Joyce G. Asing-Cashman, PhD

I embrace active learning activities and field-based experiences because they stimulate the creation of a community of learners, discussions, and cooperative problem solving and lay the groundwork for life-long collaborative practice. I love teaching when the learning in my classroom is evident: When I can sense it in the quickening pace of a discussion or a student’s visible delight in using newly learned knowledge and vocabulary; when I can hear the excitement in students’ feedback and comments about mastering skills that “made a difference” or theories that transform practices and perspectives. As an educator, I am responsible for knowing who my learners are, what kinds of knowledge and experience they bring to the group, and what they want to achieve so that I can adapt a curriculum that fits their needs and yet leaves enough room to accommodate topics that emerge from group discovery. By assessing where my students are with respect to our mutual learning goals, I can provide the scaffolding they need to build connections between what they already know and the new knowledge they seek to create.