TEACHING & MENTORING
Learning is social. Good teaching makes that social process purposeful.
I design learning around people, participation, and meaningful work. My goal is for students to leave with more than completed assignments: they should leave with stronger judgment, greater confidence, and something they can carry into the communities and professions they are entering.
01
People first.
Learners bring different histories, ambitions, constraints, and ways of demonstrating excellence. Flexibility is part of good course design, not an exception to it.
02
Learning is social.
I build courses around collaboration, peer feedback, discussion, and participation in communities of practice rather than treating learning as an isolated activity.
03
Work toward something real.
Learning becomes more durable when students iteratively make, critique, revise, and improve products that resemble what they will actually create or do beyond the course.
IMMERSIVE CHINESE · MOZILLA HUBS
FEATURED TEACHING INNOVATION
Technology earns its place when it changes what learners can meaningfully do.
I helped design and facilitate an immersive Chinese-language learning experience in which learners interacted with language, imagery, and one another inside a shared 3D environment. The work was recognized with Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s Most Innovative Teaching Practice Award and later informed published research on learner acceptance of multi-user virtual reality for Chinese language education.
RECOGNITION
Most Innovative Teaching Practice Award
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Related scholarship
Technology acceptance model and multi-user virtual reality learning environments for Chinese language education ↗
TEACHING ACROSS CONTEXTS
Different subjects. The same underlying commitments.
My teaching has moved across learning sciences, instructional design, career development, academic English, and language education. That range has reinforced a consistent principle: pedagogy should begin with what learners need to become able to do.
LEARNING SCIENCES & ID
Theory into design decisions.
Graduate learning focused on instructional design, research, critique, and the use of theory to reason through complex educational problems.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Learning for consequential choices.
Career-development teaching centered on reflection, decision making, professional communication, and the practical skills needed to navigate work and learning.
ACADEMIC ENGLISH
Participation in academic communities.
Academic-literacy courses emphasizing critical reading, writing, listening, presentation, collaboration, and disciplinary communication.
LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION
Communication through meaningful use.
Language teaching built around interaction, debate, presentation, authentic tasks, and the confidence to use language for real communicative purposes.
MENTORING
From observation to participation to ownership.
When a learner has a knowledge or skill gap, I try not to substitute my answer for their learning. I look for a meaningful next level of participation: observing an experienced peer, contributing to a low-risk task, practicing with feedback, and gradually taking on greater responsibility.
01
Observe
See expert practice and make the normally invisible decisions visible.
02
Participate
Contribute to meaningful work with support, feedback, and room to revise.
03
Own
Take increasing responsibility until the learner can make and defend decisions independently.
STUDENT VOICE
What learners remember.
“Alex is always patient and helpful.”
Student feedback
“Alex perfectly combined the popular new technology and language learning process.”
Participant feedback
SELECTED COURSES
Recent teaching and instructional roles.
2025
SDS3340 · Introduction to Career Development
Life and career planning, reflection, decision making, and professional development.
2024–2025
EME6677 · Advanced Instructional Design & Development
Graduate instructional-design theory, research, critique, and emerging practice.
2024–2025
EDG6362 · Instructional Systems Research Seminar
Research programs, methodological reasoning, and disciplined inquiry in instructional systems.
Earlier teaching history
2020–2021: ENGL123 English Level 2 Listening; ENGL122 English Level 2 Writing
2017–2020: EAP115 English Language and Study Skills III for Mathematics; EAP105 English Language and Study Skills II for Business; EAP034 English for Academic Purposes
2015–2017: Listening and Speaking
2013–2015: English Communications I & II; English Expressions II; Introduction to Academic Writing
2012–2013: English Literature; English Grammar
2011: ESL142 Advanced Listening and Speaking
2010: English 217 Second Year Composition for Multilingual Students
Alex Barrett 