Empowering Excellence in Learning and Teaching – Unscripted Critical Moments and Their Ripple Effect

Abstract

The unscripted critical moment that can occur between student and tutor can empower a student to realise their threshold concepts and lead to a ripple effect where the influence on that student can be limitless. As tutors, we need to recognise that excellence in learning and teaching can be more than just the output; it can also be about the powerful and humbling connections we make with our students. However, to be able to generate these unscripted critical moments for our students, as tutors we also need to give ourselves permission to purposefully connect to ourselves and be invested enough in ourselves to mindfully experience our days. This opinion piece puts forward that the strive for excellence in learning and teaching should not be just about the pass rate or in what our students say about us. In the journey for excellence in teaching, tutors need to open themselves to experiencing their day so that they themselves can be a part of their own unscripted critical moments. By investing in themselves and being curious enough to observe and experience their professional world, the tutor can be a part of their own unscripted critical moments that can have the kind of influence that emboldens excellence in teaching.