Winter Conference on Teaching

Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Teaching Support Centre (TSC), Room 258 The D.B. Weldon Library
10:00am – 3:30pm

Please join us for a day of workshops to continue learning about effective teaching and become re-energized for a second term in the classroom. Attend the day and receive up to two credits from the Future Professor Series towards your Certificate in University Teaching and Learning.

Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines
Dr. Nanda Dimitrov
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Threshold concepts are like portals that open new, previously inaccessible ways of thinking about something. They are core concepts that may transform students’ understanding of material in a discipline; but they may also be really challenging for students to master. Join us to learn about the threshold concepts framework by Jan Meyer and Ray Land; discover threshold concepts in your discipline and develop strategies to help students in your classes cross major conceptual thresholds.

Finding Balance and Keeping your Sanity in Graduate School
Panel Presentation
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Attend this panel presentation to hear from and ask questions of several highly effective graduate students about their strategies for juggling their teaching, research, and personal lives.

Great Ideas for Teaching
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Winners of the “Great Ideas for Teaching” competition receive their awards and present their most creative teaching ideas.  Hear from this year's winners about their great teaching ideas:

Beth Hundey (Department of Geography)
Photo-reflection assignments

Chelsea Hicks (Department of Biology)
Stimulating student learning in breadth courses.

Jenna Butler (Department of Computer Science)
Acting out algorithms - a 'hands-on' approach to teaching Computer Science.

 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Great Ideas for Teaching

The upcoming Winter Conference on Teaching (January 21, 2012) will feature a panel of Western's most creative TAs who will present their best teaching strategies, class activities, or other great ideas for teaching French, Engineering, History, Anatomy or any other discipline.

Presenters will be selected competitively and the top "Great Ideas" presenters will receive a gift certificate to the Bookstore at Western.  The winning presenters will represent great teaching ideas from different disciplines.

To submit a proposal, write a 2 page description of your teaching idea. The teaching idea may be a class activity, a creative assignment or any other strategy that enhances student learning in your class. The proposal needs to include:

  1. The activity's learning goals,
  2. A brief list of key concepts,
  3. Description of the learning activity, including length of time & resources necessary for conducting the class activity,
  4. Your name, department, contact information, and the name and number of the course for which you designed the activity

Send proposals to the Teaching Support Centre/Graduate Student Programs via email at tatp@uwo.ca or by campus mail to Teaching Support Centre/Graduate Student Programs, Room 122, The D. B. Weldon Library.

DEADLINE: January 11, 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: Winners MUST be available on the afternoon of January 21 to present their "Great Idea" at the Winter Conference on Teaching.

Previous Winning Submissions