Cathi Shaw
Cathi Shaw is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. She is also the Media Coordinator for the department and the ENGL 112 Community of Learning Chair. Dr. Shaw is teaching ENGL 112, ENGL 150, and ENGL 203 for the 2021/22 academic year.
Dr. Shaw shared some insights on her teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.
Tell us about your teaching philosophy.
My teaching philosophy links writing and learners. I want to facilitate student learning as they become confident with their communication skills. I’ve always been fascinated by students’ original thoughts and ideas and so many of them struggle to use language to help them express that deep thinking. I love watching my students become more proficient and confident in their communication skills.
What is your teaching area?
I primarily teach composition, rhetoric, and communication. I am a published writer myself and it is really exciting to be able to share my craft with my students. A lot of people think that teaching composition and communication is just a skill-based field but they couldn’t be more incorrect. Rhetoric is one of the original disciplines taught at university and goes back to ancient times. The teaching that happens in the communication and rhetoric classroom isn’t just about learning correct grammar or knowing the correct citation style for one’s discipline. Of course, those are part of what we teach but I see the foundation of the communication and rhetoric classroom to be much more about metacognition and critical reflection than skill development. And there is nothing more exciting than facilitating students as they grow as individuals and learn how to better express their thoughts and ideas.
How did you know you wanted to be a professor?
I never planned to be a professor. I went to grad school when my children were all little and I needed to be around other adults. My master’s work at SFU was so inspiring that when I was urged to apply for the doctoral program, I did it without any real goal in mind. But I found that teaching was something I was pretty good at and before long I was hooked on the experience. I think one of the main reasons I love teaching so much is that I am so interested in other people. I love learning about my students’ plans and goals for their future and figuring out how I can help them on their academic journeys.
What kind of learning opportunities do you offer your students?
A lot of what I do in my classroom involves me stepping out of the way and letting the learning happen. For example, this summer my ENGL 150 students had the option of doing a creative retelling of a fairy tale for their final project in the course. With the creative project they had to write a critical reflection, explaining the choices they made when they put on their creator’s hat. For that assignment to be successful, I had to trust that my students were able to synthesize what they had learned in our classroom and apply it to a creative project. Essentially, I had to facilitate their learning but also give them the space to take risks. Because being creative is always about risk taking. I was so impressed by the final projects and the depth of analysis and thought that went into these creations that I have put together a class blog to showcase the students’ work.