Spark an Idea

4.3.1 Cultivating Wisdom Through Self-Reflection: A Personal Life Philosophy Assignment Amanda Sharples, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Faculty of Arts & Science There has been a call from scholars of pedagogy to encourage the cultivation of wisdom in higher education (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018; Ferrari & Kim, 2019; Jakubik, 2023).  Indeed, wisdom has consistently been linked to greater well-being and may buffer against the stressful experiences that undergraduate students frequentlyencounter (Liu & Sharples, in prep; Ardelt & Jeste, 2016). Research on the pedagogy of wisdom suggests that self-reflection may be particularly important for enhancing wisdom (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018). Many undergraduate students are [...]

3.1.1 Against All Odds: The Sandbox’s Asynchronous Collaboration across Disciplines William Ryan, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Psychology, Steven Coyne, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Philosophy/Computer Science, Faculty of Arts & Science What does meaningful collaboration across courses look like? What if the courses are different sizes, at different times, from different disciplines, and the students are completing different assignments? In this short session, we describe an approach we piloted to facilitate asynchronous collaboration across philosophy and psychology courses as part of The Sandbox multidisciplinary experiential learning initiative. As part of the course, students from both courses worked on projects for UNICEF. Philosophy students [...]

2.4.1 Developing Students’ Economics Writing Skills through Scaffolded AI-Assisted Feedback Nazanin Khazra, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Economics, Faculty of Arts & Science, Victoria Sheldon,Faculty Liaison Coordinator, Generative AI Pedagogies, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation This session introduces an innovative assessment method for a Microeconomics theory course (ECO200) that combines economic analysis with reflective writing, supported by critically engaging with AI-assisted feedback. The assessment includes pre-exam preparation, a pre-test assignment with reflection on AI feedback, and an in-person writing exam on real-world economic scenarios. This approach leverages generative AI to provide personalized feedback on students' pre-exam essays, with the aim of [...]

2.2.1 A Just-In-Time, Blended Approach to Prerequisite Review Lisa Zhang, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Alice Gao, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science, Faculty of Arts & Science Many upper-year courses have prerequisites, but students often struggle to retain prerequisite knowledge, e.g., due to gaps in time and difficulty transferring knowledge to new contexts. While prerequisite review is a well-established educational practice, we believe that its timing, modality, and level of support help ensure that no one is left behind. Thus, this session describes a teaching strategy used in our third-year machine learning courses [...]

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 [...]