Curriculum Development
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WOW!! Polar Bears, Tundra, Teams AND Learning…
[social_share/] [social-bio] Ryan Brook teaches Animal Science 475.3 Field Studies in Arctic Ecosystems and Aboriginal Peoples and about 120 students have taken the course in the ten years he has been teaching it. Ryan has spent twenty summers on the Hudson’s Bay coast. Here is the course description: This field-based travel course will provide hands-on research experience in natural ecosystems in the sub-arctic of the Hudson Bay coast in northern Manitoba at the interface between animals, people, and the environment. This experiential course is an intensive introduction to and connection between the ecology and Aboriginal cultures of the sub-arctic. This is a paired course with the University of Manitoba so…
- Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, General, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies
Four Student Misconceptions About Learning
[social_share/] [social-bio] The main section of this blog post is a reprint of an article from Faculty Focus by Maryellen Welmer. It follows a brief introduction by Nancy Turner. I thought readers of this blog would be interested in the article reprinted below on common student misconceptions about learning. These points are usefully discussed openly with students at the start of a course or year of study but are also points for faculty to be aware of when planning curriculum and learning experiences. Both explicit discussion of the misconceptions alongside curriculum, assessment and session design to implicitly counter their effects (specific examples for each are included in the text of…
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Finding Our Footing With Our Communities
[social_share/] [social-bio] With Susan Bens Some time ago our Centre received a suggestion to tailor one of our increasingly known and appreciated Course Design Institutes specifically for those aiming to incorporate community-engaged learning. A team of us came together to begin that process and it’s fair to say we struggled to find our footing. After a few meetings, this led us to ask the question: “Do we really know what is needed by faculty with respect to community-engaged learning?” Our honest answer to ourselves was at best, a “maybe”. Since “maybe” isn’t good enough when planning a high-impact learning experience, we decided to take a few steps back in order to…
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Curriculum of Fractal Beauty
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler What image of our discipline are we sharing with students or with colleagues as we start a new term? Are we sharing glimpses of the beauty that intrigue and motivate us? Just as lecture is a piece of the course, each course is embedded within a program, and each program within the ongoing history of a discipline. The transformative concepts and essential knowledge, skills, or values of the discipline are embodied within the program, enacted within the course, seen within the lecture activities, readings and assessments. These central features thus appear as more than just a single layer of foundational ideas. Instead, our programs…
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Beauty II: Defining the Big, Bold and Beautiful
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler Getting lost in the beauty of our discipline and sharing it with our students raises the challenge of what to cover within the limited time of our course or program. With all that is beautiful about our discipline, what do we focus on? One approach is to focus on the fundamental perspectives and approaches that define a discipline – the building blocks of a field! These building blocks can be identified and prioritized through several lenses: Celebrating what’s Unique: What makes your discipline unique? What are the key premises, approaches, conceptions, or methodologies not found in other disciplines? What is the unique contribution that…
- 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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The Course Design Process
[social_share/] [social-bio] If you have made it through one or more university degrees, it is likely that you have wondered why some courses appeared almost entirely unplanned, while others were highly structured and obviously planned well in advance. If you have ever been a teaching assistant or an instructor, it is likely that you thought about how to plan a course so that students, like you did in the past, get the most from it. This can be a daunting thought for a first time instructor, or for an instructor who wants to try something different while planning next term’s courses. Luckily, others have thought about this a great deal,…
- Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies, Program Evaluation, SoTL
Being More Efficient
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler “efficient |iˈfiSHənt| adjective (esp. of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense (of a person) working in a well-organized and competent way [ in combination ] preventing the wasteful use of a particular resource” –(New Oxford American Dictionary”, 3rd Edition, 2010, Oxford University Press) Efficiency focuses on the level of relevant output achieved relative to the amount of effort. Perhaps it is like the phrase “Work better, not harder” or “lift smarter, not harder”. So what does being efficient mean for teaching? What does being efficient mean for curriculum renewal? Set your goals: Focus energy on the…
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How’s the View? Four Lenses for Looking at Your Curriculum
[social_share/] [social-bio] While paging through a recent addition to our in-house library at the GMCTE by Blackmore and Kandiko, I encountered a reference that I find quite helpful for understanding why it is important to view curricula from different perspectives. The work referenced is by Basil Bernstein who was a sociology of education scholar in the UK, until his passing in 2000. Bernstein suggested that the curriculum can be viewed through four lenses. I frame these first in the form of questions curriculum review committees can ask themselves and then add Bernstein’s terminology below. With respect to our curriculum…. ….what do we say we will do? This is the “planned…