Dennis Stavrou

I want students to leave my courses better able to make sense of a difficult question, explain their reasoning, and use what they have learned beyond the classroom. My responsibility is to provide the structure and support that make this possible while asking students to take an active role in their learning. My approach has developed through college teaching, healthcare and public service leadership, and executive coaching. Across these settings, I have learned to begin by listening, make expectations clear, and give people room to develop their own judgment.

At Northern Lights College, I have taught across disciplines, including health administration, political science, workplace communication, and project management. I have also taught Canadian Politics and Government and Women’s Studies online at Coast Mountain College. These experiences have reinforced the value of connecting concepts to questions that students can recognise. In political science, current public issues provide a starting point for examining institutions, power, and competing interpretations. In professional education, a workplace problem can help students consider what a concept means when resources are limited and decisions affect other people. I want students to explain why an approach makes sense and where its limitations lie.

Discussion is central to this work. I value questions that invite students to examine an assumption, consider another perspective, or reconsider an initial answer. Students should be able to disagree with me and with one another, provided they engage respectfully and support their position. Agreement with the instructor is not evidence of learning. The quality of the reasoning matters, including a willingness to recognise uncertainty or change a position when the evidence warrants it. My role is to keep the discussion intellectually demanding while ensuring that participation does not depend on being the most confident person in the room.

Clarity is an important part of inclusion. Learners arrive with different educational experiences and levels of confidence, and many balance their studies with employment, family responsibilities, or distance from campus. I want students to understand what they are learning, why it matters, and how they can demonstrate it. Plain language, accessible materials, and predictable course organisation help make those expectations visible. Where the learning outcomes permit, I favour different ways to prepare and contribute, including reflection before discussion. Teaching in northern Canada also requires humility about whose knowledge is represented. I see an ongoing responsibility to learn from Indigenous colleagues and communities and to examine the assumptions within the materials I select.

My approach to assessment begins with the learning outcomes. The task should allow students to demonstrate the knowledge or judgment the course is intended to develop, and the criteria should be understandable before they begin. I value assessment that asks students to apply an idea, make a reasoned recommendation, or explain a decision in context. Feedback should identify what is working and give the learner a manageable next step. Opportunities to practise and receive feedback before a major assessment are especially important. If several students misunderstand the same requirement, I need to examine the instructions and teaching as well as their responses.

Online learning has become a particular focus of my teaching and scholarship. Through my work with Northern Lights College’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, I led the development of a common D2L Brightspace course-shell approach. The purpose was to make essential course information easier to locate while preserving faculty judgment about teaching and assessment. A student should be able to find an assignment without first having to learn a different navigation system in every course. At the same time, a well-organised course site still needs meaningful activity, instructor presence, and useful feedback. I judge an educational technology by the learning purpose it serves and the barriers it may introduce.

Supporting other educators is an extension of my teaching practice. My work in faculty development, instructional mentoring, and academic leadership draws on a coaching approach: understand the colleague’s goal, ask questions that clarify the difficulty, and identify a practical next step together. My experience with BOPPPS and Instructional Skills Workshop practices has strengthened my interest in purposeful lesson design and reflection on teaching. As Associate Dean, I want faculty to have space to discuss uncertainty and try improvements, alongside clear responsibility for course quality. Respect for their disciplinary expertise is essential to that relationship.

I also need to apply that openness to my own practice. Student feedback, patterns in assessed work, and conversations with colleagues offer different kinds of evidence about a course. My research interests in online course design and quality assurance encourage me to distinguish an intended improvement from a demonstrated result. Implementing a new template or activity is a beginning; I still need to ask whether it helps students learn and what should change next. My goal is to help learners become more capable and independent while remaining willing to learn from them myself.