On Episode 611, I welcome Danny Mann, Executive Director of the University of California Irvine’s Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, to Teaching in Higher Ed. Danny brings his experience as an educational developer, a passion for fostering peace, joy, and community in higher education, and expertise in cognitive science. Danny helps us explore the importance of grounding teaching and leadership in peace, joy, and authentic community. He shares stories of what shaped his focus on these three values, reflecting on the role of mindfulness, building inclusive learning environments, and establishing classroom and team norms that encourage open, transformative conversations.

Resources from the episode:

• University of California Irvine's Division of Teaching Excellence & Innovation
• Find Your Why, by Simon Sinek
• How to Debug Your Life, by JA Westenberg
• Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Pedagogical Wellness | UCI Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by Don Miguel Ruiz
• How to Debug Your Life, by JA Westenberg
• Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Episode topics:

• Fostering Peace, Joy, and Community in Higher Ed
• Discovering and Living Your “Why” as an Educator
• Building Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments
• Navigating Vulnerability and Difficult Dialogues
• The Challenge and Value of Transparency in Leadership
• Balancing Teacher Identity and Self-Integration
• Relationship-Focused Approaches to Leadership and Teaching

Discussion questions:

1. Danny Mann references Simon Sinek’s work on finding your “why.” How can identifying our purpose impact teaching effectiveness?
2. The episode addresses the importance of integrating your authentic self in both personal and professional settings. What challenges or benefits have you experienced (or observed) when trying to align your identities in personal and work contexts?
3. Danny Mann explains the value of allowing space for students to share both their successes and struggles. How can we create classroom or team environments that encourage honest dialogue, especially about difficult topics?
4. What role does the modeling of community norms by instructors or leaders play in shaping the culture of a classroom or organization? Can you think of examples where modeling had a significant impact, either positive or negative?
5. The idea of “assuming good intentions” is presented as a tool for reducing conflict and fostering relationships. When might this approach be helpful, and are there contexts where it might be inappropriate or even unsafe?

Recommended

Leon Furze (featured on Teaching in Higher Ed Episodes 572 and 521) wrote an insightful post regarding expertise: Expert Signals: Why Human Expertise Matters More Than Ever. In the piece, he argues how it is our situated expertise that is a uniquely human capability. Leon writes:

AI can’t help me to really push the boundaries of my own expertise. It can help me execute within the bounds of what I already know. It cannot show me what I don’t know I’m missing.

I appreciate Leon’s humility embedded in his writing, as he shares that he doesn’t entirely know exactly how to create expertise in students, given the risks of avoiding those opportunities for sustained and challenging practice by offloading tasks to AI. He ends by suggesting that we should stop asking the question “will AI replace experts?” and replace it with “how to we build systems that amplify expert signals?”

In preparation for an upcoming post that explores an AI-related activity, over time, I created a video that demonstrates Jon Ippolito’s Connect Random Things exercise. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 where I share my experiment when first being led by Jon through the experience.

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Lynn Meade joins me to talk about ePorfolios.

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My book: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, provides approaches to help you turn your intentions into action. I also write an advice column for EdSurge: Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak

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Disclosures

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

Notice: Portions of these weekly updates are produced using CastMagic.io, which uses AI to produce a draft of the transcript, identify key quotes, highlight themes, etc.