Teaching Matters Program:
For New and Pre-Tenured Faculty
This program will provide new and pre-tenure faculty with the opportunity to learn about timely and practical approaches for enhancing their teaching, while building their campus-wide network in an informal setting. Facilitated discussions on a range of topics in teaching and learning will combine evidence-based research with first-hand experience from participants and CTL staff.
This program will be offered remotely for the 2020-21 academic year, or until such time as we are allowed to return to campus and gather safely in large groups.
Participants in this program will:
- apply evidence-based strategies for teaching to their own courses and instructional contexts
- develop a network of faculty, staff, and educational support professionals across campus
- convert Queen’s University’s institutional priorities for teaching and learning into manageable components of their own teaching practice
Introductions: From Teaching to Learning
Friday, September 11, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Get to know your new colleagues, explore the differences between a teaching-centered and a learning-centered approach to instruction, and learn more about how the science of learning can be applied in a variety of teaching environments.
Outcomes for faculty:
- identify others on campus who are excited about teaching and learning and who come from a diversity of career stages, roles, and disciplines
- explain how one’s own teaching fits on the spectrum from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered approach
- describe how the science of learning can be applied to practical strategies in one’s own teaching environments
Giving Feedback, Giving Grades
Friday, September 25, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Explore the purposes and variety of feedback and assessment types, uncover your own reasons for assigning the work you do, and discuss the practicalities of grading at Queen’s.
Outcomes for faculty:
- describe the types of assessment used in a course one is currently teaching or has taught, and the purpose of those assessments in terms of student learning
- list a variety of assessment options for one’s own particular teaching environment
- list strategies for grading in one’s own particular teaching environment
- describe ways of clarifying expectations to students before an assignment is due
Course Design
Friday, October 23, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Learn methods for designing your own course from start to finish (or finish to start), including principles of backwards design, learning outcomes, and constructive alignment.
Outcomes for faculty:
- apply principles of effective course design to a course you will be teaching in the next year, including:
- writing drafts of well-formed learning outcomes
- outlining the ‘big questions’ your course will address
- drafting an assessment plan that maps assessments to learning outcomes
- identifying the next steps that need to be taken for the courses you are teaching now and in the future (e.g., speaking with an instructional designer in your faculty teaching and learning unit, attending a CTL workshop, reading a resource, etc.)
Inclusion and Accommodations
Friday, November 20, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Expand your conceptions of inclusion, equity, and accommodation, and learn practical strategies for handling accommodations and extenuating circumstances requests.
Outcomes for faculty:
- identify and modify areas of one’s own teaching according to principles of inclusivity and accommodation/Universal Design for Learning
- describe the implications these principles have for your own teaching and your own students’ learning
Active Learning
Friday, January 15, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Explore the principles behind active learning (sometimes known as engaged or participatory learning), expand your repertoire of techniques, and visit some of the active learning classrooms on campus.
Outcomes for faculty:
- describe the benefits of active learning for you and your students
- evaluate and select appropriate active learning techniques for your teaching context
- explain why you would choose a particular active learning strategy for a particular learning task
Decolonizing the Curriculum
Friday, February 5, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
What does “decolonizing the curriculum” mean and what impact could it have on your day-to-day teaching and learning at Queen’s? Facilitators will provide a short overview of decolonization and lead activities to help participants find their voice in this critical conversation.
Outcomes for faculty:
- articulate your position and level of learning in terms of decolonizing the curriculum
- describe your own understanding of teaching and learning in relation to a particular Indigenous understanding of teaching and learning presented in the session
Supervising Graduate Students; Student Mental Health
Friday March 5, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Discover effective pedagogical strategies for supervising graduate students writing a dissertation or thesis.
Outcomes for faculty:
- apply strategies for graduate supervision to one’s own supervisory experiences
- identify resources for supporting student mental health
Conclusions and Next Steps
Friday April 16, 2020, 12:30 - 2:00pm, Microsoft Teams
Celebrate the successes and commiserate over the challenges of a year at Queen’s, capture your learning in a teaching philosophy statement, and set goals for the years to come.
Outcomes for faculty:
- celebrate the successes of a year at Queen’s
- evaluate the previous year of teaching and learning and set goals for the future
- articulate the beginnings of a teaching philosophy statement
or - revise an existing teaching philosophy statement