Learning-Centred Teaching in Higher Education (LCTHE)
This six-week half-course will explore and evaluate the principles and theories of learning-centred teaching in higher education. Participants will use research findings and pedagogical publications to inform their own teaching and learning practice, engaging with a wide range of empirically proven approaches to improve instruction systematically. The course provides a rich opportunity for the examination and application of these approaches in varying post-secondary learning cultures and academic settings.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, and graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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Course Design (CD)
This six-week course introduces participants to the principles and practice of effective course design, including developing effective outcomes, devising methods and strategies to help students master difficult concepts and theories, and aligning assessments. Participants will have the opportunity to design (or redesign!) a course of their choosing, receiving feedback at each step.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty and sessional instructors.
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Lecturing (LEC)
This half course introduces participants to basic skills and techniques of communicating successfully to students, in particular, explaining complex ideas, grabbing and holding attention, phrasing, communicating nonverbally, and generating emotional response.
Throughout the course, participants practice using the skills and concepts they use in active-learning lessons and participant-led microteaching sessions. There is also an opportunity to give and receive feedback. Experiencing a variety of lecturing and presentation techniques in the student role, reading about them, and practicing some of them, enables participants to evaluate these techniques for incorporation into their own lecturing, and how they can be adapted to suit personal teaching style and disciplinary needs.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, and graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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Authentic Assessment (AA)
This half-course introduces participants to the principles and practice of this approach to assessment of student learning. Authentic assessment is an approach that takes into account the contexts in which learning will actually be used once students leave the university. It is an attempt to assess what students actually know, value, and can do in a way that is well-integrated into the entire learning environment of a course. In this course participants will learn how to align assessment with intended learning outcomes, how to design meaningful assessment measures that motivate students and even design assessments that help students learn as they are being assessed.
By experiencing a variety of authentic assessment methods in the student role, reading about them, and practicing adaptations of them, participants will be in a better position to judge which of these methods they can use in their own courses, as suits their personal teaching style and disciplinary needs. Most importantly, participants will have the opportunity to create an authentic, well-reasoned assessment measure that they could use in their own disciplinary context – with feedback and help from instructors and colleagues.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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Leading Effective Discussions (LED)
This half-course introduces participants to the basic skills involved in promoting, leading, and sustaining educationally-effective discussions. The course involves discussion-based active learning lessons and participant-led microteaching sessions. Participants have an opportunity to put what they have learned into practice, and receive feedback on their teaching from the other participants.
By experiencing a variety of discussion methods in the student role, reading about them in the text, and practicing some of them, participants are in a better position to judge which methods they would like to use, and how these methods can be adapted to suit personal teaching styles and disciplinary needs.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, and graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
This six-week course will define and interrogate the scholarship of teaching and learning, and its value to teaching, learning, and higher education. Participants will explore different types of SoTL projects and research methods, determining approaches that might help them identify and answer questions and areas of interest. At the end of this course, participants will have a SoTL project underway and a plan moving forward.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, and graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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University Teaching Certificate Practicum
This course takes a practical approach to teaching development and as such, much of the content will be driven by you, the learners. As part of the requirements of this course, you will be an observer and a facilitator in the teaching context. Class meetings will address teaching and learning issues, topics, and concerns that have been identified by the class.
You will be expected to come prepared to contribute to the learning of our community by participating in and facilitating discussions of challenges faced in higher education. As this course is the final requirement for participants in the University Teaching Certificate, it will be expected that you have an understanding of the basic principles of higher education. The course also provides you with the opportunity to build on and apply information learned in other courses in the UTC to your own teaching.
Pre-requisites: Undergraduate degree in any discipline. Preference will be given to individuals currently enrolled in the University Teaching Certificate Program.
Audience: Faculty, sessional instructors, and graduate students with teaching responsibilities.
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