TEACHING & MENTORING
Nancy Clark, PhD, MSN, BScN RN
I adopt an appreciative inquiry and learner centred approach to mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students. This means recognizing that each student has diverse capabilities for engaging in studies that they are passionate about.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I believe that nursing education should inspire and transform students in theoretical understandings that bring to focus epigenetic and social determinants of mental health and substance use. Importantly this must include theoretical underpinning of cultural safety, trauma and violence informed approaches and harm reduction as an overall ethical commitment. I adopt blended philosophical approaches that include critical pedagogical approaches and appreciate inquiry to ground my teaching philosophy across courses I teach. I believe teaching and learning should be transformative and co-created drawing from our lived experience and reflexive questioning.
MENTORSHIP EXAMPLES
I have received many requests for mentorship for students to develop self directed learning either in their doctoral interests and/or preparation for graduate thesis work.
Self-directed learning course
I co developed a self directed learning course with an international student in the Social Dimensions of Health program to develop a reading list and annotated bibliography for their master’s theses which adopts intersectionality as an analytic method.
Learner centered approach
I use blended learner approaches such as flipped classrooms where learners have opportunities to engage with material prior to coming to class or online virtual discussions on Brightspace synchronous sessions.
Trauma informed teaching
Recently, I have been striving to promote student resilience through trauma informed teaching which recognizes that students’ actions are a direct result of their life experiences. This also means that student learning styles must be adapted to both online teaching and in class teaching.
In this regard, I have recorded lectures, e.g. voice over powerpoints. Invited guest speakers for students to engage in ‘real world’ contexts and experts. I also utilize videos and podcasts to engage students in academic and non academic material. I have structured assignments so that students have options available to them that are non-traditional formats such as developing an arts based approach to sharing knowledge through storytelling, narrative or play, and/or video in addition to writing academic papers.
Appreciative enquiry
Finally, I engage in co-authorship and knowledge translation with students to support their academic and career achievements. These are some practical examples that demonstrate my teaching philosophy of inclusion, trauma informed and appreciative inquiry.
STUDENT EVALUATIONS
PEER REVIEWS
Testimonials
Nancy’s teaching style was liberal, she provided a multitude of resources on the Coursepaces website which were useful for assignments and knowledge growth. Regarding feedback on the assignments I found Nancy’s comments to be constructive, positive, direct, simple, and making them easy to understand and follow, she did not leave me guessing when it came to feedback so to speak. Nancy’s feedback was intuitive when it came to the learning activities and showed she was invested in improving my learning by asking questions to help me “dive deeper” to improve my knowledge.
Dr. Clark’s generosity in sharing her expertise and providing mentorship to me is indispensible as a new MSW student and will be critical in building my own scholarship and preparing for practice in the field of refugee mental health.
In NURS 350 community health course, students have the opportunity for both individual contributions to learning and work in a group to develop skills relevant to community health nursing and community development principles of collaboration and cooperation.