• Curriculum Development,  General,  Inclusivity,  Indigenization, Decolonization, Reconciliation,  Instructional / Course Design

    Historical Biases in Understanding Culture – A Barrier to Indigenization?

    [social_share/] [social-bio] Western society has made significant advances in empirically derived truth and scientific inquiry (e.g., anthropology, psychology, linguistics, etc.) since the Age of Enlightenment (e.g., Descartes, Diderot, Montesquieu, Turgot, Vico, Voltaire, etc.). The impact and importance of this epistemological approach to the world and its mass adoption by Western societies can be perceived in many elements of European civilization and culture (Boon, 1972; Goodenough, 1961; Keesing, 1974; Triandis, 1994). The rise of Europe’s epistemological renaissance occurred during the era of colonial expansion. At the time that Europe was pressing itself onto numerous societies around the world, dominating the global stage, many Western thinkers were using this colonial perspective as…

  • Assessment and Evaluation,  Instructional Strategies

    Reading Students Work With Them Present – A Different Take on Marking

    [social_share/] [social-bio] Many years ago, while I was a student at a community college in California, I took two courses that fell under the very general subject banner “Humanities”. One was The Individual and Society and the other The Individual and The Arts. These classes met for three hours twice a week and were team taught by three instructors that almost always were on the stage together at the front of the lecture hall that held about 100 students. I took these courses early in my post-secondary education, but the teaching style has stayed with me as much as the content. One aspect, in particular, comes up frequently when instructors…

  • General,  Graduate Education,  Instructional Strategies

    Graduate Student Teacher Journey

    [social_share/] [social-bio] By Noura Sheikhalzoor, Graduate Student, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition Teaching has been a rich and rewarding part of my graduate school experience. It added a new flavour to what I have been already doing in my program of courses and research. My teaching experience has taught me a lot on the technical and personal levels. I started my M.Sc. program with teaching responsibilities as part of a scholarship I earned and I was given the opportunity to be a teaching assistant (TA) to be a lab instructor and mark assignments. Through this post, I would like to take you in a journey with me to one of…