A professional development conference that’s free for York’s faculty and teaching assistants to attend will return to campus for two days on May 19 and 20.
The third annual Teaching In Focus (TIF) conference will offer a carefully curated program that features expert presenters on teaching and learning, and is presented by the Teaching Commons at York University.
The two-day program is broken into seven sections with five parallel rooms. The panels and workshops are organized around key themes: eLearning and eLearning Technologies; Experiential Education; General Pedagogy; Academic Innovation Fund; and projects out of the Shared Online Course Fund as part of the Government of Ontario’s Online Initiative (OOI/ShOCF). The presentations will be delivered by York Faculty, as well as prominent guests.
Day one of the program will explore “Putting Research into Teaching and Teaching into Research”, while day two will focus on “Celebrating Teaching Innovation and Excellence”.
Along with the workshops and panels, the event will highlight two keynote presentations.
The morning of May 19 features Nicola Simmons, Brock University, who will deliver a talk titled “The Third Side of the Coin: SoTL as Connective Interface” and explore what SoTL is. The afternoon of May 19, the keynote speaker is Karin Crawford of Lincoln University, U.K. Crawford will talk on “Pedagogies of Partnership in Research-engaged Teaching” and draw on her sector-leading work in engaging students with research and students as researchers.
Celia Popovic, director of the Teaching Commons at York University, says the conference “offers the latest information on innovations in teaching techniques and the classroom experience, and the presenters are leaders in their fields.”
Day two features four parallel sessions.
The conference is open to all full- and part-time faculty, adjunct and contract faculty, and teaching assistants. Faculty and teaching assistants are encouraged to register here.
For the full program and abstracts, visit the Teaching in Focus Conference website.