Iris Yin is the first Education student in three years to receive the Killam Prize for her research in teacher/student eye-contact.
A doctoral student in the Department of Secondary Education has brought her faculty into the spotlight as one of this year's recipients of the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship. Fourth-year PhD student Iris Yin has been granted the University of Alberta's most prestigious graduate award for her research into the importance of teacher/student eye contact as part of the classroom learning experience.
Valued at $35,000, Yin is the first Education student in three years to receive the award. The achievement is especially significant to Yin, who, as an international student, is not eligible for many other funding opportunities relied on by her peers.
After earning her BEd and Master of Education Management and teaching English in China, Yin was inspired to pursue her research based on her own experiences in the classroom. Watching recordings of herself leading a class, she explains how her own mannerisms reminded her that effective teaching is more than just following a lesson plan.
"I was looking at myself and I realized, 'I'm not making good eye contact,'" she says. "What finally brought eye contact to my research attention was my experience studying abroad. My initial lack of fluency in the English language emphasized to me the importance of non-verbal communication in the classroom."
Yin has focused the majority of her doctoral studies in the field of "Phenomenology of Practice," the study of the lived experience of human practices found in everyday life and in professional contexts like education. This qualitative research model is highly influenced by philosophy and emphasizes on the role of writing as research process. It allows Yin to maintain an open mind and a beginner's attitude while approaching everyday teaching and learning moments.
"One challenge with educational research is our tendency to draw quick conclusions and implications," Yin says. "But we, as educators, have to distance ourselves in order to see the fluctuating lived experience that constitutes our educational reality."
Yin cites the key influence of Secondary Education faculty members Max van Manen and Cathy Adams in pursuing her chosen field. Van Manen, an internationally renowned professor in phenomenology and pedagogy, introduced Yin to this area while giving a lecture in China. Then, in 2010, Yin served as the translator for Adams' keynote speech in China. Yin says Adams' mentorship has become a guiding force in her career.
"[The Department of] Secondary Education, in terms of curriculum study and critical thinking in the field of education has challenged my old way of seeing educational theory and practice. Our department taught me never to accept the pre-existing hypotheses and understandings without a thorough reflection," Yin says.
As technology becomes an increasingly integrated part of the classroom, Yin's study also helps to examine the less-explored technological influence on teacher/student relationships. She sees proliferation of technological teaching tools as a unique opportunity to explore how such relationships can vary in non-traditional learning environments. In 2013, the University of Alberta began to offer free, open versions of some of its courses via the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) format, and Yin sees these as an excellent way to study how teachers can still form a bond with students through eye contact, even through a pre-recorded lesson.
"[In these courses] there's no real person teaching you, but a student can still feel that in certain moments, 'the teacher is looking at me and speaking directly to me.' In that moment we can make the student realize that [he or she] is learning something very meaningful," Yin explains.
As she conducts her research, Yin hopes that her findings will help both educational researchers and instructors to better understand the value of interpersonal relationships and lived experiences in the classroom. By revealing these bonds in subtle and thoughtful ways, she believes her research may be a reminder for educators that education goes beyond simple knowledge.
"Pedagogy has a sense of latency, because you don't know when what you've taught will affect the student and how this influence takes place. Maybe it will come 20 years later or 10 years later, but it becomes meaningful."