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PUTL Modules

"woman writing with a pen on a wooden table with a coffee mug in the background"Professional Development in University Teaching and Learning (PUTL)

At the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) we encourage educators to engage in reflective and active practice for improving teaching and learning. As part of your professional development, you may be interested in submitting work towards each of the PUTL modules, a series on online self-paced modules geared primarily towards graduate students, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral fellows.

An Acknowledgement of Completion will be awarded for each module upon fulfillment of the required deliverables.

A Letter of Completion in Professional Development in University Teaching and Learning will be awarded to successful candidates who complete five (5) of the seven (7) modules. This includes two mandatory and three optional modules.

  • The mandatory modules are Module 1 (Foundations of Teaching and Learning) and Module 2 (Practical Experience).
  • For the optional modules you can choose any three (3) of the other modules (numbers 3 through 7).

Modules can be completed in any order and there is no time limit (as long as you are an active graduate student or post-doctoral fellow at Queen’s).

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Consultation with an EDA

Have questions about PUTL or the module deliverables? Make an appointment with an EDA (Educational Development Associate). The EDA can discuss with you which modules best suit your current teaching experience and professional development needs.

To make an appointment with an EDA, please email TA&GradCTL@queensu.ca.

Components

Foundations in Teaching and Learning

This module recognizes your development in foundational issues and topics regarding teaching and learning. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Recognize foundational issues and topics of university teaching and learning.
  • Articulate beliefs, attitudes, and philosophies towards university teaching and learning, as informed by foundational concepts of teaching and learning.

Submission Requirements:

Part 1: Document your participation in 6 workshops related to teaching and learning
Part 2: Reflection or Teaching Philosophy

Practical Experience

This module recognizes the practical teaching experiences you have gained. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Participate in a practical teaching experience for the development of skills as an educator.
  • Seek and compile feedback from the practical teaching experience.
  • Analyze feedback to evaluate the success of teaching practices.

Submission Requirements:

Part 1: Engage in a practical teaching experience
Part 2: Collect feedback on your teaching
Part 3: Compose a reflection or develop parts of a Teaching Dossier

Educational Leadership

This module recognizes leaders who contribute to the advancement of teaching and learning across campus through the work that they do (e.g. through a Head TA position, peer mentoring, or a member of a teaching and learning task force or committee, mentoring junior colleagues, taking the initiative to redesign teaching material such as a handbook, or taking the lead on an educational initiative).

Submission Requirements:

Part 1: Identify and document formal or informal educational leadership role related to university teaching and learning
Part 2: Critical analysis of the leadership experience

Scholarship in Teaching and Learning

This module introduces individuals to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), which is the research and investigation of questions and problems concerning university teaching and learning. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Define and explain the scholarship of teaching and learning in the context of one's own academic discipline.
  • Formulate a SoTL question

Submission Requirements:

Part 1: Identify an area of interest, a barrier, or dilemma in university teaching and learning within your academic discipline
Part 2: Explore the area of interest, barrier, or dilemma through consulting recent academic literature
Part 3: Write a focused research question based on your SoTL review or a reflection on how your understanding has changed as a result of your literature review

Accessible Teaching and Learning

This module compliments the university’s commitment to accessibility and inclusiveness by encouraging and helping educators recognize, understand, and develop accessible teaching practices. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Understand and communicate the differences between accessibility, accommodation, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), as well as the impact, benefits, and challenges of implementing these strategies into their teaching practice.
  • Understand and communicate the benefits of accessible (inclusive) teaching practice and why it is beneficial to apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies during course design (even before receiving formal requests for accommodation).
  • Apply and demonstrate some principles of UDL using an example from their own practice.

Submission Requirements:

Part 1: Complete the Accessible Instruction at Queen’s online training for educators
Part 2: Compose a reflection about your perspective on inclusion and accessibility
Part 3: Apply what you’ve learned to one of your own activities or assignments in your teaching

Indigenizing and Decolonizing Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this module is to challenge you to re-imagine post-secondary education in a way that departs from traditional colonial conventions and towards a model that embraces Indigenous ways of knowing and decolonizing practices. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Build your understanding of Indigenous and decolonizing pedagogies.
  • Critically reflect on your teaching practice and how you can purposefully and meaningfully incorporate Indigenous and decolonizing pedagogies into your role as an educator.

Submission Requirements:

To build flexibility into this module, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on and meet your specific needs as a learner by choosing between one of two streams.

Stream 1: Deliverables:
Part A: Write a reflection on practice based on the resources you engage with through reading, listening, watching, or participating.
Part B: Compose a land acknowledgement
Part C: Adapt a course resource to show the integration of a land acknowledgement into course components

Stream 2: Deliverables:
Part A: Write a reflection on practice based on the resources you engage with through reading, listening, watching, or participating.
Part B: Using a graphic organizer and Brant and Morcom’s (2021) Pedagogy of Peace Indigenous Curriculum Model, describe how you can incorporate Indigenous pedagogies and ways of knowing and being into your classroom.

Anti-Racist Learning Environments

The purpose of this is to highlight the ways university education replicates patterns of systemic racism from our broader social contexts and how we can disrupt these patterns through our teaching practices. You will have the opportunity to explore anti-racist education and pedagogies through self-directed learning activities. Applicants will need to demonstrate the ability to:

  • Recognize racist institutional structures in post-secondary education and understand how Black, Indigenous, and students and educators of colour are affected by these structures.
  • Explore how you can commit to de-centering whiteness in your classroom by actively creating an anti-racist learning environment.

Submission Requirements:

To build flexibility into this module, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on and meet your specific needs as a learner by choosing between one of two streams.

Stream 1: Deliverables:
Part A: Write a reflection on practice based on the resources you engage with through reading, listening, watching, or participating.
Part B: Identify and describe three examples of anti-racist teaching practices under the categories of: instructional strategies, learning activities, and curricular content (one teaching practice per a category).

Stream 2: Deliverables:
Part A: Write a reflection on practice based on the resources you engage with through reading, listening, watching, or participating.
Part B: Write a diversity statement.

 

Submission deadline is the last Wednesday of each month.

For any additional information regarding PUTL certificates, please contact the EDAs at TA&GradCTL@queensu.ca.