This is how I teach

What do you like most about teaching in your discipline?

Teaching is exhilarating - I never feel more energised than after a class that has gone well. I want my students to feel that same way too. A long time ago I used to work in France as a tour guide, pointing out cathedrals and castles, herding eager travellers onto buses, out of hotels, and into pre-booked ticket queues. Today I’m a tour guide of a different kind except it’s not just the Eiffel Tower and the pain au chocolat that I talk about, but French grammar, culture, and literature. Travel changes lives - so too does learning a language. Thanks to this previous career, I am able to scaffold linguistic and cultural knowledge around my French courses.  For me teaching is about committing yourself to something you love and not hesitating to share that passion. And so here I am teaching French language, literature, grammar, film, art, history, politics, food and music to first-year beginners, PhD completers, and everyone in between.  And because no class is ever the same, each day throws up new and exciting learning opportunities for us all. Since 2019, I’ve also taught Film Studies. What could be more exciting than teaching film? Who wouldn’t want to become fluent in the most powerful language in human history: the power of the moving image?

How would you describe your approach to teaching/your teaching philosophy?

I scaffold my teaching style and curriculum design across multiple Film and French courses around a ‘wellbeing pedagogy’. I build safe learning environments that support students’ mental health and boost resilience, foster autonomy, motivation and sense of purpose, and I design learning activities that help students connect with their peers. This pedagogy actively embeds four interlocking ‘wellbeing essentials’ into my teaching: Belonging (being accepted and valued by others); Relationships (reciprocal trust, reliance, and caring); Autonomy (tasks and goals that are self-chosen and authentic); and Competence (empowering students to manage challenges).  The hope is that these values combine to create a strong sense of ‘autonomous motivation’, whereby activities inside and outside the classroom are undertaken because they are intrinsically interesting and satisfying. Teaching is, at heart, an empathic activity.  Getting to know my students means I can help to connect them.  Direct forms of encouragement towards and engagement with students who may feel socially and/or academically isolated place values of acceptance, caring, and trust – as well as fun and enthusiasm – at the heart of my teaching practice.

What is your favourite way to use technology to enhance learning?

I’m going to give three examples.  Firstly, I use interactive quizzes (such as Mentimeter and Kahoot) to test key concepts and triage possible content gaps.  These quizzes encourage friendly competitiveness and peer support.  Secondly, I have become an obsessive fan of the ‘Media Comment’ feedback facility in MyUni: for each submitted assignment I’ll record a short video for students outlining three things I liked about their assignment, two things they need to improve for next time, and one thing for them to think about before the next class.  This video feedback loop is so effective: it provides a face and a voice to feedback and fosters strong links between myself and my students.  Thirdly, I have become a passionate advocate of the audio-visual essay as an alternative to the traditional written dissertation.  My Film students can ‘write’ their final essay by instead re-editing and recombining images and sounds from pre-existing film works and then overlaying their own thoughts, ideas, arguments and analysis.  Students have really appreciated this opportunity to mix creative work and academic rigour, and the end results have been fabulous to watch!

How does your teaching help prepare students for their future?

Students in 2022 need multiple skills to prepare them for future job needs: critical evaluation, adaptability, flexibility, research, and collaborative work. So, my teaching has three main objectives:

1) to facilitate the appreciation for complex, big-picture issues inherent in contemporary film, language and cultural studies;

2) to provide fundamental knowledge and tools applicable to students’ future academic and professional careers; and

3) to enhance self-awareness of cultural institutions and their impact on individuals, communities, and the world at large. 

Take FILM 3002 - Culture, Curation and Cinephilia: The Adelaide Film Festival, for instance. I’ve designed a course that blends theory and practice, links students to creative industry partners, and builds networks of engagement and connectivity across the city’s cultural hubs. Weeks 1-6 (on campus) focuses on the history and theory of film festivals; Weeks 7-12 (off-site) ‘embeds’ students in the Adelaide Film Festival, where they see the processes behind the curation, exhibition and distribution of the films selected to appear at the festival and the logistical challenges at play during the planning and delivery phase. 

Afterwards, students opt to go on a 2-week internship at the SA Film Corporation or volunteer as film previewers. So, students have gained professional and curatorial experiences, and have seen at first-hand how the theoretical knowledge and practical skills learnt in my course can ready them to join the arts-centred workforce.

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