In today’s episode of Talk Paper Scissors, we’re continuing our quest of reflecting on a year of virtual learning and teaching. With me is Daryll Wilson, psychology graduate student who has a double major undergraduate degree in neuroscience and biology. I saw Daryll sit on a panel at a learning and teaching conference I was also presenting at in May of this year. I was so impressed by his insights and so interested in his work that I invited him to have a chat about all things learning and teaching in a virtual format.
Daryll studies the psychological side of pedagogy. In our conversation, he addresses some of his challenges of learning online, as well as challenges of other students who he’s worked with this past year. He provides his ideas about the ways in which instructors can help students by offering flexibility; both in how and when students work through course content, as well as with flexible deadlines.
Furthermore, we discuss Daryll’s graduate-level research all about incorporating strategic pauses during lecture and why it’s a promising strategy. He also discusses his insights about lecture best-practices and why he believes that more lecturers don’t build best-practices into their teaching strategies. Finally, a quick note: there’s about 5-minutes of wacky audio in the middle of this recording, but please stick with us. I promise the audio quality improves and it’s a valuable listen.
Welcome Daryll!
About Our Guest:
Daryll is an MA student in the Psychological Science stream. His wide range of experience and expertise has allowed him to pursue diverse research and academic interests. His thesis work aligns more closely with his developed passion for teaching and learning as it examines the effectiveness of a proposed procedure-based teaching intervention for both online and in-person lecture contexts with the aim of optimizing lecturing across academia.
Daryll also serves as a Graduate Educational Developer with Ryerson's Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, developing himself as an educator in both theory (through research) and practice (through professional development). Through all of this, Daryll carries with him his identity and perspectives as a Black scholar, continuing to advocate for equity, change and justice in academia and society writ large.
Music (public domain via freemusicarchive.org): Podington Bear - Limelight
Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle
Episode Cover Art: Canva (remixed by Diana Varma)