June 12, 2024 • 17 mins
Have a question or want to share some thoughts? Send us a text message!
Explore innovative teaching practices in higher education with Dr. David Emmanuel Gray, an Associate Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo. Discover how Dr. Gray elevates academic integrity and career competencies through unique methods like having students sign an academic integrity code. His emphasis on teamwork and writing skills prepares students for future careers, while his approach to experiential learning and community engagement enriches their academic experience. Gain insights into how diverse perspectives can shape discussions in your courses, fostering a vibrant learning environment.
Listen in as we spotlight the new Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program at UB and its powerful community engagement projects. Learn about the Social Impact Fellows Program, where graduate students collaborate with local nonprofits to tackle organizational challenges, resulting in personal and professional growth. We'll also explore the evolution of education through the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, alongside modern technological advancements and innovative teaching methods like specification (specs) grading. This episode delves into how these elements are reshaping the higher education landscape, ensuring students are well-equipped for the future.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maggie Grady (00:03):
Welcome to the Teaching Table, a monthly
podcast where we'll engage ininsightful conversations about
the dynamic world of teaching,learning and technology within
higher education.
Brought to you by theUniversity at Buffalo, Office of
Curriculum Assessment andTeaching Transformation, and
made possible by the generoussupport of the Genteels'
Excellence in Teaching Fund.
T his podcast aims to shedlight on the pathways to
(00:26):
educational excellence.
I'm your host, M aggie Grady, aL earning D esigner in CATT.
Today, I'm delighted to bejoined by Dr.
David Emmanuel Gray, A ssociateTeaching Professor of
Philosophy, as we delve intoincorporating experiential
learning and communityengagement into their courses.
Welcome, D avid, and thank youfor joining me.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (00:46):
Hi Maggie, thank you for having me
here on your podcast.
I love talking about this stuff, so, yes, thi s is gonna be a
great conversation.
Maggie Grady (00:53):
Good, w elcome.
In conjunction with NationalHonesty Day and UB's Office of
Academic Integrity, you wererecognized as one of the five
individuals who promoted aculture of integrity at UB
during the 2022 and 2023academic year.
You were also one of three UBfaculty recognized by UB's
(01:13):
Career Design Center as a 2023career champion.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about those
accomplishments?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (03:25):
I'm originally from Montana.
I am very embarrassed to talkabout good things that have
happened to me, but I will do mybest.
With the academic integrityrecognition, what they had told
me in their little write- upwhen I received the award is
that they really appreciatedwhat I was doing.
You know, I'm a philosopher.
I care about ethics, I careabout values.
These are what I teach mystudents, and so I see academic
integrity as an extension ofthat, as something that you know
.
It's just not an add-on or thelast page of the syllabus.
It's something I need to bevery reflective and conscious of
how I'm bringing it into myclasses.
So, for instance, I have anacademic integrity code that the
students are expected to readand sign at the beginning of the
semester.
Every time they turn anassignment who was it?
Just write down their name andthank them at the end.
I try to treat this as academicintegrity should be natural in
my profession.
We cite our sources, we writethank you's to the please who
helped us.
There's nothing shameful orwrong about that.
So I just try to be open aboutacademic integrity.
It's real, it's something weall do, and I do other things in
my classes, I provide what Icall philosopher's stones to the
students.
This allows them to turn inassignments late or use makeup
for missed work, things likethat, that try to take the
pressure off them so they don'tfeel like they have to resort to
other things.
Being the career designchampion, that was pretty cool,
because I've been working with acolleague of mine I know you
know her Maggie, Jessica Kruger.
We've been both very consciousin trying to integrate core
career competencies into ourclasses.
Jessica has talked a lot aboutthis in another work and we chat
a lot about it too.
The idea of the career corecompetencies in our courses is
just we're trying to showstudents about how they're doing
in the class is actually givingthem the skills they need for
having a job in the real worldout there.
I'm a philosophy professor.
Students are like well, I'm notgoing to use this, I'm not
going to read Plato when I'mworking as an investment banker
or whatever.
And I'm like, okay, you know.
So I try to emphasize that.
True, but like when studentsare, I have students who do lots
of group work in the class so,while they're like paired up and
about a paper or something elsethat they've read, I will often
(03:46):
pause and remind them hey look,you guys are talking to each
other, That's teamwork, that'ssomething you need to be really
good at.
When you're out working on ajob, or when I'm grading papers,
when I return them, I like tosay things like well, look,
writing.
This is what employers want.
Right now.
We live in a world wherewriting is so important.
If you are a good writer, youwill be way better, way more
(04:06):
persuasive, way more compelling,way more employable if you know
how to write for yourself andwrite in a very well fashion,
from email to reports, memos, etcetera.
So that was why we were beingrecognized.
Because, yeah, me and Jessica,we've both been working very
closely with the Career DesignCenter to do this in a very
intentional way of bringingcareer competencies to our
(04:28):
students.
Maggie Grady (04:29):
Right.
So I'd love to learn aboutdifferent learning styles and
teaching approaches, and I'msure our listeners do as well,
and so thank you for sharingthat.
When I reached out to you andasked you if you would join me
as a guest on the Teaching Tablepodcast, you did not hesitate,
and again thank you for that.
My preparation for recordingthe podcast entails finding
(04:49):
dynamic educators who areexploring innovative teaching
practices and initiatives, so Inaturally thought of Dr.
David Emmanuel Gray, and I seethat you're interested in
incorporating experientiallearning and community
engagement into your courses.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about that
initiative?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (05:08):
I've always, from early on, tried to
incorporate experientiallearning into my courses, but
understood very broadly asmeaning like I just want
students to be learning not justfrom me but first and foremost,
at the beginning, from eachother and through discussions
that they have in their classes.
Because I teach philosophy, Iteach, like, say, courses on
political philosophy.
Oh wow, we have students withlots of different views about
(05:29):
that in our classrooms and it'sreally important to me that I
don't want to be teaching theProfessor Gray view of politics
or whatever.
Right I want them to know, lLook, I'm offering perspectives,
different ones, sure, but theyhave to look at these and then
talk with each other about whatthey mean, because they are
going to have their own viewsand own life experiences, and it
can, I won't go into details.
The conversations can getrather wild at times, and but I
(05:52):
tell them, you know, becausesometimes things do get heated
not often, but now and then theydo and I just I do pause and
say, look, hey, we all have, weall have different perspectives
here, but that's the experienceof dealing with other people and
we have to learn how tonavigate these differences with
each other, because this is likethe core principle.
If I have a core principle oflearning, especially when it
comes to philosophy, ethics,political philosophy, it's that
(06:14):
we don't live alone in thisworld.
We are not hermits, we don'tlive in isolation, and so I
think the primary ethical taskof our lives is to figure out
how to secure the legitimatecooperation of each other so we
can work together to accomplishgoals.
If we don't have that,everything just falls apart.
So, anyway, that's a lot ofwhat I say, but I want to
introduce myself to theexperience of philosophy, the
(06:36):
experience of ethics, theexperiences of these things, and
that begins in the classroom,with them just talking to each
other.
Now we can broaden out to theway that UB likes to do it.
It's like also, we want them totaking the things they're
learning in our classrooms andstart applying them outside of
that classroom.
That can be scary at first.
So what I usually do in mycourses if they're maybe not
quite ready to go out on theirown and do this stuff I like to
(06:58):
invite out guest speakers tocome into the classroom.
So when I teach business ethics, I love to get people who do
corporate social responsibility,who you know this is, t heir
job is to make positive socialimpact on behalf of their
companies and organizations, andI haven't come in to speak
about problems they face and howthey overcome those problems as
part of their job.
The students love it and I'vehad several students who are now
(07:20):
pursuing careers in corporatesocial responsibility.
But that's the first step.
You bring these people in andnow we can go a step deeper.
Now I've brought these verygifted professionals into my
classroom.
I then will always pull themaside either before or after
they speak and say hey, you know, I have some really interested
students here and what you'redoing over there.
Would you maybe be able to setup an internship for them?
(07:41):
Now, y ou don't have to paythem.
Now they're happy, they'relistening.
Now you do not have to paythese students.
They they will take a classfrom me, and but that class will
be just them sending me acouple updates now and then
about the internship, and thenyou get to mentor and help the
student.
Just send me a report at theend to make sure that everything
went as planned.
But the students love it.
(08:01):
They get an internship, theyget course credit for it, h elps
them graduate.
The business gets giftedstudents who are working for
free.
So that's the next stage is nowtrying to find opportunities
for my students to go in tothese different places, and a
lot of this culminates when Iteach this.
I'm a faculty member for thePhilosophy, P politics and
Economics program.
(08:22):
That's the PPE program that wehave here at UB.
It's a brand new major and so Inow teach the capstone course
for that, that all the majorsand minors have to take now, and
this is a strictlyproject-based course.
Here's the time now where Iliterally they have one
assignment all semester withmilestones that just help them
along the way, and they're onetask.
It's very simple, theinstructions.
(08:43):
Take a moment to read.
It says make the world better.
That is their semester-longproject, each team.
I put them on teams becausethey got to learn teamwork again
.
I put them on teams and I sayyou can do whatever you want,
interpret this however you want,and each team gets a thousand
dollar budget that will then, ifthey have expenses they can pay
for.
Fun fact, most of the teamsdon't even use the money,
(09:03):
because let me tell you what wehave found in these projects and
my students when they go outinto the communities trying to
make Buffalo better, they justsay the magic phrase we are UB
students, how can we help you?
And, oh my gosh, doors open.
People just give them stuff.
I mean, I had a student do abook drive.
Her team did a book drive.
She asked people for books.
She got thousands of books forthe.
(09:24):
Buffalo City Mission.
It was amazing.
She helped build a librarythere for them.
They could put the books in tocut games.
Anyway, my point is that's kindof, I think, a very culminating
fact for undergraduate students.
This is what makes our PPEprogram very unique.
We have this capstone coursethat teaches them how to really
take what they've learned inphilosophy, politics and
economics and put those skillsto use.
(09:47):
And, man, I bet you that makesthem look good as future
employees or whatever, Right.
And so now you're going tostart to see.
Also in these tasks there's ourcommunity engagement.
Not only are the studentslearning through actual
experience in the real world outthere, they are engaging and
making the community better.
That is the task they are givenand I think they realize a lot
of these students finally have.
They didn't even know they hada passion for doing this kind of
(10:08):
stuff, of really helping.
I mean, my secret goal isreally that I want them to stay
in Buffalo, stay in Western NewYork and continue to get jobs
here, work for the governmenthere, work at non-profits,
whatever, wherever your passiontakes you, but with this eye to
making Buffalo a better place.
I love Buffalo.
I haven't lived here long but Ilove it very much and I think
this is the least I can do togive back to this city of good
(10:30):
neighbors.
They've treated me so well.
I love it here.
Maggie Grady (10:32):
We've hooked you, huh, we've hooked you into
Buffalo.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (10:35):
I drink the water.
So that's at the undergrad.
I'll just briefly mention Ialso do this at the graduate
level I am.
The College of Arts andSciences is now working with the
School of Public Health, theSchool of Management and the
School of Social Work, of course.
So it's these four colleges.
At UB we're all working togetheron what is known as the Social
Impact Fellows Program.
We take in about 30 graduatestudents across those three
(10:58):
colleges, or four colleges.
They work together on a teamover the summer for 10 weeks.
They get assigned to a partnerorganization, mostly nonprofits.
So we've had places like Hamaor we've had Goodwill Industries
is a good partner of ours,legal Aid of Western New York
lots of local impactfulorganizations.
The job of these social impactfellows is to go in and work
(11:20):
with these organizations, meetwith the stakeholders that these
organizations are supposed tohelp in Buffalo and then really
think about ways to help thatorganization solve the problems
they are facing in deliveringthe services and goods that
they're trying to do for us.
And they give a big, bigpresentation at the end of the
summer.
The president of the universityis there and the response has
been phenomenal.
The students learn so much.
(11:42):
I can talk endlessly about howwe're really gosh helping those
kiddos out.
And the organizations love itas well.
They get so much help with allthe things they're trying to do
and again, a lot of these turninto jobs.
I'll tell one quick story andthen I'll.
I swear so.
For instance, there was aphilosophy student who did the
social impact fellows last year.
(12:02):
She was partnered with a localhospital.
It's a philosophy PhD student,but she impressed the folks.
The steering committee at thehospital saw what she and her
partners were doing over thesummer and were so impressed.
And so her mentor at thehospital said would you like to
come back next summer and dosome research on your PhD with
us?
Maggie Grady (12:22):
Oh, wow.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (12:23):
And when I read that so it was in a
comment on the feedback thingand I read that and I was like,
oh my gosh.
First of all, this is great.
She's made real impact andshe's impressed people, and so I
worked with my department tosecure funding for this graduate
student.
So she will be going back in afew weeks back to the hospital
to do some real substantive workon her dissertation at the
hospital, and it's this thingthat's going to open doors for
(12:47):
her.
She's got a great future aheadof her and I'm so proud of her.
Maggie Grady (12:50):
That's awesome.
What a great feeling.
Oh, yeah, I think that what yousaid about the organizations
that they're taking those youngminds and their ideas and
exploring more of that, so Ilove that.
Thank you, that's great.
Yeah, thank you.
I know that you also haveinteresting approaches to
(13:11):
teaching, such as flashywebsites that double as your
course syllabi and specificationgrading or specs grading.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about, l Let's
focus on the specs grading.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (13:18):
Yeah, I'll say the flashy websites I
don't do.
It takes too much of my time.
Specs grading though s Specsgrading is really cool, I think
this is I don't use it in all myclasses.
I think for lower level classesit might be a little too
demanding for our students, butfor my 300 level and higher
classes I'm transitioning themall over to specs grading.
Specs grading is cool, so whatyou do is the idea is, I only
(13:42):
assign a course grade once, thewhole semester.
The end of the semester Iassign a course grade because
that's what UB wants me to do,but during the semester I assign
a course grade because that'swhat UB wants me to do, but
during the semester their workdoes not get a letter grade on
it.
Their work doesn't earn points,which then they think is with
the letter grades.
No, every assignment in my classis graded, accepted or
(14:02):
incomplete.
It is like pass fail, yes, butit's a little more demanding.
I won't say how demanding incase there's students listening.
I don't want to know all mysecrets.
But yeah, so if something'saccepted, it's up to spec,
they're done.
If it's incomplete, however,they have the opportunity to
redo the work.
I have some constraints inthere about how often they can
redo.
(14:22):
But they do absolutely get theopportunity to redo incomplete
work.
But how I help them is they geta list of specifications like
has a title.
You get the easy ones first,spelling correct, whatever.
But then it gets more advancedidentifies the premise of the
argument.
Identifies the conclusion ofthe argument.
These are yes, no questions,and they have to.
(14:42):
It's either satisfied or notsatisfied.
If they satisfy everything,then the assignment is accepted.
I know they got the skill downand I can tell anyone who asks
they got the skill.
But if they mess up one thing,that one thing is marked not
accepted and the paper is marked, or the assignment is marked
incomplete.
But they know now.
(15:03):
They know exactly what theyneed to do to change it.
I leave comments wheneversomething's not accepted.
I let them know exactly wherethe problem was.
Now they have the opportunityto redo it, and some students
redo it a lot and it's okay.
I'm pretty quick at it now.
It's pretty amazing.
But once it's accepted, I knowthey got it.
But then I use the number ofaccepted assignments.
(15:23):
Then we'll ultimately gettranslated to a letter grade at
the end.
And I'll just like one lastthing.
The number of A's I've givenunder this system actually went
up because I was stunned thatour students are willing to rise
to the challenge.
I think a lot of professorsunderestimate their students,
think they're lazy and whiny,and I'm sure those people are
out there.
But these students that I'vebeen teaching aren't like that.
(15:43):
They just want advice.
They want to know what theyneed to do to do better and you
give them very clearinstructions.
You give them very.
If that's not accepted, yougive them very clear explanation
for where to begin to improveand then give them the chance to
do it.
They will do it.
Maggie Grady (16:00):
So I think I need to schedule a part two so we can
continue our conversation aboutraising the bar on innovative
teaching, learning and keepingreinventing yourself.
I hope this conversationencourages others to step
outside of their comfort zone,try new teaching approaches in
an effort to engage studentslearning and thank you for
taking the time for meeting withme today.
(16:22):
And do you have any finalthoughts?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (16:24):
My only final thought is for anyone.
Well one start incorporatingmore experiential learning into
your courses.
Just do baby steps.
You don't have invite one guestspeaker at the end, come talk.
You'll see a difference.
You'll start networking,changes will happen, and then
from there, more baby steps andyou'll look back and you'll be
amazed at what you've done withyour students.
Maggie Grady (16:45):
So thank you for joining us today at the Teaching
Table.
Today we discussed innovativeteaching approaches with
philosophy professor David Gray.
Be sure to connect with usonline at buffalo.
edu/ catt.
That's C-A-T-T, or email us atubcatt@buffalo.
(22:32):
edu.
So I'm going to circle backreal quick about AI.
I can't say real quick.
So what is your philosophy onAI and how do you use it for
teaching?
Do you encourage your studentsto use it?
What are your thoughts?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (22:52):
The short answer is I've been lucky
enough to be able to avoid a lotof the brunt of AI because my
courses are becomingincreasingly project-based.
I teach a course on actually Ithink it's UB's only course that
is negotiation and conflictresolution.
Hard to fake that stuff with AI, because so my courses have
(23:13):
become increasinglyskill-oriented, project-based,
experiential communityengagement.
These things you know it's hardfor an AI to fake for them.
So I've been very fortunate ina lot of that, but I have been I
know at some point I'm going tohave to really wrestle with
this in a deeper way, buteverything I read on it I just
don't know what to make of it.
(23:33):
I'm just being absolutelyhonest here.
I feel like we're in a state oftransition r ight now I don't
think where we go with it.
I will say this Sometimes thatmakes my colleagues laugh, but
I'm actually optimistic aboutwhere we'll land in a few years
once we've grappled with thischange.
Because my favorites, everyphilosopher will tell you the
story.
It's hilarious.
It makes me laugh because PlatoPlato we have mentioned him
(23:54):
before.
First, great philosopher, right?
Well, his teacher, socrates.
Oh, an even more famous guy nowSocrates, great philosopher.
Socrates wrote nothing down.
Socrates.
We have no writing.
Plato says Socrates wrotenothing.
And Plato said that was theessence of education.
Education could not be done viathe written word.
(24:15):
Process.
That for a moment.
That's why Plato thoughteducation, teaching could only
be done between a verbaldialogue between student and
teacher.
That was the only way you couldlearn Aristotle.
Plato's student was kind offamous for this Aristotle.
It's called the peripateticmethod.
Aristotle apparently would justwalk around the garden while
(24:37):
his students followed him,listening to whatever he had to
say.
But the idea was, according toPlato, the written word is the
death of education.
Well, I don't know.
I think we've managed to adaptourselves to the written word.
It doesn't have to be alldialogue anymore.
Fun fact.
One last fun fact that's whyPlato wrote dialogues.
If you read Plato, it's mainlylike a play of people talking.
(24:59):
Now, the play usually consistsof one character going oh,
philosophical truth.
And the other character isgoing yes, I agree, that sounds
great.
Okay, so not very exciting, butanyway.
But hey, we all I think most ofus are old enough, at least me,
maybe.
I don't know how old yourlisteners are Me I'm old enough
to remember when I was gosh highschool maybe younger when the
graphing calculators came outand our math teachers were
(25:22):
freaking out because all thestuff they'd been teaching us
how to do I could do in secondson my calculator.
So now they have to bancalculators, or no, no, no,
we'll use calculators, oh mygosh.
And so it went back and forth.
But again, that was a while ago.
Math curriculum has adjusted toaccepting that we have these
tools.
We have the written word, wehave graphing calculators and
(25:43):
gosh, now iPhones and everythingelse.
We have artificial intelligence.
That's pretty amazing from whatI've seen of this generative
stuff.
It is wild what it's capable todo.
I think we'll come out of thisokay, but it's going to be a lot
of flux, a lot ofexperimentation, of people
trying different things.
Personally, I'm in a wait andsee kind of mode.
(26:07):
I'm reading a lot but I'm notconvinced what to do yet about
it.
Maggie Grady (26:12):
Interesting, okay, so.
Welcome to the Teaching Table, a monthly
podcast where we'll engage ininsightful conversations about
the dynamic world of teaching,learning and technology within
higher education.
Brought to you by theUniversity at Buffalo, Office of
Curriculum Assessment andTeaching Transformation, and
made possible by the generoussupport of the Genteels'
Excellence in Teaching Fund.
T his podcast aims to shedlight on the pathways to
(00:26):
educational excellence.
I'm your host, M aggie Grady, aL earning D esigner in CATT.
Today, I'm delighted to bejoined by Dr.
David Emmanuel Gray, A ssociateTeaching Professor of
Philosophy, as we delve intoincorporating experiential
learning and communityengagement into their courses.
Welcome, D avid, and thank youfor joining me.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (00:46):
Hi Maggie, thank you for having me
here on your podcast.
I love talking about this stuff, so, yes, thi s is gonna be a
great conversation.
Maggie Grady (00:53):
Good, w elcome.
In conjunction with NationalHonesty Day and UB's Office of
Academic Integrity, you wererecognized as one of the five
individuals who promoted aculture of integrity at UB
during the 2022 and 2023academic year.
You were also one of three UBfaculty recognized by UB's
(01:13):
Career Design Center as a 2023career champion.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about those
accomplishments?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (03:25):
I'm originally from Montana.
I am very embarrassed to talkabout good things that have
happened to me, but I will do mybest.
With the academic integrityrecognition, what they had told
me in their little write- upwhen I received the award is
that they really appreciatedwhat I was doing.
You know, I'm a philosopher.
I care about ethics, I careabout values.
These are what I teach mystudents, and so I see academic
integrity as an extension ofthat, as something that you know
.
It's just not an add-on or thelast page of the syllabus.
It's something I need to bevery reflective and conscious of
how I'm bringing it into myclasses.
So, for instance, I have anacademic integrity code that the
students are expected to readand sign at the beginning of the
semester.
Every time they turn anassignment who was it?
Just write down their name andthank them at the end.
I try to treat this as academicintegrity should be natural in
my profession.
We cite our sources, we writethank you's to the please who
helped us.
There's nothing shameful orwrong about that.
So I just try to be open aboutacademic integrity.
It's real, it's something weall do, and I do other things in
my classes, I provide what Icall philosopher's stones to the
students.
This allows them to turn inassignments late or use makeup
for missed work, things likethat, that try to take the
pressure off them so they don'tfeel like they have to resort to
other things.
Being the career designchampion, that was pretty cool,
because I've been working with acolleague of mine I know you
know her Maggie, Jessica Kruger.
We've been both very consciousin trying to integrate core
career competencies into ourclasses.
Jessica has talked a lot aboutthis in another work and we chat
a lot about it too.
The idea of the career corecompetencies in our courses is
just we're trying to showstudents about how they're doing
in the class is actually givingthem the skills they need for
having a job in the real worldout there.
I'm a philosophy professor.
Students are like well, I'm notgoing to use this, I'm not
going to read Plato when I'mworking as an investment banker
or whatever.
And I'm like, okay, you know.
So I try to emphasize that.
True, but like when studentsare, I have students who do lots
of group work in the class so,while they're like paired up and
about a paper or something elsethat they've read, I will often
(03:46):
pause and remind them hey look,you guys are talking to each
other, That's teamwork, that'ssomething you need to be really
good at.
When you're out working on ajob, or when I'm grading papers,
when I return them, I like tosay things like well, look,
writing.
This is what employers want.
Right now.
We live in a world wherewriting is so important.
If you are a good writer, youwill be way better, way more
(04:06):
persuasive, way more compelling,way more employable if you know
how to write for yourself andwrite in a very well fashion,
from email to reports, memos, etcetera.
So that was why we were beingrecognized.
Because, yeah, me and Jessica,we've both been working very
closely with the Career DesignCenter to do this in a very
intentional way of bringingcareer competencies to our
(04:28):
students.
Maggie Grady (04:29):
Right.
So I'd love to learn aboutdifferent learning styles and
teaching approaches, and I'msure our listeners do as well,
and so thank you for sharingthat.
When I reached out to you andasked you if you would join me
as a guest on the Teaching Tablepodcast, you did not hesitate,
and again thank you for that.
My preparation for recordingthe podcast entails finding
(04:49):
dynamic educators who areexploring innovative teaching
practices and initiatives, so Inaturally thought of Dr.
David Emmanuel Gray, and I seethat you're interested in
incorporating experientiallearning and community
engagement into your courses.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about that
initiative?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (05:08):
I've always, from early on, tried to
incorporate experientiallearning into my courses, but
understood very broadly asmeaning like I just want
students to be learning not justfrom me but first and foremost,
at the beginning, from eachother and through discussions
that they have in their classes.
Because I teach philosophy, Iteach, like, say, courses on
political philosophy.
Oh wow, we have students withlots of different views about
(05:29):
that in our classrooms and it'sreally important to me that I
don't want to be teaching theProfessor Gray view of politics
or whatever.
Right I want them to know, lLook, I'm offering perspectives,
different ones, sure, but theyhave to look at these and then
talk with each other about whatthey mean, because they are
going to have their own viewsand own life experiences, and it
can, I won't go into details.
The conversations can getrather wild at times, and but I
(05:52):
tell them, you know, becausesometimes things do get heated
not often, but now and then theydo and I just I do pause and
say, look, hey, we all have, weall have different perspectives
here, but that's the experienceof dealing with other people and
we have to learn how tonavigate these differences with
each other, because this is likethe core principle.
If I have a core principle oflearning, especially when it
comes to philosophy, ethics,political philosophy, it's that
(06:14):
we don't live alone in thisworld.
We are not hermits, we don'tlive in isolation, and so I
think the primary ethical taskof our lives is to figure out
how to secure the legitimatecooperation of each other so we
can work together to accomplishgoals.
If we don't have that,everything just falls apart.
So, anyway, that's a lot ofwhat I say, but I want to
introduce myself to theexperience of philosophy, the
(06:36):
experience of ethics, theexperiences of these things, and
that begins in the classroom,with them just talking to each
other.
Now we can broaden out to theway that UB likes to do it.
It's like also, we want them totaking the things they're
learning in our classrooms andstart applying them outside of
that classroom.
That can be scary at first.
So what I usually do in mycourses if they're maybe not
quite ready to go out on theirown and do this stuff I like to
(06:58):
invite out guest speakers tocome into the classroom.
So when I teach business ethics, I love to get people who do
corporate social responsibility,who you know this is, t heir
job is to make positive socialimpact on behalf of their
companies and organizations, andI haven't come in to speak
about problems they face and howthey overcome those problems as
part of their job.
The students love it and I'vehad several students who are now
(07:20):
pursuing careers in corporatesocial responsibility.
But that's the first step.
You bring these people in andnow we can go a step deeper.
Now I've brought these verygifted professionals into my
classroom.
I then will always pull themaside either before or after
they speak and say hey, you know, I have some really interested
students here and what you'redoing over there.
Would you maybe be able to setup an internship for them?
(07:41):
Now, y ou don't have to paythem.
Now they're happy, they'relistening.
Now you do not have to paythese students.
They they will take a classfrom me, and but that class will
be just them sending me acouple updates now and then
about the internship, and thenyou get to mentor and help the
student.
Just send me a report at theend to make sure that everything
went as planned.
But the students love it.
(08:01):
They get an internship, theyget course credit for it, h elps
them graduate.
The business gets giftedstudents who are working for
free.
So that's the next stage is nowtrying to find opportunities
for my students to go in tothese different places, and a
lot of this culminates when Iteach this.
I'm a faculty member for thePhilosophy, P politics and
Economics program.
(08:22):
That's the PPE program that wehave here at UB.
It's a brand new major and so Inow teach the capstone course
for that, that all the majorsand minors have to take now, and
this is a strictlyproject-based course.
Here's the time now where Iliterally they have one
assignment all semester withmilestones that just help them
along the way, and they're onetask.
It's very simple, theinstructions.
(08:43):
Take a moment to read.
It says make the world better.
That is their semester-longproject, each team.
I put them on teams becausethey got to learn teamwork again
.
I put them on teams and I sayyou can do whatever you want,
interpret this however you want,and each team gets a thousand
dollar budget that will then, ifthey have expenses they can pay
for.
Fun fact, most of the teamsdon't even use the money,
(09:03):
because let me tell you what wehave found in these projects and
my students when they go outinto the communities trying to
make Buffalo better, they justsay the magic phrase we are UB
students, how can we help you?
And, oh my gosh, doors open.
People just give them stuff.
I mean, I had a student do abook drive.
Her team did a book drive.
She asked people for books.
She got thousands of books forthe.
(09:24):
Buffalo City Mission.
It was amazing.
She helped build a librarythere for them.
They could put the books in tocut games.
Anyway, my point is that's kindof, I think, a very culminating
fact for undergraduate students.
This is what makes our PPEprogram very unique.
We have this capstone coursethat teaches them how to really
take what they've learned inphilosophy, politics and
economics and put those skillsto use.
(09:47):
And, man, I bet you that makesthem look good as future
employees or whatever, Right.
And so now you're going tostart to see.
Also in these tasks there's ourcommunity engagement.
Not only are the studentslearning through actual
experience in the real world outthere, they are engaging and
making the community better.
That is the task they are givenand I think they realize a lot
of these students finally have.
They didn't even know they hada passion for doing this kind of
(10:08):
stuff, of really helping.
I mean, my secret goal isreally that I want them to stay
in Buffalo, stay in Western NewYork and continue to get jobs
here, work for the governmenthere, work at non-profits,
whatever, wherever your passiontakes you, but with this eye to
making Buffalo a better place.
I love Buffalo.
I haven't lived here long but Ilove it very much and I think
this is the least I can do togive back to this city of good
(10:30):
neighbors.
They've treated me so well.
I love it here.
Maggie Grady (10:32):
We've hooked you, huh, we've hooked you into
Buffalo.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (10:35):
I drink the water.
So that's at the undergrad.
I'll just briefly mention Ialso do this at the graduate
level I am.
The College of Arts andSciences is now working with the
School of Public Health, theSchool of Management and the
School of Social Work, of course.
So it's these four colleges.
At UB we're all working togetheron what is known as the Social
Impact Fellows Program.
We take in about 30 graduatestudents across those three
(10:58):
colleges, or four colleges.
They work together on a teamover the summer for 10 weeks.
They get assigned to a partnerorganization, mostly nonprofits.
So we've had places like Hamaor we've had Goodwill Industries
is a good partner of ours,legal Aid of Western New York
lots of local impactfulorganizations.
The job of these social impactfellows is to go in and work
(11:20):
with these organizations, meetwith the stakeholders that these
organizations are supposed tohelp in Buffalo and then really
think about ways to help thatorganization solve the problems
they are facing in deliveringthe services and goods that
they're trying to do for us.
And they give a big, bigpresentation at the end of the
summer.
The president of the universityis there and the response has
been phenomenal.
The students learn so much.
(11:42):
I can talk endlessly about howwe're really gosh helping those
kiddos out.
And the organizations love itas well.
They get so much help with allthe things they're trying to do
and again, a lot of these turninto jobs.
I'll tell one quick story andthen I'll.
I swear so.
For instance, there was aphilosophy student who did the
social impact fellows last year.
(12:02):
She was partnered with a localhospital.
It's a philosophy PhD student,but she impressed the folks.
The steering committee at thehospital saw what she and her
partners were doing over thesummer and were so impressed.
And so her mentor at thehospital said would you like to
come back next summer and dosome research on your PhD with
us?
Maggie Grady (12:22):
Oh, wow.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (12:23):
And when I read that so it was in a
comment on the feedback thingand I read that and I was like,
oh my gosh.
First of all, this is great.
She's made real impact andshe's impressed people, and so I
worked with my department tosecure funding for this graduate
student.
So she will be going back in afew weeks back to the hospital
to do some real substantive workon her dissertation at the
hospital, and it's this thingthat's going to open doors for
(12:47):
her.
She's got a great future aheadof her and I'm so proud of her.
Maggie Grady (12:50):
That's awesome.
What a great feeling.
Oh, yeah, I think that what yousaid about the organizations
that they're taking those youngminds and their ideas and
exploring more of that, so Ilove that.
Thank you, that's great.
Yeah, thank you.
I know that you also haveinteresting approaches to
(13:11):
teaching, such as flashywebsites that double as your
course syllabi and specificationgrading or specs grading.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit more about, l Let's
focus on the specs grading.
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (13:18):
Yeah, I'll say the flashy websites I
don't do.
It takes too much of my time.
Specs grading though s Specsgrading is really cool, I think
this is I don't use it in all myclasses.
I think for lower level classesit might be a little too
demanding for our students, butfor my 300 level and higher
classes I'm transitioning themall over to specs grading.
Specs grading is cool, so whatyou do is the idea is, I only
(13:42):
assign a course grade once, thewhole semester.
The end of the semester Iassign a course grade because
that's what UB wants me to do,but during the semester I assign
a course grade because that'swhat UB wants me to do, but
during the semester their workdoes not get a letter grade on
it.
Their work doesn't earn points,which then they think is with
the letter grades.
No, every assignment in my classis graded, accepted or
(14:02):
incomplete.
It is like pass fail, yes, butit's a little more demanding.
I won't say how demanding incase there's students listening.
I don't want to know all mysecrets.
But yeah, so if something'saccepted, it's up to spec,
they're done.
If it's incomplete, however,they have the opportunity to
redo the work.
I have some constraints inthere about how often they can
redo.
(14:22):
But they do absolutely get theopportunity to redo incomplete
work.
But how I help them is they geta list of specifications like
has a title.
You get the easy ones first,spelling correct, whatever.
But then it gets more advancedidentifies the premise of the
argument.
Identifies the conclusion ofthe argument.
These are yes, no questions,and they have to.
(14:42):
It's either satisfied or notsatisfied.
If they satisfy everything,then the assignment is accepted.
I know they got the skill downand I can tell anyone who asks
they got the skill.
But if they mess up one thing,that one thing is marked not
accepted and the paper is marked, or the assignment is marked
incomplete.
But they know now.
(15:03):
They know exactly what theyneed to do to change it.
I leave comments wheneversomething's not accepted.
I let them know exactly wherethe problem was.
Now they have the opportunityto redo it, and some students
redo it a lot and it's okay.
I'm pretty quick at it now.
It's pretty amazing.
But once it's accepted, I knowthey got it.
But then I use the number ofaccepted assignments.
(15:23):
Then we'll ultimately gettranslated to a letter grade at
the end.
And I'll just like one lastthing.
The number of A's I've givenunder this system actually went
up because I was stunned thatour students are willing to rise
to the challenge.
I think a lot of professorsunderestimate their students,
think they're lazy and whiny,and I'm sure those people are
out there.
But these students that I'vebeen teaching aren't like that.
(15:43):
They just want advice.
They want to know what theyneed to do to do better and you
give them very clearinstructions.
You give them very.
If that's not accepted, yougive them very clear explanation
for where to begin to improveand then give them the chance to
do it.
They will do it.
Maggie Grady (16:00):
So I think I need to schedule a part two so we can
continue our conversation aboutraising the bar on innovative
teaching, learning and keepingreinventing yourself.
I hope this conversationencourages others to step
outside of their comfort zone,try new teaching approaches in
an effort to engage studentslearning and thank you for
taking the time for meeting withme today.
(16:22):
And do you have any finalthoughts?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (16:24):
My only final thought is for anyone.
Well one start incorporatingmore experiential learning into
your courses.
Just do baby steps.
You don't have invite one guestspeaker at the end, come talk.
You'll see a difference.
You'll start networking,changes will happen, and then
from there, more baby steps andyou'll look back and you'll be
amazed at what you've done withyour students.
Maggie Grady (16:45):
So thank you for joining us today at the Teaching
Table.
Today we discussed innovativeteaching approaches with
philosophy professor David Gray.
Be sure to connect with usonline at buffalo.
edu/ catt.
That's C-A-T-T, or email us atubcatt@buffalo.
(22:32):
edu.
So I'm going to circle backreal quick about AI.
I can't say real quick.
So what is your philosophy onAI and how do you use it for
teaching?
Do you encourage your studentsto use it?
What are your thoughts?
Dr. David Emmanuel Gray (22:52):
The short answer is I've been lucky
enough to be able to avoid a lotof the brunt of AI because my
courses are becomingincreasingly project-based.
I teach a course on actually Ithink it's UB's only course that
is negotiation and conflictresolution.
Hard to fake that stuff with AI, because so my courses have
(23:13):
become increasinglyskill-oriented, project-based,
experiential communityengagement.
These things you know it's hardfor an AI to fake for them.
So I've been very fortunate ina lot of that, but I have been I
know at some point I'm going tohave to really wrestle with
this in a deeper way, buteverything I read on it I just
don't know what to make of it.
(23:33):
I'm just being absolutelyhonest here.
I feel like we're in a state oftransition r ight now I don't
think where we go with it.
I will say this Sometimes thatmakes my colleagues laugh, but
I'm actually optimistic aboutwhere we'll land in a few years
once we've grappled with thischange.
Because my favorites, everyphilosopher will tell you the
story.
It's hilarious.
It makes me laugh because PlatoPlato we have mentioned him
(23:54):
before.
First, great philosopher, right?
Well, his teacher, socrates.
Oh, an even more famous guy nowSocrates, great philosopher.
Socrates wrote nothing down.
Socrates.
We have no writing.
Plato says Socrates wrotenothing.
And Plato said that was theessence of education.
Education could not be done viathe written word.
(24:15):
Process.
That for a moment.
That's why Plato thoughteducation, teaching could only
be done between a verbaldialogue between student and
teacher.
That was the only way you couldlearn Aristotle.
Plato's student was kind offamous for this Aristotle.
It's called the peripateticmethod.
Aristotle apparently would justwalk around the garden while
(24:37):
his students followed him,listening to whatever he had to
say.
But the idea was, according toPlato, the written word is the
death of education.
Well, I don't know.
I think we've managed to adaptourselves to the written word.
It doesn't have to be alldialogue anymore.
Fun fact.
One last fun fact that's whyPlato wrote dialogues.
If you read Plato, it's mainlylike a play of people talking.
(24:59):
Now, the play usually consistsof one character going oh,
philosophical truth.
And the other character isgoing yes, I agree, that sounds
great.
Okay, so not very exciting, butanyway.
But hey, we all I think most ofus are old enough, at least me,
maybe.
I don't know how old yourlisteners are Me I'm old enough
to remember when I was gosh highschool maybe younger when the
graphing calculators came outand our math teachers were
(25:22):
freaking out because all thestuff they'd been teaching us
how to do I could do in secondson my calculator.
So now they have to bancalculators, or no, no, no,
we'll use calculators, oh mygosh.
And so it went back and forth.
But again, that was a while ago.
Math curriculum has adjusted toaccepting that we have these
tools.
We have the written word, wehave graphing calculators and
(25:43):
gosh, now iPhones and everythingelse.
We have artificial intelligence.
That's pretty amazing from whatI've seen of this generative
stuff.
It is wild what it's capable todo.
I think we'll come out of thisokay, but it's going to be a lot
of flux, a lot ofexperimentation, of people
trying different things.
Personally, I'm in a wait andsee kind of mode.
(26:07):
I'm reading a lot but I'm notconvinced what to do yet about
it.
Maggie Grady (26:12):
Interesting, okay, so.
Popular Podcasts
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com