Blog

A part of 2.2: Lightning Talk session. Promoting Knowledge Translation and Engagement with Social Justice Issues Through a Digital Policy Brief Julius Haag, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Sociology, UTM Bringing academic knowledge into dialogue with policy issues and diverse publics remains central in sociology and criminology (Buroway, 2004). Further, the current climate of ‘post-truth’ has presented unique challenges to scholars and a pressing need to broadly share our findings and be active participants in public debates (Peterson, 2016). In my 3rd year ‘Sociology of Crime’ course, I asked students to develop digital policy briefs that addressed a [...]

A part of 4.2: Lightning Talk session. The Last Class Workshop – A Versatile Tool for Course Evaluation and Evolution Erin Styles, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Molecular Genetics Recognizing that the last session of class at the end of the term is often not very materially productive, I have searched for a way to make this last class meaningful and functional for both me and my students. In this session, I will describe a modified workshop first developed by Dr. Elizabeth Bleicher at Ithaca College as a means of obtaining real-time, in-person or virtual course evaluations, and driving course evolution [...]

A part of 4.3: Lightning Talk session. TAs as Learners: Promoting Reflective Teaching in an Informal Learning Community Jacqueline Smith, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science, FAS Mario Badr, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science, FAS In this session, we will present the TA training program we have implemented in a large first-year course (CSC108). We have run this training program both in-person and online. The goals of this program are to encourage TAs to reflect on their teaching, and to build a stronger TA community. We expect that our TAs are well-versed in the subject matter [...]

A part of 4.3: Lightning Talk session. Development of Graduate Student Pedagogy Through Practical Application and Partnership with High School Educators in the Discovery Educational Platform Dawn Kilkenny, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) & ISTEP Nicolas Ivanov, Doctoral candidate, IBME Nhien Tran-Nguyen, Master of Applied Science candidate, IBME Neal Callaghan, IBME, Doctoral candidate, IBME Theresa Frost, TDSB ACL Science & STEAM, Discovery/ISTEP Locke Davenport Huyer, Post-doctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University The evolving academic landscape requires skills beyond traditional research, therefore graduate students in STEM require broad opportunities to develop and improve translatable skillsets. [...]

A part of 3.2: Lightning Talk session. Departmental approaches to increasing awareness and decreasing stigma towards mental health in faculty and students Charlotte Pashley, Administrative Staff, Pharmacology & Toxicology Michelle Arnot, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Pharmacology & Toxicology Vince Lam, Instructor, Pharmacology & Toxicology Aleksandra Marakhovskaia, Graduate Student, Pharmacology & Toxicology Alison Jee, Graduate Student, Pharmacology & Toxicology Ruth Ross, Professor and Chair, Pharmacology & Toxicology The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology has developed a toolkit of diverse approaches to help increase awareness of and decrease stigmatization towards mental health issues for both students and faculty. This [...]

A part of 3.2: Lightning Talk session. Utilizing Critical Reflection and Experiential Learning to unite Global Virtual Teams Elham Marzi, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, ISTEP, FASE Anuli Ndubuisi, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto This session will explore a strategy initially developed to support International Virtual Engineering Student Teams (InVEST) program. The InVEST program offers applied research opportunities for senior undergraduate (4th year) and Masters students. Students in the program engage in virtual research teams with counterparts at other universities around the globe. The learning-strategy used in InVEST’s modules have a multipronged approach to [...]

A part of 2.2: Lightning Talk session. Physical Sciences Research Experience – a model for co-designing lab experiences with students, for students Kris Kim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Physical & Environmental Sciences, UTSC Effie Sauer, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Physical & Environmental Sciences, UTSC Lana Mikhaylichenko, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Physical & Environmental Sciences, UTSC Laboratory courses have traditionally served as opportunities to support students’ development across a wide range of skills, while also offering spaces to be creative, for both students and faculty alike. While creating new laboratory exercises can be exciting and rewarding, offering new [...]

A part of 5.2: Lightning Talk session. Performative Vulnerability as a Classroom Strategy Kate Maddalena, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, ICCIT, UTM This session describes an exercise in performative vulnerability as a strategy for enlisting students as collaborators (rather than subordinates) in a classroom as a learning space for instructor and student (rather than only the latter). Specifically, I will describe my own desire, as a new settler in Canada, to actively learn about Canadian indigeneity by teaching the work of indigenous writers. I use a framing activity when I present my syllabus and then I re-introduce that frame [...]

A part of 5.2: Lightning Talk session. Increasing EAL International Students’ Confidence to Participate in Online Classrooms: Using an Anti-Oppressive Framework Yaseen Ali, Learning Strategist, Academic Success Jasjit Sangha Learning Strategist, Academic Success Societal inequity is reproduced on university campuses, in a myriad of ways, from how course curricula are designed to how students are expected to interact in the classroom. For international students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) – many of them racialized – deficiency attitudes around language proficiency such as native-speakerism negatively impact their confidence to participate verbally. EAL international students thus often feel [...]