“We tell students to leave their comfort zones, try new things, take risks and learn from mistakes. I decided to lead by example with my approach to teaching.”

It’s just after 2 p.m. on a Friday and Krista Madsen’s in a hallway huddle with her team of teaching assistants.

Like a band warming up backstage or a team getting a locker room pep talk before the big game, the huddle is a pre-class ritual for the associate professor and the 10 TAs.

In 20 minutes, Madsen will be teaching musculoskeletal anatomy to more than 200 undergrads. The second-year course is billed as an experiential approach to functional movement analysis. It’s also a master class in active learning thanks to big and small changes Madsen’s made to the course over the last four years.

“We tell students to leave their comfort zones, try new things, take risks and learn from mistakes. I decided to lead by example with my approach to teaching.”

Madsen says the TAs have a key role to play. “The class wouldn’t work without them.” Every TA is a grad student in the kinesiology department. They’ve been handpicked by Madsen because they love teaching and want to be in a classroom.  Seven of the TAs have worked with Madsen before – several for many years – and all but one have taken her anatomy course. They know what’s about to happen and they’re here for it. They also know to wear comfortable shoes.

Madsen hands out copies of this week’s slide deck, runs through the concepts students will learn and previews the assignment they’ll complete in class. After more than 20 years of teaching, Madsen knows how to hit the sweet spot with her lectures so students aren’t overwhelmed or left bored and restless.

There’s now 15 minutes until the start of class and it’s time for debate club. Each week, someone in the huddle tosses out a topic – the more off-the-wall and non-existential, the better. It’s Madsen’s turn and she asks the TAs what to pour first into a bowl at breakfast – milk or cereal?

The TAs waste no time rendering a unanimous verdict – it’s milk. Madsen’s surprised there are no dissenting opinions. She says this never happens. Debate raged last week over whether it’s better to fend off an angry chicken or a goose in a foul mood.

Madsen follows up by asking what to do with the leftover milk at the bottom of the bowl – drink it or dump it? Again, everyone’s in agreement. Pouring milk down the sink is wasteful although the TAs are split on how to drink the milk. One of the TAs points out that the best leftover milk comes from the worst cereals – the kind with cartoon characters on the box that parents refuse to buy for their kids. Madsen gently ribs the TA – that’s not what she expects to hear from a kin grad who’s spent years studying the science of health and nutrition.

The huddle breaks just before class is set to start. On the walk over to the classroom, Madsen says the weekly ritual builds camaraderie and gets everyone’s head in the game.  “It sets the right vibe for students when they walk in and see that we’re having fun and feeling relaxed and energized.”

Madsen made the mistake of cancelling the huddles a few years ago. The class started first thing in the morning so not having them roll in at 8 a.m. felt like she was doing the TAs a favour. But Madsen noticed right away that the TAs were no longer bringing their A game. They showed up with less energy and enthusiasm. She asked a senior TA to weigh in with honest feedback. “She suggested that connecting through the pre-class chats might make us feel more like a team – and she was right. I learned a lesson.“ The huddles were reinstated.

Madsen and the TAs are dialed in and ready for the next 50 minutes. The in-person class caps off a week of online learning built around a single theme – students have watched three short videos posted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (the longest ever video in Madsen’s course was just shy of 20 minutes) and completed open-book quizzes on Wednesday and Thursday. The in-person class won’t make any sense to students who’ve skipped the videos and quizzes.

“Friday is when we pull everything together and set the students’ world on fire. It takes a total team effort from the first to the final minute of class.”

Madsen is counting on the TAs to be extra eyes and ears in a cavernous room that’s more banquet hall than lecture theatre. There are dozens of round tables in a room that has a maximum seating capacity of just over 400 people. The lectern’s at the far end of the room, with a wide aisle cutting the space in half.

Any instructor who shows up expecting to be a sage on the stage is in for a rough ride – this is where traditional lectures go to die. And it’s why Madsen couldn’t wait to teach here.

At the start of her career – Madsen was in McMaster’s first cohort of teaching stream faculty – she delivered traditional lectures. She was the sage on a stage with an overhead projector and a stack of transparencies. Writing on the transparencies during a lecture was considered revolutionary.

But then came a series of “A-ha” moments for Madsen, starting with Google. The days of being a presenter of knowledge seemed numbered. “Why would a student sit through one of my lectures for information they could find in just a few minutes online? I realized that learning experiences for students in my courses had to become so much richer and the onus was on me to make it happen. I found that my teaching became far more impactful and relevant for students when I approached it creatively and paid attention to what makes learning fundamentally human.”  This is when Madsen started to make the move from passive to active learning through a series of small tweaks. “It took years to get the course to where it is today. It didn’t happen overnight.”

And then came COVID. Students returned to in-person classes craving social interactions but fearing it at the same time, says Madsen. They’d forgotten how to interact with each other.

Madsen says the round tables are the key ingredient for active learning. “Students sit together, face each other and talk with each other all throughout the class. I don’t want students sitting silently in rows, staring at me and struggling to pay attention.”

While the TAs break out the magic markers and make name tags for themselves – creativity is strongly encouraged – Madsen tests her lapel mic and fires up the monitors that line the walls. Her slide deck is a point of pride. Gone are the transparencies from 20 years ago. Like the course, she’s spent hours reworking and refining each and every slide. There’s no death by PowerPoint in Madsen’s. Each slide looks like a billboard with a single image, a few words and bold colours that serve as prompts and reminders while students talk at their tables.

The students start arriving and filling the tables. The room is buzzing. The TAs fan out and check in with the students at every table.

And then it’s finally showtime. Madsen then kicks off the class, walking up and down the centre aisle. She’ll never once stand behind the lectern.

First up is a quick review of what stumped and stymied students in last week’s class. Madsen then introduces this week’s lesson in anatomy. She teaches for about five minutes, using her body to demonstrate the key concepts. She then hands the learning off to the students and switches from instructor to academic coach.

The room gets very loud very quickly. Instead of looking at their phones, students are talking and looking to each other for answers. Many students get up and mimic how Madsen had bent her elbows, knees and hips.

Madsen and the TAs know when to hang back and when to pull up a chair and lend students a hand. Show up too early and the students will stop talking and look to the TAs and Madsen for the answers.

“We’re constantly paying attention. There’s a definite rhythm to the class. You can see and hear when students are fully engaged and when they’re starting to drift and talk about their plans for the weekend.” This is when the focus shifts back to Madsen – she interrupts the students by asking if she can borrow their minds for a few more minutes.

There’s a mutual respect happening in the room. Students go silent and pay attention when Madsen starts talking. She credits it to her willingness to share control with the students. “I can’t control if students learn. But I can control how well prepared I am, how much energy I bring to the class and how ready I am to support the students in their learning. The students know that for 50 minutes there’s nowhere else and nothing else I’d rather be doing.”

The hour flies by and class wraps up with students completing an anonymous survey. Madsen wants to know what students found confusing from this week’s class, videos and quizzes. Their feedback will tee up the review that leads off next week’s class and be used to tweak the course when it’s delivered again next year.

While students line up to talk with Madsen, other students take their questions over to the TAs. Madsen eventually joins the larger group for a final impromptu lesson, using a gummy worm as a stand-in for a knee ligament.

You wouldn’t know it during the class but Madsen’s an introvert. She likes that there’s enough tables in the room for students who’d rather learn on their own or in a small group.

Madsen will need to some down time after class with headphones on to recharge her batteries. But it’s a small price to pay for what Madsen sees as the bigger mission with the course.

“Yes, we’re helping students learn about elbows and ankles. But students are also learning how to be good citizens, how to work together, how to get along with others, how to think critically, solve problems and communicate. These are essential lifelong, transferable skills.”

The TAs are learning alongside the students. “All of them definitely have what it takes to be our next generation of educators.”  Madsen sits down with each TA before the start of the year for a heart-to-heart conversation. The TAs tell Madsen about their short and long-term teaching and leadership goals and together they figure out how to reach them.

It’s the same conversation that Madsen had with mentor Barry Bartlett. She credits Bartlett for putting her on the path to become an award-winning teaching stream faculty member. “Barry took me aside and told me to teach. I’m glad I listened.” Madsen’s now the mentor the TAs who huddle in the hallway every Friday afternoon. “There’s something really amazing about helping someone step into their full potential and realize what they’re capable of.”