Ms Anika Meyer

Lecturer for:

INL 120 – Information Science: Organization and representation of information

INL 130 - Information Science: Personal information management

2018 - Received the Teaching and Learning Award for the Department of Information Science

Questioning to inspire creativity, critical thinking, and curiosity

I believe that to teach is to motivate - to instil in students the act of asking questions to prompt creativity, critical thinking, reflection, and curiosity.

The central goal of my teaching philosophy is to be creative, integrate technology and be flexible to the type of environment (e.g. online or face-to-face small intimate classroom or large lecture hall) and the type of student (e.g. quick learners or struggling learners) I encounter. Moreover, a creative and hybrid learning environment can facilitate interaction, question-asking, support sense-making and guide students to apply the theory they have learned to real-world scenarios.

Since the start of my academic career, I have been committed to pursuing creative teaching strategies and assessment opportunities. For example, in INL 130 (Personal information management), we have revamped all the practical content to incorporate the various Google products (e.g., Google Forms, Google Drive and Google Books.). Furthermore, INL 130 has integrated a range of ClickUP tools to support assessment activities such as discussion boards, online quizzes, online assessments and online grading. We have also incorporated different diagnostic (e.g., quick check-in quizzes and Q&A sessions before tests) and formative assessment (e.g., exit slips and online quizzes) opportunities before and after each course theme. Furthermore, we have integrated several question-asking activities (e.g., mind-mapping, blogs, storyboards and Q&A sessions) for a better inquiry-led approach in both my first-year modules (e.g., INL 130 and INL 120). In INL 120 (Information organisation and representation), we have restructured and revamped the HTML website design practicals and assessment opportunities to be more hands-on and creative. We have also incorporated social media platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter) to promote student inquiry (question-asking), discussion and collaboration.

Our latest creative idea is to produce reflection videos on Instagram for our INL 120 students. These videos will be 3-5 minute IGTV video clips to reflect on the content learned the previous week.

Finally, I believe that passion constitutes an essential element of teaching and learning. Teaching with passion and connecting with students provide the opportunity to instil passion in students in a manner that will direct them to engage with the subject matter actively. These beliefs branch from my research in creativity, spaces of creativity (i.e. makerspaces), third space theory, effective question-asking behaviour, and guided-inquiry theory (from Prof Carol Kuhlthau and Dr Leslie Maniotes).