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Experiencing and Embracing Controversy in the Classroom
[social_share/] [social-bio] Students in the leadership classes I have taught report general personal discomfort with conflict. They also report enjoying (and learning from) engaging classroom discussions. Providing students with a debating experience in class responds to both quite nicely. My post today is about a teaching strategy I have successfully used twice now, called “structured controversy.” Structured controversy is ultimately an active learning activity where small teams of students (3 or 4) prepare for and then argue different sides of the same issue with different opponents in a rotating cycle. Groups each take a turn arguing the affirmative and the negative, but arguing against a different group each time. Needless…
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GMCTE YouTube Channel Filled With Open Resources
[social_share/] [social-bio] The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, as a unit, is a proponent of “open” resources in education. We’ve created a number of digital and print resources that we’ve added Creative Commons licenses, we opened all of the content from our Introduction to Teaching Online course (another course will be open starting in the January 2014, but that will be discussed in a future blog post) and we help to educate the campus community about open access resources. In 2012, the GMCTE launched our YouTube channel where we have videos on a wide variety of topics including course design, experiential learning, flipped teaching, curriculum renewal, learning technologies, teaching…
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Adopting ‘Institutional Humility’
By Tereigh Ewert As a U-15 institution, we have a remarkable opportunity before us: we can be leaders in many ways. I would like to suggest that one of these ways might be by adopting and communicating ‘institutional humility.’ The recent draft of “Vision 2025: From Spirit to Action,” provides us with an excellent opportunity to convey this humility. How do I conceptualize ‘institutional humility’? We acknowledge that our teaching, research, and scholarship can be strengthened by opening ourselves to the different ways of knowing, pedagogies, worldviews, histories, dialogues, and being in relationship to one another. Rather than responding to difference as ‘meeting the needs’ of any cultural group (and by…
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Seeing the Beauty
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler There is something exciting, captivating and intriguing when working through an analysis and seeing the ideas crystalize or flip through the writings of colleague and see the connections to other papers, and to other ideas. The experience of excitement, in my case over a well-selected and implemented statistical analysis or assessment, draws us deeper into our fields of study and expertise. There is something intrinsically motivating (Ryan & Deci, 2000) about such exploration and devotion to learning and discovering more. Sure there are moments that seem like struggles when shopping an article or book for publishing, wrestling for time for deep critical thinking, or…
- Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, General, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies
Self-Belief and Student Success
[social_share/] [social-bio] I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of not performing to our potential at given points in our life due to anxiety, illness, the physical environment or just because we were having an off day. The importance of context on our ability to perform should not be underestimated. One factor that can greatly impact our ability to perform is our belief that we can achieve what we want to in a given context. If we believe we can do something we are far more likely to succeed. It could be argued that believing we can do something is simply a matter of knowing ones own strengths and weaknesses. …
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Dean Stoicheff Speaks on the Value of an Arts and Science Degree
[social_share/] [social-bio] The College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan is unique in Canada, bringing under a single college governance structure, 21 disciplinary departments ranging from fine arts and humanities to social and natural sciences. The extreme diversity in disciplinary areas, along with the rich potential for interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary programs within the College offersunique opportunities for students. At our recent campus-wide Celebration of Teaching and Learning, Peter Stoicheff, Dean of the College of Arts and Science was invited to speak about the curriculum renewal process in the College. The video clips below include his full 20-minute presentation as well as a shorter 6 minute excerpt. Peter…
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GMCTE Welcomes New Program Director
[social_share/] The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness is pleased to welcome our new Program Director, Nancy Turner. Her role, which she assumed on November 1 involves strategic leadership of the Centre and leading and contributing to institutional initiatives to enhance learning and teaching. Nancy has returned to Saskatchewan after a decade working in London England, most recently as Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Enhancement at the University of the Arts London where her work focused on initial and continuing professional development of faculty, technology enhanced learning, reward and recognition for teaching, student engagement and open education. Her main areas of research are professional development and change in Higher…