Teaching and Learning Symposium: Mini-Series

While we were unable to host Day 2 of the 2024 Teaching & Learning Symposium (TLS) due to a power outage, we are committed to showcasing the innovative ideas and topics that were previously scheduled as concurrent sessions.

This TLS: Mini-Series offers our community an opportunity to reconnect and re-engage throughout the Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 terms. Join us for conversation, community and collaboration as we work towards an understanding of What is a Classroom? today, tomorrow and for the future.

Finding the Balance: Learning spaces that promote rigour and kindness

August 20, 9am-12pm (in-person, Myhal 150)

9am-10am – Light breakfast and networking (outside Myhal 150)

Learn more about U of T teaching awards and grants with the Office of Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Participate in an Engaging Interactive Display with What is a Classroom Standard?: The Build Your Own Edition

10am – Participants transition into Myhal 150
10:10am-10:15am – Opening remarks from Vice-President and Provost, Trevor Young
10:15am-12:00pm – Finding the Balance: Learning spaces that promote rigour and kindness, Garfield Gini-Newman, Associate Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, OISE

Facilitator: Garfield Gini-Newman, Associate Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, OISE

As the world undergoes transformational change and societies deal with polycrisis:

How can we best ensure that university classrooms are bastions of civil discourse and learning spaces where curiosity is nurtured, and intellectual growth promoted?
When considering three pedagogical facets of university education: core learning goals/purposes; sources of evidence of learning; and, instructional practices, how much has changed?
What should change and what constants are important?
Do university classrooms need to undergo revolutionary change or an evolution in practices?
What are the opportunities and challenges presented by the increasing presence of AI in our world?

Teaching Dialogue Roundtable: Exploring Critical AI Literacy as a Learning Community

October 7, 11am-12pm (in-person)

Elaine Khoo, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC
Dina Soliman, Faculty Liaison, Educational Technology, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC
Armando Rojas, UTSC Student
Jasmine Willy Saphira, UTSC Student
Yuseon Jeong, UTSC Student

In the fast-changing Generative AI (GenAI) landscape, re-examining roles of instructors and students allows higher education to capitalize on unique learning opportunities arising from the current climate of uncertainty. While universities are determining ways to deal with academic integrity in the age of AI, students need to learn the nature of AI – the good, the bad and the ugly – so that they are critical and ethical users. This session draws on a three-pronged approach of active learning about GenAI developed through a LEAF+ grant to explore creative and ethical uses of GenAI for equity-deserving students.

Interactive Workshop: Teaching Wellbeing and Mental Health Literacy in the University Classroom

November 6, 1pm-2pm (online)

Lauren Brown, Program Coordinator, Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga, Multi-Faith Centre, Division of Student Life

In this workshop participants will learn what mental health literacy involves, hear how students from my doctoral research improved their wellbeing, and develop ideas on what you can do in your own classrooms. Along the way you’ll have the opportunity to try a variety of contemplative practices including deep listening, bearing witness, beholding, and reflective writing. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel more confident acting in support of your students’ and your own mental health and wellbeing.

Upcoming Sessions

Dates to be announced

Teaching Dialogue Roundtable: Discussing Tough Topics: Strategies for Building and Maintaining Equitable Learning Environments
Said Sidani, Sessional Lecturer, Education Studies, Language Studies, UTM

Interactive Workshop: All Work and No Play? The Classroom Is/As Play
Jennifer Ross, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Woodsworth College
Erin K. Vearncombe, Sessional Lecturer, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM

Interactive Workshop: Family Friendly Classrooms
Joanne Lieu, Graduate Professional Development Coordinator, FASE
J. Sparks, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph

Community as Classroom: Community Places as Classroom Spaces: Reflecting, Disrupting, Re-Imagining
Facilitator: Jennifer Esmail, Director, Centre for Community Partnerships

Panelists:
Maggie Hutcheson, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Information
Maria Assif, Professor, Teaching Stream, English, UTSC
Rubén Gaztambide-Fernandez, Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, OISE
Reid Locklin, Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, St. Michael’s College
Suzanne Sicchia, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Health and Society, UTSC