From Stuck to Supercharged: The What and Why of Brain Plasticity

Your Brain on Teaching and Learning: Series One  What is Brain Plasticity? Brain plasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize and restructure itself throughout a person’s lifetime. It is a result of the brain’s ability to form new neural connections and strengthen existing ones based on the activities we engage in and the information we…

Your Brain on Experiential Learning

“Is disengaged.” “Is easily distracted.” “Shows no interest.” “Never shows up.” No professor wants to use these phrases to describe their students, but disengagement is a persistent problem — making descriptions such as these all too common today. Experiential Learning can help. Experiential learning is a powerful educational approach that helps students remain focused as…

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Student Voice and Choice: Co-Creating Choice Boards 

By Racquel Biem, Educational Development Specialist, Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning Co-creating a list of potential assessments with students is a great opportunity to increase student voice and choice. Students who choose assessments that are personally relevant are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and take ownership of their learning. Giving students a…

Time for a Jump Start? Teaching and Learning Fund at the GMCTL

Feeling stuck? Even though good ideas for change are exciting and energizing, sometimes they sit still or do not progress.  Common reasons include: Working at it sporadically or “off the side of your desk” Attending to more urgent or pressing issues Being at (or beyond) your limit in terms of projects and things to do…

Defining Competencies and Outcomes

by Racquel Biem Defining Competencies and Outcomes  Although there, is no widely accepted distinction between a competency and an outcome, there is sufficient commonality for the following working definition to be used to improve the structure and clarity of courses and programs.   A competency is an overarching capability the learner can do. Examples include critical…

Increasing Voice and Choice in the Classroom

By Racquel Biem, Educational Development Specialist, Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning When we think of increasing voice and choice in the classroom we may immediately think of choice in assignments or assessment tasks. Whereas these do increase student choice, these alone do not get to the heart of increasing student voice and seeing…

Announcing a New OER – Universal Design for Learning (UDL): One Small Step

We know that learners bring a wide range of knowledge, skills, backgrounds, and experiences into the classroom. As educators, we can expect to find variability in our classroom. The USask Learning Charter lists, as one of the Educator Commitments and Responsibilities, to Strive for Excellence in Teaching. This commitment means that educators work to develop respectful and…