals, videotaping assignments, photo voice and numerous exercises to illustrate concepts. As an example of the latter, when teaching what it was like to have auditory hallucinations if you had schizophrenia, I used a role-play involving the entire lecture class and within minutes showed the impact of the hallucinations on the patient and nurse.
On a macro level, aside from creating new courses, I devised a mental health program for third year nursing students using what was then Alex Taylor Community School as their teaching site. Until then, a school had not been used as a teaching site for nursing students in the psychiatric mental health rotation. I was always on site with the students for 16 hours a week. They were able to grasp the role of the nurse in a school setting but some of their parents had to be educated. Since then, this program has been modified for different contexts and implemented in various nursing programs across Canada.
I believe in disseminating my work and that of the students, both graduate and undergraduate. I coauthored a book with a former graduate student, Nursing preceptorship: Connecting practice & education (2004). This is one of the first books directed to preceptors in nursing and it has been received with enthusiasm. One educator commented to the authors, ‘finally preceptors are being credited and acknowledged for their invaluable contribution to the profession. Thank-YOU’!
Working with Others
I was instrumental in forming Querito in early 2001, a group of eight nursing faculty interested in teaching and learning. We devised a research project and completed the first inventory of nursing education research articles published between 1991 and 2000, followed by a systematic literature review. This group still exists in the faculty but has been transitioned into one of the FoN’s four Areas of Excellence and now includes contract and sessional members. It is this group that organizes the annual Dr. Olive Yonge Teaching and Scholarship Day.
I enjoy working with graduate students and new faculty as well as working with community partners (See CV for presentations and workshops). I have co-taught with graduate students, been invited to attend and assess lectures by new faculty, assisted TAs with teaching techniques, and aided new faculty in numerous ways, from how to book equipment to reviewing their Faculty Evaluation reports. I have also given numerous informal presentations to teams of graduate students and faculty on grant writing, scholarship applications, planning a research program, making career academic decisions, finding balance between academia and home, and maintaining perspective.
In 2013, I brought the concept of Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) to the FoN. The FLC meets for 1 ½ hours over lunch six to eight times over the term. Members of the FLC typically have had a focus such as increasing learning through the use of the arts, what is it like to have a student with behaviours in clinical that are borderline, or how to have a caring environment. My current FLC is for all pre-tenured faculty to assist them with enhancing their teaching and learning abilities, acculturate them to the U of A, and assist them in forming bonds with peers. I organized a three day writing retreat for pre-tenured and tenured faculty. A sample of the evaluation comments from the writing retreat is:“It was an opportunity to come along, join in, feel welcomed and comfortable, I felt supported by the people around and the environment- it felt like the right place, time and people”.
Graduate Teaching
In 2004, I became the leader for the Teaching Learning Stream within the MN program. This stream had one course developed and I developed two more in the areas of evidence-based teaching and philosophy. There were over 40 graduate students in this stream that we supported, advised, and just enjoyed. Many colleges, such as Grant MacEwan College (now Grant MacEwan University), were insisting faculty obtain graduate degrees in nursing and they came to the UofA. One of the mandatory courses for all MN students is a general philosophy course (N502). The teaching material is dense and there are many demands made on the students to think deeply. The first time I taught this course, one of the students in the midterm evaluation wrote, “Every time I come to class, I feel uncomfortable - I feel like I didn’t understand the articles, that I am not keeping up with the class, that I have NO understanding of what anyone is trying to say and then after I leave each class I say aloud “WOW” what an experience, look where I was taken, I could have never done that on my own, what a neat experience.”
Most graduate students I have supervised stay in touch which means continuous requests for letters of reference. The following story is deeply meaningful to me. I have positive regard for each student’s abilities and never want to ‘blow them to warmth with my personal research agenda’ while recognizing they are working in my program of research.
One morning...I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree just as the butterfly was making a hole in the case preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it up. I warmed it up as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out and I shall never forget the horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole body to unfold them. Bending over it I tried to help it with my breath. In vain…. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.
-Nikos Kazantzakis in Zorba the Greek
This story captures the privilege of teaching at the University of Alberta. It is a place of dynamic interchanges where new knowledge is created, and people of all cultures gather together for a common good. The story is also a metaphor for how I view teaching and learning – an explosion of possibilities.
Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
I am a passionate, enthusiastic, master teacher. I view research, teaching, community service and administration as intersecting lines, the point of convergence being the student. Gage (1972) makes a distinction between theories of learning and teaching; the first pertaining to ways in which a person learns and the latter to ways in which a teacher influences a person to learn.
I believe a teacher must know ways of learning and teaching. This means applying learning theories, teaching theories, adult and student development theories; mastering education-based competencies such as assessment, intervention, and evaluation; and fully committing to creating a climate of trust, respect, safety, and debate in learning and teaching interactions. Teachers must be ethical, focused, organized, and learners themselves. They must also be role models for critical thinking skills and nurturers of encouragement and hope.
Teaching is an interactive process, which incites critical feedback, ongoing assessment, being on the edge, risk taking, learning new technologies, and content expertise. The following quote from a graduated undergraduate nursing student demonstrates my beliefs and actions. “Dr. Yonge is the epitome of a professor. She expresses genuine interest in her students, and it is obvious by her inspiring words and actions that she believes each person possesses the potential to be and achieve the extraordinary. Her beliefs in my abilities as a nurse, and as a person, evoked much of the self-confidence I carry today. Continually optimistic, Dr. Yonge conveyed to me that the present is mine to mold, and it is my duty to continually challenge and educate myself.”
Recognition of Others
A teacher stands on the shoulders of others. I credit the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, particularly JP Das, my thesis supervisor, for teaching me about the theories of learning. Courses and practicums taken in counseling psychology helped direct me to understand the dynamics of change. Change is growth, experiences, discovery, or as Carl Rogers states, “a process of becoming” (1961, p. 122). In the area of nursing, I experienced and facilitated change at patient, family, and community levels. Through reflection, writing, questioning, and interacting with other scholars, I saw my own constant change as part of student change, and student change as part of societal change. I have had, and continue to have, a number of mentors ranging from my third grade teacher, to academics and administrators. It is now my turn to mentor and I have mentees that I meet regularly, both within my discipline, and external to the discipline and the U of A. I believe the environment shapes an academic and that the U of A provides a vibrant learning community and outstanding educational opportunities for all to grow. Mentorship is part of this vibrant learning community and we know those who are mentored grow in their confidence twice as fast in half the time compared to a non-mentored worker.
Recognition from Others
In 1971, I received an award for Bedside Nursing. I did not realize then that my abilities would be recognized with prizes, awards, and scholarships throughout my progression from student to academic. My most prestigious teaching award was the 3M Fellow given in 1993, the inaugural Senior Women Administrators of Canada award for competence in administration and leadership in 2010, nomination for the YWCA Women of the Year in 2014, Centennial award given to the top 100 nurses in Alberta 2016 and the Vargo Teaching Chair in 2010. However, the most meaningful recognition was when my peers organized the Dr. Olive Yonge Teaching and Scholarship Day, an annual conference highlighting teaching and learning. Now in its eighth year, the peer-reviewed format has not wavered. Each presenter has one hour to present on a topic related to teaching and learning. They are discouraged from using PowerPoint and must submit critical thinking questions; thus the participants always leave the day having had the opportunity to be fully engaged. Many graduate students use the day for poster presentations and the format gives them a chance to present at a safe conference. There is also a Dr. Olive Yonge Scholarship for a graduate student who is studying in the area of teaching and learning. This too was started by my peers.
Assessment of Teaching Activities
Beginning in 1982, I have taught undergraduate nursing courses in Fall, Winter and Spring terms for over 10 years. I taught 16 hours a week in the clinical area for Fall and Winter and full time for six weeks of clinical in the Spring. I also lectured 100 students for 30 to 36 hours per term, and initiated, coordinated and taught a preceptorship program in Spring Session for 100 students, with each having two placements. In 1989 I obtained my doctorate and began working toward graduate supervision and obtaining research grants. In 2005 I left the faculty to become the Vice Provost (Academic Programs) and returned to the faculty seven years later, only to teach one and one half years before returning to the Provost Office to first serve as the Deputy Provost and eventually as the Interim Provost. While serving as Deputy Provost I taught two courses.
In the undergraduate area I have taught psychiatric mental health nursing, inter professional nursing and becoming a professional nurse. In the graduate program I have taught leadership, trends and issues, philosophy and all three courses in the teaching and learning stream. The course numbers are: N366, N367, N464, N494, N495, N490, N340, N403, N404, InterD 410, N502, N505, N540, N560, N586, and N556. I have also taught a number of independent studies and mentored WISEST students. I have developed new courses starting with preceptorship course in the early eighties. See Appendix One for more details.
Teaching Methods
I have taught using many forms of delivery, including lecture, clinical teaching, seminar, WEB CT and then switched to Moodle. My teaching evaluations are always 4.7 to 5.0, regardless of the course evaluation rating, the numbers of students in the course, or the structure of the course (CBL or lecture). These course ratings do not provide useable feedback on how I can improve, so I use other methods for feedback such as the quick cue card, qualitative writing, one page surveys, and direct verbal feedback sometimes after every three hour class and always at midterm. Peers and a UTS (now CTL) peer consultant have evaluated my teaching.
I am a curious person and teacher, and thus I am always searching for new ways of teaching. On a micro level, I have developed games, interactive journals, videotaping assignments, photo voice and numerous exercises to illustrate concepts. As an example of the latter, when teaching what it was like to have auditory hallucinations if you had schizophrenia, I used a role-play involving the entire lecture class and within minutes showed the impact of the hallucinations on the patient and nurse.
On a macro level, aside from creating new courses, I devised a mental health program for third year nursing students using what was then Alex Taylor Community School as their teaching site. Until then, a school had not been used as a teaching site for nursing students in the psychiatric mental health rotation. I was always on site with the students for 16 hours a week. They were able to grasp the role of the nurse in a school setting but some of their parents had to be educated. Since then, this program has been modified for different contexts and implemented in various nursing programs across Canada.
I believe in disseminating my work and that of the students, both graduate and undergraduate. I coauthored a book with a former graduate student, Nursing preceptorship: Connecting practice & education (2004). This is one of the first books directed to preceptors in nursing and it has been received with enthusiasm. One educator commented to the authors, ‘finally preceptors are being credited and acknowledged for their invaluable contribution to the profession. Thank-YOU’!
Working with Others
I was instrumental in forming Querito in early 2001, a group of eight nursing faculty interested in teaching and learning. We devised a research project and completed the first inventory of nursing education research articles published between 1991 and 2000, followed by a systematic literature review. This group still exists in the faculty but has been transitioned into one of the FoN’s four Areas of Excellence and now includes contract and sessional members. It is this group that organizes the annual Dr. Olive Yonge Teaching and Scholarship Day.
I enjoy working with graduate students and new faculty as well as working with community partners (See CV for presentations and workshops). I have co-taught with graduate students, been invited to attend and assess lectures by new faculty, assisted TAs with teaching techniques, and aided new faculty in numerous ways, from how to book equipment to reviewing their Faculty Evaluation reports. I have also given numerous informal presentations to teams of graduate students and faculty on grant writing, scholarship applications, planning a research program, making career academic decisions, finding balance between academia and home, and maintaining perspective.
In 2013, I brought the concept of Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) to the FoN. The FLC meets for 1 ½ hours over lunch six to eight times over the term. Members of the FLC typically have had a focus such as increasing learning through the use of the arts, what is it like to have a student with behaviours in clinical that are borderline, or how to have a caring environment. My current FLC is for all pre-tenured faculty to assist them with enhancing their teaching and learning abilities, acculturate them to the U of A, and assist them in forming bonds with peers. I organized a three day writing retreat for pre-tenured and tenured faculty. A sample of the evaluation comments from the writing retreat is:“It was an opportunity to come along, join in, feel welcomed and comfortable, I felt supported by the people around and the environment- it felt like the right place, time and people”.
Graduate Teaching
In 2004, I became the leader for the Teaching Learning Stream within the MN program. This stream had one course developed and I developed two more in the areas of evidence-based teaching and philosophy. There were over 40 graduate students in this stream that we supported, advised, and just enjoyed. Many colleges, such as Grant MacEwan College (now Grant MacEwan University), were insisting faculty obtain graduate degrees in nursing and they came to the UofA. One of the mandatory courses for all MN students is a general philosophy course (N502). The teaching material is dense and there are many demands made on the students to think deeply. The first time I taught this course, one of the students in the midterm evaluation wrote, “Every time I come to class, I feel uncomfortable - I feel like I didn’t understand the articles, that I am not keeping up with the class, that I have NO understanding of what anyone is trying to say and then after I leave each class I say aloud “WOW” what an experience, look where I was taken, I could have never done that on my own, what a neat experience.”
Most graduate students I have supervised stay in touch which means continuous requests for letters of reference. The following story is deeply meaningful to me. I have positive regard for each student’s abilities and never want to ‘blow them to warmth with my personal research agenda’ while recognizing they are working in my program of research.
One morning...I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree just as the butterfly was making a hole in the case preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it up. I warmed it up as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out and I shall never forget the horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole body to unfold them. Bending over it I tried to help it with my breath. In vain…. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.
-Nikos Kazantzakis in Zorba the Greek
Teaching and learning are in my life blood. I feel so fortunate to have my vocation and profession to be one in the same.