More than Students… A Pedagogy of Kindness

While I have always considered my approach to teaching to be student-centered, teaching during a pandemic challenged me to critically examine my teaching philosophy and practices. Guided by principles of the pedagogy of kindness, I sought student input as we collaboratively modified our courses during the COVID-19-induced shift to online learning. Through this, I found that extending compassion to students, while not compromising the rigor or course expectations, resulted in high student engagement and learning, particularly as evidenced through weekly check-ins and end of semester feedback. This paper will provide a brief synopsis of the pedagogy of kindness, offer a glimpse into the student-teacher collaborative effort of assignment and course modification, and highlight the reality that sometimes, before we see the 'wins' of content knowledge or critical thinking in our students, we first need to shore up their hearts.