General
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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…
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What’s In a Name? Pronouncing Students’ Names Correctly
By Tereigh Ewert What’s in a name? For all of us, I would argue, our name is deeply connected to our very identities. There are often stories around how we came to have the name we do, perhaps we’ve been named after a beloved family member, friend, or important person, perhaps it’s a name we’ve chosen for ourselves (but sometimes, a name that has been foisted upon us, as in the case of many First Nations peoples when dealing with the newcomers). Personally, with a train-wreck of a spelling for my name, I hear my name mispronounced all the time (it’s pronounced “terra”). When I first meet someone, it is…
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Turkey Dinner Causes University Student Career Planning! What’s the relationship?
[social_share/] [social-bio] A career counsellor once told me that appointment requests by first year university students increase dramatically after the Thanksgiving weekend. She knew from talking with many of these students, that it had been conversations with parents that weekend that had led to their making of appointments. Students (and parents of students) care deeply about their future and finding fulfilling and interesting career paths. While different degree programs make differing claims about achieving job preparation goals, students in all programs are right and wise to be anticipating their futures. Rarely, however, will the first six weeks of the first year answer many questions for new students—a fact that may…
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Fair Dealing, Contracts With Publishers and Linking to Journals
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Charlene Sorensen The Copyright Act contains a clause that allows for “fair dealing” in formal educational settings. This means that a non-substantial portion of a published work can be re-distributed to students enrolled in a class provided that neither password protection nor digital locks are circumvented. Non-substantial roughly means an article from a journal volume, a chapter of a book, or short excerpt (less than 10% of the overall work). Similarly, “direct linking” or “deep linking” to a particular piece of content within a website (i.e. giving the exact URL of a PDF file containing a paper within a journal) is acceptable provided that neither password protection nor…
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When ‘Better’ does not equal ‘Easier’
[social_share/] [social-bio] Often conversations about active learning eventually come around to discussions around “push back from students” and comments about resistance to “doing more work” in class and that students don’t like to work harder. I wonder about that. I wonder if students might feel better about doing more work if they knew that this might mean they would learn more and retain more. I wonder if we could highlight for students that engaging actively in class often results in learning more. I wonder how things would change if “better” could come to mean learning more because one has made an effort and that greater skill development might occur because…
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Curriculum Change in a Time of Transformation
[social-bio] This piece was previously published in the GMCTE publication Bridges. As the University of Saskatchewan wrestles with program prioritization and all academic programs are thoroughly scrutinized, analysed, and criticized, there is a temptation to hunker down, do nothing, and wait for better times. Academic units have just completed a major self-assessment of their core programs and naturally have put forward a strong case for continued support (and perhaps worked hard to justify the status quo). It is risky to openly contemplate curricular change in an environment where admitting the need for change may risk resource loss or even program elimination. Yet if the self-examination of academic programs has revealed…