By Jess Coughlin, OSU-Cascades
Resilient Teaching Voices Series
I am confident that most of us working in higher education would agree that the past year has required a more purposeful effort to be resilient. We are constantly adapting during a disruptive time period in higher education. The original purpose of this blog post was meant to be about resilient teaching. However, with the influx of emails on budget deficits and funding cuts I find that teaching is the main thing building my resilience in the current climate.
Technology has changed and there was a transition after COVID, but students seem to be back in their groove. They are showing up and focused on moving forward. They remind me that our only choice is to be resilient, and with that comes the opportunity for growth.
One of the tools that has helped me be resilient in my teaching and life is focusing on the variables included within the self-determination theory. This theory states we have three basic psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. When these needs are met, we have increased motivation, which often leads to improved well-being.
When creating a class plan, I focus on how I can weave these three variables into my materials. For example, in lectures I hope to build the competence of the students by helping them understand the concepts. I aim to build autonomy by encouraging them to create practical examples that they can connect to. Lastly, I build relatedness by having them interact with their classmates and when possible outside organizations or people. These examples describe what I assume many of us are already doing in many classes, however I find it helpful to intentionally think about each variable and how different aspects of my class may connect to the self-determination theory.
The Resilient Teaching Learning Community that I am a part of recently talked about the use of authentic audiences for classroom assignments. If designed with the self-determination theory in mind, projects based on authentic audiences can allow the student to choose their audience (autonomy), gain confidence in their topic (competence), and connect with someone or a group outside of the classroom (relatedness). Aside from addressing the variables of the self-determination theory, authentic audiences also allow for authentic feedback and encourage students to step out of their comfort zone. Unlike the self-determination theory, applying the use of authentic audiences in my classroom does not happen naturally so I plan to focus on building this into more assignments in the future.
The self-determination theory helps me explain why being in the classroom feels so important right now for my well-being. It is an environment that helps me feel confident through the material I am teaching, create a learning environment that I have a say in, and experience connection. I am going to work on focusing on these three things when dealing with all the “other” things that higher education brings along. When I have trouble doing this, the promise of spending more time in the classroom helps to keep me moving forward (even when it’s not all rainbows and sunshine).
Getting outside and the occasional NW craft beer while connecting with family and friends helps too. : )
About the author: Jess Coughlin is an Assistant Professor of Teaching for the Kinesiology program at Oregon State University-Cascades. She loves brainstorming experiential activities to add into her classes and incorporating authentic audiences into the work her students engage in.
Editor’s note: This is part of the Resilient Teaching Voices Series of guest posts about resilience and teaching strategies by members of the Fall ’25 Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community facilitated by CTL. The opinions expressed in guest posts are solely those of the author.
Top image generated with Microsoft Copilot.
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