To his students, Rob Alexander is known as the \u201cshoe guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associate Professor with the Department of English Language and Literature always begins his first-year course with an unusual assignment. Working in groups, students have to write out instructions on how to tie a shoe in just 250 words.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents think it\u2019s simple, but it\u2019s actually a complicated process,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone has to take their shoe off and put it on the table, the group has to come to a consensus on the process and then take their instructions to the next group to test it. The process takes place over two 90-minute classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The assignment exemplifies Alexander\u2019s approach to teaching, which takes students to the boundary of their knowledge and defamiliarizes things they may take for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great writing exercise because people have to imagine themselves in the place of the person reading it, which is fundamental in writing,\u201d he says. \u201cThey also have to break down a process and explain it in a way that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander\u2019s methods in the classroom saw him recognized as the recipient of the Faculty of Humanities Award for Excellence in Teaching during Brock\u2019s Spring Convocation on Friday, June 17. In addition to being presented the award, Alexander delivered the Humanities Convocation address.<\/p>\n
While students may come to his courses thinking they understand the concept of language or a particular genre of writing, Alexander enjoys taking them to the limits of their own understanding, where they can then begin learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell students, \u2018this is a course where at the end of it you will know less than you did when you came in,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWhat you thought you knew will turn out not to have been knowledge at all but taking something for granted that is really quite complicated and strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course instills a transferrable way of thinking that can be used to break down and analyze many issues and stereotypes in society. It\u2019s not enough to reproduce genres of writing, he says, but to critically understand them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all comes from the shoe tying,\u201d says Alexander. \u201cIt shows the importance of empathy and putting yourself in someone else\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fostering a sense of discovery and curiosity is central to Alexander\u2019s teaching \u2014 and something he embraces for himself. He aims to demonstrate scholarly curiosity, the value of recognizing gaps in one\u2019s knowledge and the excitement of learning something new.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike all the best teachers, Professor Rob Alexander bases his pedagogy on curiosity: his own and that of his students,\u201d says Carol Merriam, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. \u201cHis own curiosity drives what and how he teaches, and that of his students leads them, in turn, to places they have never imagined. He really does transform students\u2019 perspectives. He\u2019s known, especially, for his flexibility and nimbleness in the progress of a course, adapting as necessary and appropriate. He treats teaching as a partnership between teacher and learners.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Alexander, the reward is in seeing the ideas he has taught come back to him through students\u2019 own intellectual processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put the idea there, but they\u2019ve done the work,\u201d he says. \u201cIt might take the summer or even a year or two later, but you start to see the amazing transformation that takes place over a four-year degree.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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