Communities of practice are emerging as an innovative approach to faculty development. While collaborative learning is becoming popular in the classroom, autonomy and individualism continue to dominate the culture of higher education for faculty. However, as we begin to recognize that old solutions to new problems are no longer effective, there is…

In this paper, we (a faculty member and an educational developer) discuss our attempts to be more mindful in the academy with attention to mindfulness practices in the classroom and the development of a community of practice at our institution as ways to foster community and deepen learning. Included within the paper is an introduction to…

During the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference 2014, a workshop was held three consecutive times as part of the Pedagogical Speed Dating sessions to introduce experienced college/university faculty and instructional designers to an approach to instructional design that is based on increasing motivation. The purpose of…

Would you like to help your students adjust to university life? Perhaps you are simply interested in allowing them to feel more integrated into a department right from the start of their first year? These were the types of issues that we were hoping to address when we founded the MySci Advisors Program, a peer-mentoring group for first year…

In 2010, the University of Toronto's Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) and University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) jointly launched Partnering for Academic Student Success (PASS), a partnership to foster new opportunities for collaboration between academic librarians and those involved in developing excellence in university…

In this paper, we share examples of best peer review of teaching practices, drawing on our involvement in the design and implementation of the Peer Review of Teaching program at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. We review the history of the Peer Review of Teaching Initiative at the University of British Columbia and explain key…

Educational Leadership in Teaching Excellence (EnLITE) is a one-year program (Sept to Aug) at the University of Guelph. It is designed to engage mid-career faculty in the theory, practice and scholarship of teaching and learning, and to establish and support a faculty community of practice which provides mentorship and leadership in teaching and…

The Ontario Consortium of Undergraduate Biology Educators (oCUBE) brings together over 50 biology educators from 18 Ontario universities with the common goal to improve the biology undergraduate experience for both students and educators. This goal is achieved through an innovative mix of highly interactive face-to-face meetings, online…

Developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Mix creates interdisciplinary learning experiences for students by developing partnerships between existing courses, and between existing courses and other learning opportunities. UBC Mix connects faculty members interested in making their courses more interdisciplinary, and facilitates…

Critical reflection is a highly valued and widely applied learning approach in higher education. There are many benefits associated with engaging in critical reflection, and it is often integrated into the design of graduate level courses on university teaching as a life-long learning strategy to help ensure that learners build their capacity as…

The First Year Seminar in Science (SCIE113) was developed during 2009/2010 academic year through an exemplary collaboration between faculty, administrators and educational support staff in the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC). SCIE113 reflects the vision and values of the Faculty of Science and UBC by offering an…

Although student involvement in research and inquiry can advance undergraduate learning, there are limited opportunities for undergraduate students to be directly involved in social science research. Social science faculty members typically work outside of laboratory settings, with the limited research assistance work being completed by graduate…

Our service learning research includes assessment of reflective assignments done by students who apply theoretical knowledge in practical, real-life contexts by working with actual clients. For many of these students our classes are a departure from traditional forms of learning, and a challenge to their ability to apply what they know in often…

It is surprising to students to learn that a natural combination of simple functions, the function sin(1/x), exhibits behaviour that is a great challenge to visualize. When x is large the function is relatively easy to draw; as x gets smaller the function begins to behave in an increasingly wild manner. The sin(1/x) function can serve as one of…

The purpose of this paper is to share my experiences as the instructor of a full-time, single semester, service-learning capstone course. In this innovative course students already volunteering in the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization work in teams to identify community needs and address them using their business skills and knowledge…