Teaching in focus: Kelly Allison
Learn more about the work of our educators at UBC
November 6, 2023
Name:
Kelly Allison
My pronouns:
She/Her
Title:
Assistant Professor of Teaching/Chair of Field Education
Faculty/Department/Unit:
School of Social Work/Faculty of Arts
Location:
Vancouver
Year I started working at UBC:
2019
What first motivated you to become an educator?
When I was a clinician, I always looked for opportunities to teach. I supervised students in practicum at the hospital where I worked and signed up for any opportunity to present or teach while in my clinical role. During my maternity leave, I started taking courses in adult education and I began teaching sessionally in 2011 at UBC. I love being a part of a student's journey to become a professional social worker!
Tell us more about your work.
I am a clinician at heart, so most of the courses I teach are practice based courses. Since becoming a full time faculty member in the educational leadership stream in 2019, I have focused on enhancing experiential learning in social work education (field education is a big focus), strengthening social work interprofessional learning with other health disciplines and mentorship for teaching excellence within social work.
What inspired your particular approach to teaching?
I have always learned by doing in my own life, so I think using experiential learning in my teaching was a natural fit for me. The question I want to answer for students is "what does this actually look like in practice?" The more opportunities I can give students to role play counselling, simulate doing an assessment or practice decision making with a team, the better prepared I think they will be for professional practice.
What have you learned while teaching that has surprised you the most?
Students learn from each other as much, if not more than they learn from me! I really believe in fostering a collaborative learning community where students feel comfortable to share their experiences and ideas and challenge one another on their thinking. This type of classroom produces much deeper learning for everyone instead of me being the only contributor of experiences and ideas.
What impact do you hope to have on your students?
I hope students will take away that there are many different ways to practice social work. They can and should integrate their unique strengths and lived experiences with their social work knowledge and theories to develop a professional practice that is unique to them and promotes social change and enhances the empowerment and wellbeing of people!
Are there any colleagues or mentors you’d like to acknowledge and why?
When I started teaching, I connected with Arts ISIT and CTLT and have been amazed by the support and encouragement offered by both of these programs. I think UBC does a great job of supporting teachers in their role!
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