1.3 Spark an Idea 1: Teaching Strategies

1.3.1 Indigenization of Environmental Science courses: Challenges and Insights from a Pedagogical Perspective
Tanzina Mohsin,Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Physical and Environmental, UTSC

This session will present an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiative focused on the Indigenization of Environmental Science courses. The integration of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and perspectives remains significantly underrepresented in Environmental Sciences and related fields. To address this gap, experiential learning elements have been incorporated into climatology courses within the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at UTSC. These courses explore Indigenous Climate Change experiences through an applied pedagogical approach, introducing students to the impacts of climate on Indigenous communities and how future climate change may affect them. Two student-centered exercises have been designed to incorporate IK content into B- and D-level courses, providing students with opportunities to apply Indigenous Knowledge respectfully and meaningfully in the exchange of information between Environmental Scientists/Climatologists and Indigenous communities. An IK-based assignment, along with an exercise module, is designed to help students (B-level) explore and understand IK from an inquiry-based learning context. The lessons learned from the Indigenization process of these courses will be evaluated, and both challenges and insights will be shared during the session. The Indigenization approach has been further expanded to an upper-year course, enabling students (D-level) to describe the features of various knowledge sources, assess confidence levels, and understand the limitations of specific sources in their analyses. This educational seminar will address key ethical considerations in working across different knowledge systems, particularly in relation to Indigenous land use rights. Additionally, it will encourage participants to reflect on how they can decolonize their own teaching practices across disciplines.

1.3.2 Reaching the Rest: Sustainability Education for All through the Pan-University Sustainability Pathways Program
Kristy Faccer, Director of Secretariat, Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS), Ayako Ariga, Project Manager, CECCS

This session will focus on how the Sustainability Pathways Program offers a unique teaching strategy at a macro level for U of T’s commitment to sustainability via student-centered approaches to transformative change. In particular, the university-wide program promotes interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning to help students understand the complexities of sustainability, merging knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines and encouraging collaboration across academic boundaries and with non-academic community partners. This approach equips students with the diverse skills needed to effectively tackle multifaceted sustainability issues, enhancing their ability to generate impactful solutions.

Created by the U of T Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS), the program encourages students to explore sustainability learning by becoming Sustainability Scholars, Citizens, and Leaders through a tiered framework of curricular, co-curricular, and capstone leadership training tiers, respectively. In this talk, participants will learn about our strategy for including non-traditional disciplines (""reaching the rest,""), as well as our interdisciplinary pathways approach.

Sustainability and climate change are defining issues of our time, and universities play a critical role in preparing the next generation of leaders. This session advances the broader TLS theme on human-centered learning via a focus on combining sustainability and pedagogy.   In collaboration with the broader community of practice of sustainability instructors, the CECCS has identified a set of working pedagogical principles which stress the human-centered approach in teaching, such as environmental justice, critical hope, and place-based learning, which will be refined and fed back into the curriculum.

1.3.3 Introducing “PillPal”: Development and Use of a Virtual Tutor for Pharmacology courses
Michelle Arnot, Professor, Teaching Stream, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Cordelia Shan, Academic, Research & Collaborative (ARC) technologies University of Toronto, Amani Najjar, 3rd year Pharmacology & Toxicology SPE student, Olivia Pulsifer, 3rd year Pharmacology & Toxicology student, Temerty Faculty of Medicine

As part of a pilot project collaboration with ARC and CTSI, in summer 2024 teaching faculty and work-study students in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology began developing a virtual tutor.  This session will discuss the behind-the-scenes approach and Departmental efforts required to develop the virtual tutor, the challenges, learning and eventual success. We launched two virtual tutors for two distinct courses, the first in the fall in our PCL302H course and a second one in our PCL201H course. Our first pilot virtual tutor, used in PCL302H, had limited success with poor student uptake likely due to poor user experience. Adopting lessons learned from the first virtual tutor coupled with an increase in resourcing via additional work- study students involved with background work, iterative testing and training of the virtual tutor throughout the project, our second attempt in PCL201H has had much greater success regarding accuracy and student uptake.   

Students were provided with a CTSI resource on how to effectively “prompt” the tutor to be able to receive answers to content questions, integrative questions and develop practice exam questions. To promote student engagement, we held a vote to name the virtual tutor “PillPal”.  A student survey launched to gauge student experience and comfort level with the bot will also be included at the end of the term.  The virtual tutor is offered alongside the Discussion Board on Quercus, which is monitored weekly by Teaching Assistants (TAs).

The integration of the virtual tutor is one aspect of how AI is being integrated into the Pharmacology teaching and learning practice. Improving students’ understanding of effective and critical thinking of AI content within the discipline and ways in which it may and may not be beneficial are also integrated across multiple courses, including the two courses that piloted the virtual tutor.