Events

 

Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and Learning (DCUTL)

 

Upcoming sessions

March 26: Understanding Accessible Pedagogy & Applying Critical Disability Theory in the Classroom

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
2:30– 3:30 p.m.
Killam Library, Room B400 (In-person)

This workshop will explore practical, accessible pedagogical strategies educators can use in their seminars and lectures. This workshop aims to understand and accurately define disability, critical disability theory, and accessible pedagogy to open more extensive discussions about accessibility supports provided for students and educators' role in supporting an inclusive learning environment for disabled learners at Dalhousie. Case study round table discussions will be utilized to explore educators' role in developing and maintaining an accessible classroom and understand participatory restrictions for disabled students.

Facilitator

Emilee Fackelmann, PhD Student (she/her)
Graduate Teaching Associate
Centre for Learning and Teaching

March 26: Understanding Red Reading

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Online via Microsoft Teams

As early as 1998, Mi’kmaw scholar Marie Battiste warned that “mainstream knowledge has not been questioned or reconsidered; rather the Other is acknowledged as a knowledge, not the knowledge, as in the case of academia’s special case studies such as Women’s Studies, Native Studies or Black Studies.” Since then, academia has continued to work towards disrupting the canon. How then can we avoid recolonizing our inclusive, diversified syllabi?

We can do so by changing not only what is taught, but how it is taught as well. This 1hr virtual session introduces the concept of Red Reading, wherein a non-Indigenous text is read from Indigenous perspectives, methods, and approaches. We will breakdown the development of Red Reading as a literary theory and how to incorporate the method in your classroom. Our workshop mindfully considers Cherokee scholar Scott Andrews’ argument that Red Reading is for people of all backgrounds, “but the reading should be native-centric; the reading process should be grounded in issues important to native communities and/or native intellectual histories or practices.” In fact, Andrews encourages Red Reading as a “useful exercise of non-natives reading [non-native] texts as a native mock reader, using a native perspective to defamiliarize their own cultural texts.” We will discuss how educators and students can respectfully and responsibly carry Indigenous approaches into their classroom.

Presenter

Brenna Duperron, Department of English, Dalhousie University

Intended Audience

  • Open to all
  • Event is open to external attendees

April 2: Panel Discussion on Hyflex

Tuesday, April 2, 2024
10–11:30 a.m.
Mona Campbell Building, Room 3207 (in-person) - Register to attend in-person
Microsoft Teams (online) - Register to attend online

'Hyflex' (hybrid-flexible) courses offer learners a synchronous combination of online and face-to-face learning experiences and flexibility in which modality they choose to participate. Three Dalhousie instructors will share their thoughtful, hyflex approaches.  They will discuss the circumstances that led to their development of hyflex courses, how they work, the challenges and the advantages, and why they have embraced this mode of teaching and learning.

Panelists

Georgia Klein, Instructor, College of Sustainability 

Gabriella Mosquera, Instructor, Faculty of Computer Science 

Ayesha Mushtaq, Associate Director, English Language Studies, Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development 

April 2: Supporting Multilingual TAs Navigating Academic Culture in Teaching and Learning

Tuesday, April 2, 2024
2–3 p.m.
Online via Microsoft Teams
Register for the event

This workshop is designed for international or multilingual graduate students who are TAs for undergraduate courses at Dalhousie. We will begin this workshop by discussing academic culture within Canadian universities in general. What are expectations of TAs within this educational space? We will then shift to discussing common challenges faced by international or multilingual TAs. These include: expectations and conventions for delivering written feedback; expectations and conventions for student-centered and inclusive classroom management; expectations and conventions for written communication with students and professors; and, finally, understanding the resources that are there for student TAs when they need extra support in their classes.

Outcomes

At the end of this workshop participants will:

  1. Comprehend elements of academic culture within Canadian universities that impact their roles at TAs within undergraduate classrooms.
  2. Understand how to deliver meaningful written feedback and how to communicate effectively with students, peers, and instructors.
  3. Take away key strategies for ensuring they foster inclusive and student-centred classroom environments.

Facilitators

Vanessa Lent, PhD, International Student Writing Advisor    

Nasim Tavassoli, PhD, Educational Developer (Student Development)

Intended Audience

Graduate Students

April 5: (D-LITE Event) Psychological Safety & Belonging: Student Perspectives & Experiences

We Belong Together Workshop Series Brought to you by the D-LITE Belong Cluster.

Friday, April 5, 2024
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

This workshop is hybrid

  • Halifax campus (B400, Killam Library)
  • Online via Teams (link will be sent when you complete the registration form)

Register for the event

We invite faculty and staff to explore the principles of psychological safety and belonging in the classroom shared through the lens of student perspectives and experiences. As students, our presenters understand the important role educators play when it comes to the wellbeing of their students, and hope to bring attention to how educators can foster a safe and welcoming classroom environment. One important aspect of leadership is to create a shared vision, and advocating for a psychologically safe classroom environment can help professors and students reach a shared vision of an ideal classroom learning community. Our speakers:

  • Gloria Piazza is finishing up her fourth year of a BSc in medical sciences. She is interested in advocating for psychologically safe classrooms thanks to the information she learned in a leadership in science class she took last semester.
  • Youna McGowan is in her fourth year as a major in Neuroscience at Dalhousie. She is passionate about mental health awareness, and is currently working on an Honours project dedicated to developing a non-pharmaceutical intervention for anxiety disorders. She is also completing a certificate in Science Leadership and Communication, with the aim of advocating for mental health awareness in her community.
  • Katarzyna Farrell is a 2020 Loran Scholar, which is Canada’s largest and most comprehensive undergraduate merit award, granted based on the strength of character, academic excellence, commitment to service in the community and leadership potential. Katarzyna serves on committees that aim to enhance accessibility services for students with disabilities and break down barriers for students seeking accommodations at the university level.

We Belong Together Workshop Series

The We Belong Together workshop series are a collection of workshops around the diverse aspects that contribute to the feeling of belonging in general, and approaches to foster belonging in our courses and classrooms. The first three workshops focused on beginning the personal work essential to facilitate a culture of inclusion and belonging, on fostering a sense of belonging for students in our courses, and on reflecting on the process of decolonizing the curriculum. Links to the recordings from the first three workshops are included below, in case you are interested:

  • Workshop 1: Belonging – The comfort and discomfort
  • Workshop 2: Creating a sense of belonging for students
  • Workshop 3: Steeped in Belonging: Decolonizing the curriculum over tea and Luskinikn

About the Belong Cluster The D-LITE Belong Cluster is a teaching cluster that is part of the D-LITE collaborative community of teachers at Dal. Our cluster focuses on attributes of student and teacher experiences that contribute to a sense of belonging in our classrooms and in our daily work, including equity, inclusion, culture, celebration of diversity in learning and knowing, accessibility, and well-being. If you have any questions about these workshops, please email the leads of the Belong Cluster, Raghav Sampangi (raghav@cs.dal.ca) and Jen Frail-Gauthier (jfrail@dal.ca).

More information about D-LITE Clusters.

April 15 & 16: Peer Feedback and Teaching Retreat

April 15 and 16, 2024

 

Please join us for the CLT’s 2-day retreat dedicated to Peer Feedback and Teaching – a series examining topics and support in peer feedback! Each session invites you to consider a different aspect of giving and/or receiving supportive development-centered feedback. Morning sessions are online and afternoon workshops will be in-person.

Description

Welcome to the CLT’s Peer Feedback and Teaching Retreat. The two days of sessions are dedicated to topics and support in engaging in peer feedback! Each session invites you to consider a different aspect of giving and/or receiving supportive development-centered feedback.

Registration can be done at the following link. Information about the retreat and individual sessions is described below.

Format

Depending on your availability and specific interests, you are welcome to attend individual sessions or the full suite of sessions. This dedicated time will allow you to think about the ways that you might engage in formative feedback from peers that can support and strengthen your teaching.

There are two types of sessions:

  • Building Sessions (online): Each morning will consist of shorter sessions that invite you to build on your understanding of the various forms that peer review can take and how these forms may be helpful in your own teaching and course(s).
  • Circle Workshops (in-person): The afternoon sessions are 2-hrs in length and provide an opportunity to engage in practices of formative peer feedback with fellow attendees. Attendees will be offered the opportunity to share their own teaching materials and/or teaching experiences with each other during the session.

Who should attend?

These sessions are intended to be a place of discussion and learning for those who are both new and familiar with peer feedback of teaching. This includes:

  • Individual instructors seeking professional development based in peer development and formative peer evaluation, and/or seeking to connect with peers from across Dalhousie interested in engaging in formative peer review
  • Individuals who are taking on the role of reviewer as part of procedures in their individual Faculty
  • Limited-term faculty who are seeking support in documenting their teaching effectiveness.

Goals

Participation may provide you with:

  1. Experience within a formative peer review process that is based in equitable practices and grounded in principles of reflexivity, humility, relationality, and collaboration.
  2. Familiarization with peer review practices and instruments to increase comfortability and proficiency in roles of both reviewer and reviewee.
  3. An opportunity to engage with peers and offer critical feedback and friendly critique
  4. Time, space and support for individual reflection on teaching practices and strategies

 

Schedule with Descriptions

Monday, April 15, 2024

Time and location Title and Description

9–9:30 a.m.

Online

Information Session:
Holistic Evaluation of Teaching at Dalhousie: An Overview

In this information session, we will provide an overview of the new holistic evaluation of teaching policy at Dalhousie and describe how evidence from peers plays a part in outlining your teaching effectiveness.

9:30–10 a.m.

Online

Open Discussion:
Who is a peer?

In this open discussion, we will pose the question to attendees: “who is a peer when we talk about peer feedback on teaching and learning?”

10:10–11 a.m.

Online

Collaborative Peer Review: Models and Practices

This session provides an overview of collaborative peer review (in contrast to evaluative review) and a presentation of some existing models and associated practices.

11:10 a.m.–12 p.m.

Online

The Peer Review Cycle: Six steps, broadly defined 

This session provides an overview of a formative and developmental peer review cycle. Each step—establish purpose and goals; select reviewer; hold pre-observation meeting; observation; hold post-observation meeting; and reflect and develop action plan—are described generally, with discussion on how they may take shape within different peer review models and practices. The 15-minute open discussion portion of the session will lead participants through the first step, establishing one’s purpose for undergoing peer review.

1:30–3:30 p.m.

Killam Library, Room B400

Circle Workshop

This workshop is offered on both day 1 and day 2 of the retreat. Participants are welcome to join either or both days.

This workshop is an opportunity to gain practice in formative peer review/feedback. Participants will engage in important preparatory & collaborative practices to develop collegial, humble and culturally responsive orientations to peer feedback/review within both roles of reviewee and reviewer. This session is informed by reflexive observational approaches to peer feedback/review. Participants will have the chance to engage with one another’s teaching or teaching artifacts.

Prepare by bringing a teaching artifact with you (syllabus/assignment instructions, rubrics/lesson plan, etc.) OR with a teaching & learning story to share that contains a common challenge you face and how you’ve dealt with it.

 

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Time and Location Title and Description

9:30–10:30 a.m.

Online

Peer Observation: What to Consider and Available Tools 

Peer review of teaching may include in-class observations and/or providing feedback on a variety of teaching artifacts and practices. Within this, there are many aspects of teaching that may be of interest. It is important to discuss and decide what it is you want your peer to observe or review (as the instructor) and how you might go about collecting information (as an observer). In this session, we will look at various dimensions of teaching that you may seek feedback on and some tools and strategies already available that might help when it comes time to collect and present data on your teaching.

10:35–11:30 a.m.

Online

 

Peer Feedback of Online and Remote Teaching

The ways that we deliver and design learning for the online environment, as well as the ways students interact with the material, instructor, and their peers, can differ compared to the face-to-face environment.  In this session, we will review some of these differences and the approaches you may take to engage in the peer review process for online teaching. We will also briefly touch on some options for remote observations of teaching for face-to-face teaching.

11:35 a.m.–12:25 p.m.

Online

Creating New Norms: Steps forward for Peer Feedback

In this interactive session, participants will discuss opportunities for developing informal peer feedback processes in their respective departments and/or teaching communities. 

1:30–3:30 p.m.

Killam Library, Room B400

Circle Workshop

This workshop is offered on both day 1 and day 2 of the retreat. Participants are welcome to join either or both days.

This workshop is an opportunity to gain practice in formative peer review/feedback. Participants will engage in important preparatory & collaborative practices to develop collegial, humble and culturally responsive orientations to peer feedback/review within both roles of reviewee and reviewer. This session is informed by reflexive observational approaches to peer feedback/review. Participants will have the chance to engage with one another’s teaching or teaching artifacts.

Prepare by bringing a teaching artifact with you (syllabus/assignment instructions, rubrics/lesson plan, etc.) OR with a teaching & learning story to share that contains a common challenge you face and how you’ve dealt with it.

 

Facilitators

Kate Crane, Educational Developer (Online Pedagogy)
Elizabeth Gillis, PhD (she/her), Associate Director (Acting), Educational Developer (Curriculum)

Intended Audience

  • Faculty
  • Staff
  • Graduate Students (all except in-person workshops)

This event is open to those external to Dalhousie University. 

April 16: Teaching for Shy People

Tuesday, April 16, 2024
10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
Killam Library, Room B400
Register for event

Some of us who teach are shy, or feel shy about teaching; and any classroom is likely to include some students who are more reserved and some who are more outgoing. In this workshop, we’ll consider some aspects of shyness in the classroom and how we might navigate course design, student activities, interactions with students, and our own approaches to teaching. This workshop isn’t about trying to “fix” shyness, our own or our students’, but rather about building a set of practices and ways of thinking that can shape teaching and learning in our classrooms.

Facilitator

Gillian Gass, PhD, University Teaching Fellow, Department of Biology, and CLT Faculty Associate (Science). She is also a part-time Instructor at University of King’s College (History of Science and Technology).

May 8 & 9: Creating a Teaching Dossier (Faculty) 2024

The 2024 Creating a Teaching Dossier sessions are partly info-session, partly work with peers, and partly individual consultation. You'll think about your own approach to teaching and begin to organize your dossier to capture your teaching practice. 

Part I: Wednesday, May 8 from 1–3 p.m. 
Part II: Thursday, May 9 from 9–11 a.m.

Register for Creating a Teaching Dossier (Faculty).

Learn more about the Creating a Teaching Dossier workshop sessions.

CLT Webinars: Recordings and Resources

The Dalhousie community can now self-enrol in the Brightspace site. Learn how.