Daniel Goldsmith

Daniel Goldsmith has been teaching humanities at Dawson since 2009, where he has sought to engage students in meaningful learning through such fascinating subjects in the humanities as compassionate action, and enlightened consciousness. As a fellow in the Dawson Active Learning Community of Practice (DALC), he explored active learning strategies and shared with colleagues successes and challenges in a collegial atmosphere of continuous learning. He was an e-learning CoP fellow in 2019, where he produced an open-access portfolio on a blended learning format for two of his courses. He has contributed social science resource activities through SALTISE and continued in DALC CoP meetings.

Reflecting on his role as an educator, Daniel asked himself what changes he could make to bring his class to more upper-level cognitive taxonomy discussions. He combined his explorations of active learning methodologies with e-learning concepts in collaborative learning and developed a strategy to flip his classroom. He explored Moodle to help students learn effectively in a blended learning course. He created activities to engage students in core course concepts and provided low-stakes assignments to gauge student learning. In recent years, Daniel has integrated numerous somatic activities in recognition of the essential role that the body plays in cognition. He encourages students to breathe, move, and vocalize in different ways in the hopes that their understanding spreads throughout their cells, not just the ones up in the head!

Daniel has observed that students are learning better through these pedagogical activities. He shares his explorations with Dawson communities of practice, participates in community meditation sessions for students and staff, supports his students, and is engaged in SALTISE.