Centre for Learning and Teaching

About

 

Vision

We envision an educational environment that takes collaborative, compassionate, and evidence-based approaches to advancing positive change in teaching and learning. 

Mission  

In partnership with academic units, faculty members, and graduate students, CLT encourages the exchange of ideas about and lived experiences of post-secondary education. We advocate for openness to new ideas, creativity, growth, and development, to enhance the practice and scholarship of teaching and learning. To ensure quality learning experiences we take an evidence-based, relational approach to supporting effective teaching practices by integrating aspects of in-person, blended, and online learning; curriculum planning and design; embedding transformative pedagogies; and (re)creating institutional teaching and learning policies and (re)visioning infrastructure.

Values – Our CLT Culture

Collaboration
We work collaboratively across the CLT and the University to co-create outcomes that have impact and align with our vision and mission.

Collegiality
We are collegial and seek to develop genuine connections. We are intentional about showing respect and compassion for the diversity of people with whom we work, for each other, and for ourselves.

Courage
We strive to have the courage to advocate for positive change and seek to build capacity for change within ourselves and in those with whom we work.

Credibility
We communicate genuinely and honestly to foster relationships that can enhance learning and teaching at the university. 

Trust
We create trusting relationships with one another and with the people with whom we work, to establish open, authentic dialogue; to share different perspectives; and to build confidence in one another to have courageous conversations.

Professional Development
We invest in our own continued professional development and learning through self-reflection, mentorships, partnerships, and scholarly investigation.

Strategic Priorities and Goals

Engage in faculty partnerships and collaborations to foster student-centred and evidence-based teaching approaches, to further the development of meaningful and effective learning experiences.

GOALS

  1. Continue to build and enhance our faculty and graduate student professional development opportunities and relationship building through consultations, programs, courses, workshops, curriculum renewal and creation, and online resources (including website creation).
  2. Continue to consult with individuals, departments, Faculties, and other institutions to address current and future teaching and learning goals, including the creation of spaces, opportunities, and resources for community building (e.g., faculty associates, D-Lite faculty group). 
  3. Advocate for and support institutional teaching initiatives (e.g., holistic evaluation support (review), eLearning framework, review of SLEQ core questions, OER, and teaching innovations).
  4. Nurture a scholarly approach to teaching as a path to engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) through programming, grants, and consultations.
  5. Continue to raise awareness of CLT services and work, and articulate our impact and influence through annual reporting, surveys, focus groups, and testimonials. 

Advocate for and advance transformative pedagogies in teaching and learning by working with faculty, staff and graduate students to encourage equitable teaching and learning experiences and promote mindsets/cultures within our institution that promote transformational methods of education that enhance learning.

GOALS

  1. Through collegial collaboration and professional development for centre team members, continue to develop, launch, integrate and model decolonial, anti-racist, intercultural and accessible programming and pedagogies that strive to transform academic norms built on white supremacy, stratification, and inequities. 
  2. Support and encourage the building of communities of practice (CoP) where groups of faculty members commit to co-resistance through on-going education and self-reflection, to advance goals like the designing and implementation of culturally relevant curriculums.
  3. Work with faculty members to identify and reduce inequitable power dynamics relating to knowledge which position Indigenous and non-Western ways of knowing as lacking relevance and/or validity.
  4. Problematize, critique, and collaboratively transform University teaching and learning culture, policies, procedures, and guidelines that create barriers towards the holistic well-being of all learners and teachers, especially those from equity-denied communities. 
  5. Advocate for flexible, relational, and interactive pedagogies and practices in both physical and online learning environments that respond to challenges in the current context, while being forward-thinking about future pedagogical plans and and approaches. 

Support creative and student-centred curriculum development and design by deliberately and intentionally aspiring to create deep, flexible, and student-centred learning experiences through course and program creation and revision within pedagogical frameworks.

GOALS

  1. Support programs with their on-going curriculum review processes, ensuring the student experience, program learning outcomes, embedding transformative pedagogies, and graduate attributes are of central focus.
  2. Encourage intentional planning for the future of online and blended learning, including course and program (re)development, informed by past and current eLearning surveys.
  3. Engage with faculty to facilitate integration of prioritized pedagogical approaches emphasized in the University’s strategic plan including: cross/inter-disciplinary learning, expansion of experiential learning, community-engaged teaching, international academic opportunities, and embedding entrepreneurship.
  4. Continue to foster institutional recognition for teaching and learning and educational leadership by supporting institutional, regional, and national awards and grants.

Embed principles of wellness, respect, and balance in teaching and learning - encouraging teachers to consider their own well-being and the well-being of their students when designing courses and programs, and in daily interactions.

GOALS

  1. Encourage developmental, realistic, discipline-informed, and scaffolded approach to faculty development.
  2. Respect faculty, staff, and students’ contexts and pedagogical starting place, and understand the constraints within which they are working (e.g., disciplinary, career-stage, employment context) in our consultations and programming work.
  3. Explore and support trauma-informed pedagogical approaches.
  4. Advocate for a humanizing and self-care approach to the personal and professional development of teaching.  
  5. Respect our own well-being to best support others and continue to explore approaches to a healthy working environment.