Call for Proposals

TLS2025 is a tri-campus University of Toronto event, hosted by the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation, is intended to stimulate discussion and the sharing of research, practices and experiences around teaching and learning. It is a cross-divisional forum that allows instructors, librarians, and staff to celebrate their commitment to teaching and learning.

For TLS2025, we are considering approaches to our work that support human flourishing. What current practices can we celebrate and what new or different paths can we explore that will both strengthen us as individuals and better support our work with students and within communities? Generative AI and other technologies are pushing us to rethink what and how we teach, raising questions about assessment and academic integrity while offering new opportunities. How can we maintain a human-centered approach in light of technologies that are evolving at a rapid pace and crises that continue to erupt around the world? The impacts of global crises are being felt deeply on our campuses. What will enable all to feel valued and heard, yet also encourage discussion of challenging and difficult topics as we continue to foster learning through open and respectful dialogue? Through these ongoing upheavals, how can we continue to support human flourishing?

Teaching and Learning for Human Flourishing invites open conversation about the ways we, as both leaders and learners, can thrive.

Enabling and supporting human flourishing in our institution in these times is a complex undertaking that requires both personal and collective rethinking. This process may involve discomfort, but this is essential for growth. Join us in co-creating a symposium that not only seeks to address today’s challenges but also paves the way for a hopeful, human-centered future in higher education.

We are all leaders. We are all learners. We can all thrive.

SYMPOSIUM STREAMS

We flourish through…

LEADING

• What does it mean to be educational leaders in times of upheaval and rapid change?
• Who is leading?
• When growth happens, who is left behind?
• How do we ensure as leaders we put humans at the center of our work?
• How do we empower students in helping to support and foster change?

LEARNING

• What enables and sustains learning, even in times of crisis or change?
• Are there systems or ways of thinking that we might need to unlearn? How do we address challenging truths blocking transformative work?
• How does listening (to ourselves, our students, our colleagues, our communities) support the learning process? How do we improve our listening skills?
• How do we support students and ourselves through discomfort and failure?
• What training and tools can help instructors navigate difficulty and/or change?  What role does digital literacy play in the education of all learners?

THRIVING

• What are the conditions that enable students to thrive, both within the University and beyond?
• What are the conditions that enable innovative educators to thrive?
• How can teamwork and collaboration support a human- and student-centred approach to change?
• What does it mean to ‘thrive’ in an environment where struggle is part of the growth/learning process?  How do we support students and ourselves through discomfort and failure?
• How do we balance competing demands and prevent burnout?

Proposal Formats

Please note that each proposal format has an attached protocol to guide submissions. The submission protocol will support the peer review process.

Special Note: TLS2025 will offer opportunities for participants to take part both in-person and online. Please read each session description carefully to confirm the specific presentation modality options available.

Proposals for concurrent sessions will be accepted for the following formats:

Spark an Idea Talk — Teaching Strategies & Nifty Assignments — 15 minutes

Modality: Spark an Idea Talks will all be delivered online.

These online synchronous sessions focus on simple and effective practices that instructors have used in their own teaching which can be replicated in other settings. These are meant to be efficient exchanges of useful ideas and tried-and-true techniques with a chance for participants to ask questions.

Each presenter has a total of 15 minutes to summarize their strategy/assessment, highlighting its impact (10 minutes) and facilitate a brief question-and-answer discussion (5 minutes).

Spark an Idea Talks address one of these categories:

• Teaching Strategies: these talks focus on sharing effective teaching strategies, including the purpose, intended outcomes, possible demonstration of the strategy and examples. Discussion should address how others can apply the strategies in their own teaching contexts.
• Nifty Assessments: these talks focus on the sharing of a ‘nifty assessment’, giving details of the development and administration of the assessment, intended student outcomes, strengths and challenges of the assessment, and discussion regarding how the assessment might be used in other disciplinary contexts or delivery modes.

Inquiry on Teaching and Learning — Investigating Pedagogy and Practice — 30 minutes

Modality: Inquiry on Teaching and Learning Talks will all be delivered online.

These online synchronous sessions focus on sharing a completed teaching and learning-focused inquiry project, providing an overview of the design, methods and findings. We recommend a 20-minute presentation and 10 minutes for discussion.

We encourage pedagogical projects that investigate opportunities to enhance inclusion, learner flexibility and accessibility, and/or explore applicable pedagogical theories and how they translate into equitable teaching learning methods for all learners.

We encourage submissions that use a Students as Partners approach that “makes way for respectful, mutually beneficial learning partnerships where students and staff [faculty] work together on all aspects of educational endeavours” (Matthews, 2017). Please note that instructors will lead the presentation and may include one student co-facilitator.

Interactive Workshop — 60 minutes

Modality: Interactive Workshops will be delivered online (a small number may be selected for in-person delivery).

Interactive Workshops are online synchronous sessions that include a live presentation with audience interaction/activities as well as a time for discussion/Q&A.

Participants in these online workshops should be asked to generate something through individual or collaborative work, such as reflective writing, collaborative brainstorming, generative problem-solving, design thinking exercises, etc.

Note that online synchronous activities such as responding to polls, posting in the chat, writing on whiteboards or files, or contributing to shared documents are all suitable interaction processes. Presenters are encouraged to model interactive processes they have used effectively in online environments.

Teaching Dialogue Roundtables — 60 minutes

Modality: Teaching Dialogues sessions will all be delivered online (a small number may be selected for in-person delivery).

These online synchronous sessions provide an opportunity for deeper reflection on teaching and learning issues or innovations, with a focus on facing challenges and problem solving. These sessions should be considered dialogical or an opportunity to engage participants in collective ideation about what we can do to improve equity and access in teaching and learning. Through discussion and creative responses drawn from participants’ personal experiences and wider sources, can we work together to expand our imagination and understanding of what is possible?

Individuals are encouraged to be creative in their proposal design format (e.g., panel discussion, talking circle, pre-prepared conversation topics on teaching innovations, reflections or challenges, bringing forward an idea for the group to consider, etc.)