Cory Legassic selected as DALChampion
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Dawson Active Learning Community (DALC) has named 10 of its faculty members 鈥淒ALChampions鈥� in honour of their extraordinary contributions to innovating the classroom experience.
DALC is a group of teachers from various disciplines that strives to improve teaching and learning through Active Learning (AL) pedagogical practices, and the development, design, and effective use of complementary educational technologies.
This week, we asked DALChampion Cory Legassic, the Coordinator of Dawson’s New School about his experience with the community of practice.
Tell me about your experience with DALC. What has been the best part?
DALC has been one of the most supportive and creative spaces for collaboration across disciplines in my experience. DALC encourages playfulness while staying committed to student growth. DALC has changed the landscape of teaching at Dawson with physical and virtual spaces and practical skills grounded in meaningful pedagogical innovations.
How do you think active learning pedagogy enriches the learning experience?
I am drawn to active learning鈥攊n all its forms鈥攂ecause it helps teachers (as facilitators) mentor students to turn to each other for deep learning. I am committed to relational approaches to teaching and learning because it鈥檚 healthy relationships that are going to transform our communities into places that take care of everyone.
How has adopting an active learning approach informed your practice?
New School has been doing active learning for almost 50 years. DALC has helped me bridge the best of New School pedagogies with other communities of practice and pedagogical projects. Specifically, having mentorship in high-tech active learning environments has helped me bring some of the New School pedagogies into new learning environments. DALC has welcomed my passion for working on the critical affective dimensions of active learning. An important piece of active learning has to be supporting students by being comfortable with being uncomfortable鈥攚hile recognizing the structures of power that shape our classrooms.
