jessicasaenzhrd.weebly.comjessicasaenzhrd.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/7/9/42798019/.… · web...

Running Head: PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF DISTINGUISHED FACULTY 1

Personal Observations of Distinguished Faculty

Jessica Saenz

Texas A&M University

Abstract


My passion for Human Resource Development rooted from my sincere interest in helping peo-

ple. As a Psychology major in Undergrad my hope was to one day have an impact on people, by

transforming their lives in a positive manner. Human Resource Development (HRD) was intro-

duced to me through a class called Industrial and Organizational Psychology. This course im-

pacted my life in a way where I found both of my passions combined in one field, which was

HRD. None of the less, I would have to thank my Undergraduate professor for guiding me in the

right direction and for having such a positive impact on my life. Educators can impact and trans-

form a student’s life in various ways, this is why I have such appreciation for them. As I ob-

served these two distinguished faculty from Texas A&M University, I was able to see the quali-

ties these professors transmitted to their students. Most importantly these professors transmitted

a passion for teaching and learning, which was clearly demonstrated through the conducted ob-

servations.

Hector Rivera, PhD


Professor Hector Rivera is currently a professor at Texas A&M University in the Depart-

ment of Educational Psychology. Dr. Rivera has an extensive background. He graduated from

the University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelors in Psychology with an emphasis on

Cultural Diversity. Four years later he received his Masters degree in Applied Educational Re-

search, and then he went along and graduated with his Doctoral degree in Developmental Psy-

chology from the same institution. He has previous teaching experience as a bilingual teacher in

the North Monterey District in Santa Cruz, California. He was a Program Developer and Evalua-

tor for the Society of Advancement of Chicanos and Native American in Science. He later be-

came an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. As his career

started to boom in the early 2000s, he took his first role as an Assistant Professor (research

track) in the Simmons School of Human Development at Southern Methodist University and

from the School of Psychology and Scientific Advisor for Texas Institute for Measurement Eval-

uation and Statistics at the University of Houston. He is currently on the tenure track here at

Texas A&M University.

Dr. Rivera has been recognized in many manners. I would like to mention a couple of his

most recent honors and awards. The following are some of his most recent recognitions: National

Center for Research on Education Diversity and Excellence/ Post-Doctoral fellowship, Dallas

and Fort Worth International Community Alliance: Outstanding New Americans Recognition,

Nominated for the Golden Mustang Award at Southern Methodist University (an award for

teaching excellence), NIH Grant Writing Course that is funded through the Educational Psychol-

ogy department, the Undergraduate Students Research Initiative, and the League of Champions

of Education Award. Through his research, he is constantly trying to find innovative ways to

promote parental and community involvement and development. He is searching for new strate-


gies that can benefit the classroom learning environment, he has focused on resident and non-re-

silient Hispanic students, socio-cultural factors for the development of effective educational pro-

grams, research-based programs for English language learners in the schooling process, and a fo-

cus on developing instruments to measure flushing learning environments in rural school class-

rooms. As a well-rounded educator, Dr. Rivera is involved in his community as a volunteer and

he has also taken multiple roles as a mentor.

I am fortunate enough to personally know Dr. Rivera. I have not had the opportunity to

take one of his courses, but his charisma, passion for teaching and education, and his ability to

connect with students caught my attention as a student worker. I would pass by his office and he

would greet you in such a unique manner. I grew up to see Dr. Rivera as a mentor. I had heard

many great things about his courses, nonetheless it was true. As I entered Dr. Rivera’s classroom,

he gave me a full introduction and he introduced me to his class.

He just has this way of making his students feel special in such a genuine way. I observed

his BIED: 632 course called Bilingual Educational Applied Research. There were only five stu-

dents in his class, due to this being a higher level course designated for mainly doctoral students

interested in conducting research. As I immersed myself in his in class, I felt as if I was a part of

his class the first day I set foot in his classroom. I enjoyed hearing his perspective on the future

outlook of education. He provides his students with a future outlook on life, education, and re-

search. He provides his students with the questions necessary to spark their interest in field, he

also provides real world examples for students to make the connection. I experienced an open-

ness to express your personal option and to question the facts, a more discussion based environ-

ment, a personal concern for his students progression through his course, an openness to hear

what his students have to say, and an interest in hearing the diverse perspectives of his students.


The students had as much of an impact on his life, as he does on theirs. He clearly states this. Dr.

Rivera first provides the students with a lecture of the topic that is going to be discuss for the

three-hour class. After his lecture he provides the students a time for them to individually present

their personal thoughts on what has been previously discussed. The portion of the class incorpo-

rates his weekly projects. His weekly projects consists of each student providing a hands-on

project that ties in the articles that were assigned to the class. This was quite interesting.

What I most admired about Dr. Rivera is his patience. His patience to get to know each

student at a personal level and to truly care about that student’s development. He truly wants the

students to learn something out of his course, and this is something he continually mentions. He

wants them to not have fear of him or the course. Real world experiences are mentioned through-

out his lecture in order for the students to connect how this material can be applied in the actual

field. He is all about application, application in the field. A variation of teaching methods are

provided in order for the student to get a grasp of the concepts one way or another. Dr. Rivera is

not the type of professor to stand right next to the board for the entire class. He is very expressive

and demonstrates much excitement through his body language. I could only imagine what it was

like to be a doctoral student in that classroom. I felt as if I was one for those couple of days. Dr.

Rivera definitely knows what it is like to be a researcher, a professor, a graduate assistant, a stu-

dent, a brother, etc. He puts himself in their shoes and creates a beautiful bond with each and ev-

ery single one of them. This professor definitely demonstrated two of the teaching styles we had

recently read about in the Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education. I ana-

lyzed him as a developmental and nurturing professor. If I had to pick one, I would say he

demonstrated more developmental characteristics. The two key ideas underlying the develop-

mental perspectives were presented on his behalf: how to come to understand something and the


relationship between teaching and learning. (Pratt, 1998) This professor had more of a focus on

the development of the learners’ thinking, reasoning, and judgment rather than on specific teach-

ing performance. He also provided more of a focus on helping learners connect with a more per-

sonal meaning. (Pratt, 1998) As mentioned in the Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and

Higher Education, “the developmental perspective emphasizes a qualitative change in learners

rather than a quantitative one; learning has to do with knowing differently rather than knowing

more. (Pratt, 1998) After observing and analyzing Dr. Rivera’s examples, personal stories, reflec-

tions, questioning strategy, classroom atmosphere, and students’ feedback, his perspective on ed-

ucation and on life, and by his way of approaching concepts from different angles: I portrayed

his teaching style to be Developmental.

As previously discussed in our online discussions, the developmental perspective is quite

challenging when it comes to creating thought provoking questioning strategies for your learners

and creating innovative ways of assessing your students. Those are just a couple of areas where

people struggle with this style of teaching. The developmental perspective can set an impact on

the learner’s way of thinking and their overall learning experience. I personally enjoy this type of

teaching style, I have had wonderful experiences with professors that teach in this style of in-

struction. They have had an impact on my life and they will always be remembered as one of my

best professors in college.

Alain Lawo-Sukam, PhD

Dr. Alain Lawo-Sukam is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic and African Studies. He

holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His area of con-

centration is in Hispanic Studies with a specialty in Afro-Hispanic literature and culture. He is


the author of Hacia Una Poética Afro-Colombiana: El Caso del Pacífico (2010) and a creative

writing book called Sueño con África. Rêve d’Afrique (2013). He is the author of several articles

and book reviews published in national and international peer reviewed journals. He is also a

member of the editorial boards of The Coastal Review, Advances in Literary Study, L’ Érudit

Franco-Española, and has served as manuscript reviewer for Callaloo, Revista Canadiense de Es-

tudios Hispánicos, Revistas de Estudios de Literatura Colombiana, Revista de Literatura, Teoría

y Crítica and the College of Arts in the University of El Valle (Colombia). He is a recipient of

numerous grants and awards; among the recent are the Hispanic Studies Research Enhancement

and High Impact Research Grants, the Texas A&M University System Teaching Excellence

Award, CLA Faculty Research Enhancement, CLA Summer Institute for Instructional Technol-

ogy Innovation, GCHR/RESI Stipendiary Faculty Fellow and the PESCA. He was elected for

five years as a member of the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association, where

he served as Secretary and Chair of the African Division.

I observed Dr. Lawo-Sukam’s, Spanish 312: Hispanic Culture of the 18th century to

Present course. This course is a three credit hour course that is held weekly on Wednesdays and

Fridays from 9am-10:10am. As I was walking down the hall of the Academic building on cam-

pus in search of his classroom I started to hear music as I got closer and closer to it. As I finally

arrived to Dr. Lawo-Sukam’s classroom, I felt that I had entered a whole different world. I felt

that I was on a beach in Puerto Rico holding an ice cold lemonade and listening to some Latin

vibes. Dr. Lawo-Sukam literally transforms his classroom. It was an amazing experience. He

started off his daily class schedule with detailed course objectives, a morning welcome, he then

lectured for about twenty-five minutes, turned it over to the class for class discussions, and he


then summarized what was learned in class that day. By a morning welcome, I am referring to

the “Say hello to someone you don’t know” activity.

Each student in his class is required to greet and talk to someone they do not know in the

class. They have to do this for about five minutes at the beginning of each class period. I was

personally approached and greeted by one of his students. I learned a bit about her and most im-

portantly I was touched by the impact a simple greeting can have on your early morning start. In

regards to the class discussions, he approached this teaching method quite differently. From the

beginning of the semester each student is selected to participate in a particular group. They are

divided into six groups that hold five students each. Each group of five students and has one

leader. Throughout the semester each group is assigned a weekly reading. The group is responsi-

ble to analyze the material and provide a written summary over the content. All five member of

the group are then responsible to create a short presentation over the material learned. Once they

have concluded with the presentation they break off into smaller groups with their peers. Each

group member is placed with a small group of students. These group members then start a dis-

cussion with their small groups and then they will eventually present their learnings to the whole

class. The curve ball in this approach is that each group member grades the students in their

group in regards to their participation in their small group discussion.

According to Dr. Lawo-Sukam, this creates a sense of accountability and responsibility

on the students’ behalf. If not, they will most likely will not read the assigned readings. Through-

out these discussion Dr. Lawo-Sukam provides informal and formal feedback to his students. He

goes around the classroom spreading good vibes and making connections with his students. He

absolutely makes the class enjoyable, engaging, and relatable to the student’s day to day life.


In my opinion Dr. Lawo-Sukam’s teaching style reflected that of the Nurturing perspec-

tive. His style of teaching encompassed meaningful engagement between the learner and the con-

tent. (Pratt, 1998) This professor practiced empathy, he was able to perceive the emotive and re-

active states of the learner with a general understanding that include both intellect and the emo-

tion. This professor was able to develop ways of interrupting cues given by learners, and replace

the externally based areas that delineated success in alternate perspectives (Pratt, 1998). From

what I observed, this professor viewed his class and his course content in this perspective. As

mentioned in Contemporary Viewpoints on Teaching Adults Effectively, this perspective assumes

that long-term, diligent, persistent efforts to achieve come from the heart, not the head. (Gordon,

2002). Dr. Lawo-Kuham’s classroom strategies and activities matched some of the characteristics

of the Nurturing perspectives. Contemporary Viewpoints on Teaching Adults Effectively, men-

tioned how the typical nurturing strategy includes such simple things as getting to know people,

consistently listening and responding to emotional as well as intellectual needs. (Gordon, 2002).

This particular quote reminded me of the “Say hello to someone you don’t know” activity and

how he facilities his class discussions. Most of the students in his class provide personal experi-

ences and this has created a safe environment for students to share scenarios that are more close

to them.

Overall, this was a very engaging and hands-on experience. I was able to tie what was re-

cently learned in our past lessons and I was able to connect it to the conducted observations. The

Developmental perspective is the one teaching style I was most familiar with and which I was

able to relate to the most during these observations. The Nurturing perspective was fairly new to

me. I had not had any previous experiences with this perspective. I will have to admit that I en-

joyed it way more than I anticipated. I mention this because throughout our discussions of the


Nurturing perspective, I did not see it aligning to my educational philosophy and educational val-

ues. I felt as if it was too lenient. I was wrong, it was as engaging and informative as some of the

other methods. I do have to say that this perspective is tough to preform, and it should be per-

formed as efficiently as possible in order for the students to receive the most out of it. I also be-

lieve that the overall nature of the two courses observed aligned with the perspectives observed.

The courses were appropriate for those type of perspectives, because of the material being pre-

sented. It required much more brainstorming, discussion, and analyzing in comparison to courses

in the math, science, and engineering field for example. I enjoyed observing these two courses

because I was able to experience the transmission of the passion and dedication these two profes-

sors have for their profession and for their field of study.

REFERENCES:

Gordon, J. (2002). Contemporary viewpoints on teaching adults effectively. San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass.

Pratt, D. (1998). Five Perspectives on Teaching Adults and Higher Education (Original ED.).

Malabar, FLA.: Krieger Pub.

jessicasaenzhrd.weebly.comjessicasaenzhrd.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/7/9/42798019/.… · web...

Documents