Revolutionizing Learning Environments with Guerrilla Pedagogy in Large Classes

Abstract

Engaging students in large classes can be challenging for educators. In this study, we implemented a guerrilla tactic in an effort to engage our students. Guerilla tactic is a pedagogical approach where one teacher (the “guerrilla”) enters into a colleague’s class that is in session, sits for a while, takes over the teaching for about ten minutes, then leaves the classroom. There is an element of student surprise with guerrilla pedagogy because students are not informed in advance about the guerrilla visit and the host instructor has no prior knowledge on what the visiting guerrilla instructor would talk about. For this study, two practical nursing instructors who teach the same courses (i.e., anatomy and physiology, and pathophysiology) to different sections collaborated as guerrilla instructors. Four sections of students; two from anatomy and physiology and two from pathophysiology participated in the study. Each section had about one hundred students. The disruptive guerrilla pedagogy was implemented during the 2019 winter semester. At the end of the semester, students completed a survey about their experiences that had both Likert scale and open-ended questions. The instructors critically reflected on their experiences. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Overall, students and the instructors had positive experiences with the instructional strategy. In our reflective analysis, we answer Hutchings's (2000) taxonomy of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) inquiry questions. We found that students appreciated being exposed to two experts who have different instructional strategies. Educators have to trust and respect their peers in ways that allow them to be vulnerable and enhance their practice. The surprise and instructor collaboration brought by guerrilla pedagogy enhanced students’ engagement in large classes.