Welcome to the February 2023 issue of “Innovatus,” a special issue of YFile dedicated to teaching and learning innovation at York University. This month, we take an in-depth look at the experiential education opportunities available in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS).
Following its commitment to student-centred and accessible education, the Faculty is creating groundbreaking initiatives. A new LA&PS co-op program offers students valuable work experiences before they graduate, while the Learning Design Lab (LDL) explores a variety of ways to incorporate work-integrated learning (WIL) into different teaching contexts. Real-world impact is also a key theme in the stories presented in “Innovatus,” as students discover new skills in research and workplace settings, expanding career possibilities in the liberal arts field.
I know that you’ll find all of the “Innovatus” stories this month informative and inspiring.
Sincerely,
Will Gage Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning
Faculty, course directors and staff are invited to share their experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the “Innovatus” story form, which is available at tl.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=16573.
Collaboration, innovation key to enriched experiential education In his message to the community, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Dean J.J. McMurtry invites community members to learn more about the Faculty’s focus on experiential education through new and important initiatives and faculty-student collaborations.
LA&PS Learning Design Lab a resource for WIL Work-integrated learning (WIL) continues to evolve in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies thanks to the Learning Design Lab.
When you say, “Get to work,” to a student in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), they’ll soon take your suggestion literally, thanks to a new co-op education option that will be introduced in Fall 2024.
LA&PS currently offers an internship program for students in their third or fourth years, but the Faculty will be making the transition to an optional co-op program that begins in second year. The existing paid internship program allows for one work experience during the third or fourth year, while the co-op program will permit the student to alternate study and work terms, providing up to 20 months in paid work experience prior to graduation.
LA&PS currently offers an internship program for students in their third or fourth years, but the Faculty will be making the transition to an optional co-op program that begins in second year
“I’m excited to launch a co-op program at LA&PS,” said Dean J.J. McMurtry. “This will give our students a unique opportunity to work with a diverse group of employers and community partners to gain important professional experience.”
Melanie Belore, associate director, experiential education for LA&PS, says the idea started with former vice-dean Sean Kheraj, and made sense.
“Co-op programs are fairly common in the sciences, technology and engineering, but we’re seeing more and more co-op programs in liberal arts,” Belore said. “It has long been accepted as a high-impact practice for student success and graduate employability, as well as huge payoffs in recruitment and retention for academic programs.
“It might delay a student’s graduation date, but they’ll graduate with an honours degree and paid work experience with an employer in their field. It complements the academic journey, builds their professional network and allows them to reflect on where to go next.”
Other benefits of a co-op program include: the opportunity to apply classroom learning earlier in a student’s university career; a break in academic studies that is relevant; and a chance to earn money to defray university expenses.
“As a means for paid career exploration, a co-op program will offer exciting new pathways and opportunities for all LA&PS students to experience work-integrated learning, regardless of their program of study,” said Anita Lam, associate dean, teaching and learning. “For the Faculty, it represents a crucial step forward. In building a co-op program that will help students develop career-relevant skills, we are also establishing the necessary administrative infrastructure and pedagogical supports for creating and delivering more high-impact experiential learning opportunities outside the classroom.”
Belore and her team are still finalizing details of the program. An academic advisory committee and a steering committee are working toward bringing it to life in partnership with the Dean’s Office and the York Career Education Development Centre, as well as assistance from groups such as academic advising, student success and recruitment.
“We have great support from across campus and there is a series of working groups supporting various aspects of the program’s development,” Belore said.
Students in some majors, such as philosophy, may not find opportunities directly related to their fields, but Belore noted that co-ops are designed to be entry-level work experiences focused on transferrable skills – such as communication, collaboration and critical thinking – that are in high demand across all sectors.
“We want both the employers and students to be open-minded. The idea is to use the opportunity for career exploration and building a future talent pipeline.”
While the students are doing their work term, LA&PS experiential education staff will check in with them during the term and will be available for support if they encounter workplace challenges. There also will be a career education co-ordinator dedicated to the program to assist students with resumes, mock interviews and related concerns.
“From an equity perspective, it’s important to offer paid work experience opportunities to all our students, regardless of field,” said Belore. “Many of our students currently balance academics with part-time or full-time work, so how great will it be to provide an option to gain paid experience in a field they hope to pursue? It’s also a chance to test some jobs and directions in a safe way to determine what they do and don’t want to do career-wise. They’ll have the freedom to change their minds.”
LA&PS Learning Design Lab a resource for WIL
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By Elaine Smith
After launching a new 6.0 credit placement course for Human Rights & Equity Studies (HREQ) students, Maggie Quirt can attest to the effort required to create a work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunity.
Anita Lam
Maggie Quirt
“This course benefitted significantly from the expertise of the LA&PS Learning Design Lab (LDL),” said Quirt, who was an associate professor in the Department of Equity Studies during the course development phase. “As an instructor, I needed ideas and tips for how to teach a bit differently.”
The Learning Design Lab (LDL) is an initiative designed by the LA&PS Teaching and Learning team, under the guidance of Anita Lam, associate dean, teaching and learning, to support and advance teaching and learning in LA&PS. Collaborating with the LA&PS Office of Experiential Education, the first iteration of the LDL workshop series focused on exploring strategies, tools and best practices for incorporating work-integrated learning in different teaching contexts.
By bringing community partners into conversations about course activities or assessments, instructors and teaching assistants can help students build stronger connections to various partners and communities, as well as strengthen student engagement with course material.
“We’ve always had a very large faculty group in LA&PS that is interested in experiential education, everything from guest speakers to field trips,” said Irene Seo, experiential education co-ordinator. “We decided to reach out to interested faculty and provide this as an additional resource to explore the strategies, tools and best practices for incorporating another type of EE: work-integrated learning.
“We wanted to walk through the entire process, supporting practical skills with pedagogy and research, so combining EE and T&L resources was very helpful.”
Sarah Debbek
Sarah Debbek, an instructional designer with the T&L team, added, “It was an amazing opportunity to learn what each of our teams is doing and see how our work ties together.”
Approximately 70 faculty altogether attended the workshop series. Many were new to WIL, while others were seeking to improve their skills. The four-session workshop featured four aspects of WIL:
Design: tools to elevate student engagement;
Facilitation: how to identify partners;
Delivery: how to prepare students and partners; and
Assessment: framework for assessments.
The EE team focuses on the structure of placements and works closely with faculty to oversee the WIL agreements once their WIL courses launch, to ensure student safety while on the job. However, Seo notes that many of the faculty hold the keys to finding placements for their students, since they have existing relationships in the field that they have developed over time.
Quirt created her WIL course while on sabbatical, giving her the necessary time to identify potential partners.
“I began with my own contacts and followed leads from other professors, but there was a certain amount of cold calling,” she said. “Some connections for the placements were obvious, like Human Rights Commissions and the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. For equity studies, it wasn’t always as clear cut, but lots of equity, diversity and inclusion work is being done by local libraries and anti-racism organizations.
“Two of my students are working with Parents Against Racism Simcoe County (PARSC), a volunteer group of parents who intervene to educate school administrators about the consequences of racist behaviour in general and anti-Black racism in particular.”
The Learning Design Lab (LDL) is an initiative designed by the LA&PS Teaching and Learning team, under the guidance of Anita Lam, associate dean, teaching and learning, to support and advance teaching and learning in LA&PS
The T&L team is most concerned with the pedagogical aspect of the placements, helping faculty design assignments and meet learning outcomes. Debbek said the questions she answers most often relate to WIL assessment, which requires collaboration with industry partners.
“Faculty need to think about how you assess skills that students develop in the workplace,” she said. “We want them to design an assessment that is easy for partners to complete, and we also want them to decide whether students will do a self-assessment.”
Quirt believes it’s crucial for her 23 students to assess their experience critically.
“From a pedagogical perspective, it’s still an academic course,” she said. “It’s important that students reflect on the work experience in a meaningful way and consider how to apply what they’ve learned in other contexts.”
She requires her students to submit two assignments that explore the “four Rs” of critical reflection: reporting, relating, reasoning and reframing. She promotes an LDL suggestion that the students keep a logbook/field notes about their daily tasks so they can review their experiences and reflect on them more fully.
Quirt finds that her students are thriving in their placements, and is delighted.
“Students have been asking about work placements for years,” she said. “We owe it to them, especially since this is an interdisciplinary program; it can be challenging to understand the multiple employment pathways available post-graduation.”
Meanwhile, the LDL partners have received a lot of feedback about their workshop series and are hoping to repeat it in Spring 2023.
“It’s important for us to cover the topics faculty have identified as necessary and we’ll collaborate to ensure all the subject matter is included,” said Seo.
Debbek added, “We’ve collected data and feedback from instructors and hope to improve the workshops.”
Meanwhile, they’ve made the resources from the workshop series available online so course instructors – and, as a result, their students – can benefit.
DARE to innovate: LA&PS student’s research brought to life by humanities class
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By Elaine Smith
“Never underestimate the power of undergraduate researchers and supervisors,” said Carolyn Steele, an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities. “They can create change.”
Carolyn Steele
Steele knows this from experience, because she and her Digital Culture in the Humanities (HUMA 3140) students have supported the change by ensuring that information from the research done by Kayla Saunders, a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE), is publicly available.
The DARE program is an opportunity provided by the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LA&PS) for undergraduate students to do paid summer research with the supervision and mentorship of a faculty member. It is a means for students to bring together liberal arts and a professional education, applying their knowledge in order to develop new skills and gain a richer learning experience. The third-year Digital Culture in the Humanities course, meanwhile, explores the influence of digital technologies on particular aspects of the arts, popular culture and the internet, as well as places where culture is archived.
DARE and HUMA 3140 came together this fall to add to the online knowledge available about Indigenous arts. The journey began earlier in 2022, when Saunders, who plans to pursue a career in library science, approached Gail Vanstone, an associate professor in the Department of Humanities and co-ordinator of its humanities program, about doing DARE research under her supervision. Saunders, like Vanstone, has an interest in Indigenous rights and self-determination through the arts, so she combined the two with her passion for research. The result is an annotated bibliography of recent films and published works (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) created by Indigenous artists in Canada from 2000 to 2022. The collection invites interrogation into, said Vanstone, “how to better appreciate Indigenous resistance, engendering resilience and a hope of resurgence in Indigenous communities in their own terms,” a powerful strategy to undo the slow violence of colonization.
Slow violence is a term coined by author Rob Nixon, referring to “a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all.” The 1960s relocation of Indigenous British Columbia residents from Yuquot to Ahaminaquus Indian Reserve 12, land adjacent to a pulp mill generating noise and pollution, furnishes an example; the company also built a road over Indigenous gravesites.
“Kayla did a fabulous job with the bibliography,” said Vanstone. “She created as comprehensive a list as possible, with more than 220 entries, and made it searchable by category. It is an open-ended resource, so new entries can be added to keep it up to date.”
Kayla Saunders
Saunders’ research was featured at a DARE Research Day at the end of the summer of 2022. At the time, Steele was updating the curriculum for HUMA 3140 to incorporate current technology. She was impressed to learn about Saunders’ work, recognizing it as “a particularly fertile piece of research,” and decided it needed to have a life beyond the page. She conferred with Vanstone and with Alexandra Wong, data visualization and data analytics librarian, and Cora Coady, Indigenous teaching and learning librarian, both from York University Libraries, and an exercise in creating Wiki-data and digital visualizations was born.
Wong and Coady, in collaboration with Steele, created a four-week workshop series for the HUMA 3140 students. The sessions taught the students how to turn the bibliographical entries into Wikidata items – the free and open online knowledge base powering Wikipedia and linking internet items in a searchable fashion – and use that data to create visualizations to explain at a glance an aspect of the data, such as the age of the creators or the proportion of entries that are film versus those that are print.
“Cora and I taught the students about the importance of using data from reputable sources and how to contribute to open knowledge with proper care, especially around sensitive subjects or those that aren’t familiar,” Wong said.
“Wikidata, which is used by Wikipedia and provides structured data for widely used technology like search engines, still shows many gaps and biases, both in the knowledge that is included and the people who are editors. There is a lack of articles on marginalized people and related topics, including a lack of articles on women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks. BIPOC editors are also heavily underrepresented in Wikipedia,” Wong said. “We hope to teach students that they have the power to edit online knowledge and share their own stories and information to the public record.
“Visualizations, meanwhile, help you understand your own data better and helps you tell stories with impact. You also learn that it’s necessary to view data and data visualizations critically, because it’s so easy to mislead people or misread data.”
Steele said she was delighted by her students’ enthusiasm to work on a project with real-world impact.
“This is a great example of how DARE fosters allyship and creates deeper understanding,” she said. “People tend to put these research projects away, but this is an example of how to give them legs.”
Advancing YU: connection, community and career pathways for Black and women students
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By Angela Ward
Michele Johnson, associate dean, students, in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), says that Advancing YU, a unique mentorship program, creates amazing opportunities for third- and fourth-year Black and women students in LA&PS.
Michele Johnson
“This program gives these students the opportunity to access mentorship and support, along with connection and networking,” Johnson says. “We have two streams: one for Black students and one for women students. Given long-standing and deep-seated prejudices and barriers, many Black and women students often face great challenges beyond acquiring their degree – creating networks, getting into their preferred field of study and even obtaining relevant and helpful letters of reference. This program allows students to connect with mentors, who are also former York students and who therefore understand our University’s community.”
Like the mentees, many mentors (who are also Black and/or women) were first-generation students facing similar barriers. Matching mentors with mentees based on shared experiences and career ambitions is a key part of the pairing process, which forges meaningful connections.
Karlene Case
Karlene Case, manager, student engagement, LA&PS Colleges, expands on this approach. “Advancing YU takes into consideration the intersectionality of race and gender and celebrates our identities. Mentors and students are matched with people who often look like them or have shared lived experiences, providing students with access to explore educational, industry and career pathways. It is important for equity-deserving students to connect with alumni who have successfully overcome challenges and barriers, both in academia and in the working world, that they may not meet otherwise. This program also provides financial rewards that both recognize students’ accomplishments and support them.”
Students are organized into quartets of one mentor to three students, meaning that students learn from their peers as much as their mentors. Johnson explains, “We organized it this way so the students would also have the potential for a friendship cohort and not feel so isolated. This was especially relevant during the pandemic.”
This year, Advancing YU is pairing quartets together, so that “students’ networking goes one degree beyond themselves, into another quartet with another mentor,” Johnson says. “We are committed to learning from and tweaking the program each year as we respond to the experiences and feedback from the program’s participants.”
Along with mentorship, students also gain valuable experiential education. Students develop their networking, time management and communication skills, and adaptability.
“The mentors are also role models,” Johnson notes. “The program allows students to think beyond the expected. The mentors have gone through their meandering journeys and tell their mentees to be open to the many paths to success. For example, through the discussions that they have with their mentors and peers, students might consider working for a not-for-profit organization instead of a big firm, or volunteer in areas they never considered before.”
Students often have limited professional connections and experience in networking, Case explains. She says, “This program builds their confidence, especially when communicating with their mentors, many of whom are in senior management positions, providing them with an opportunity to take initiative with a curious, open mindset.”
For mentors, the program is also a very rewarding experience, says Tom McLagan, director of development, LA&PS. “Mentors enjoy contributing to the program because they can see students’ growth as they provide informed career advice. The feedback from mentors has been great and many have returned after the first year.”
Case adds, “Interactions with students encourage mentors to reflect on their journey, growth and accomplishments. There’s knowledge gained on both sides and as they share their insights, it informs the mentors’ work in their fields.”
Following this approach of continuous learning, Advancing YU has added student leaders to the program. These peer coordinators have gone through the program and now support incoming students. They provide a student-centred perspective, coordinate events and equip students with important resources.
Xamida Hudson
Xamida Hudson, a York University student leader in her final year of a commerce program with a specialization in management, heads the Black Students Stream in Advancing YU.
“Student leaders provide key insights to the Advancing YU team from the student perspective,” says Hudson. “This creates a more relatable and beneficial program for all students.
“I feel that I’m making a difference at York because I’m providing academic resources to students like me so they can have a better university experience. It’s an equal give and take for me and the students I’m helping. Connecting with my peers and being inspired by them is also great. I believe that besides our studies, one of the most beneficial outcomes we can get from a university experience is that connection with others.”
Hudson says that the student engagement coordinators are invested in student leaders’ experience too. “We’re given a lot of freedom to develop our personal and professional goals. For example, if I wanted to enhance my Excel or email-writing skills, I’m able to incorporate that into my job and receive honest feedback, which is beneficial to my growth as a business student.”
Advancing YU hosts key events, too. “We hold monthly workshops, each with a specific topic. The first event was about ‘imposter syndrome,’ where Black mentors spoke to Black students about their experiences with imposter syndrome and how to combat it,” explains Hudson. The students in the cohort of women students also had an opportunity to discuss concerns with and responses to “imposter syndrome” with their mentors.
Amelia Wassay
For Amelia Wassay, a student in her fourth year at York studying social work and public administration, being mentored in the program last year has given her the confidence to navigate the challenges women face in professional fields. “My mentor was phenomenal, building up my confidence and my interview skills. Now that I’m a peer coordinator for Advancing YU in the Women Students stream, I’ve learned so much more. It’s also been a time of critical self-reflection, examining the stigmas and discrimination women face.
“On top of that, this role has helped me analyze my future and think about what I want to pursue. Through it, I discovered that I want to go into the communications field. I love sharing resources and liaising with people.”
In looking towards the future of Advancing YU, Wassay says, “This is only the beginning. It has so much potential and space to grow, especially for women and people of colour. It has a bright future.”
Although this Advancing YU stream will be finished in March, students interested in applying for 2023-24 can visit Student Information, starting in September.
Collaboration, innovation key to enriched experiential education
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In his message to the community, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Dean J.J. McMurtry invites community members to learn more about the Faculty’s focus on experiential education through new and important initiatives and faculty-student collaborations.
In this month’s “Innovatus,” we’re focusing on our commitment to experiential education and work-integrated learning at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS).
J.J. McMurtry
I’m excited to share more about some of the groundbreaking work our teams have been focusing on, including launching our first co-operative education option for LA&PS students. This new initiative will open possibilities for our students and give them the edge they need in an increasingly competitive workforce.
I encourage you to learn more about the LA&PS Learning Design Lab (LDL), an initiative designed by the LA&PS Teaching and Learning team under the guidance of Anita Lam, associate dean, teaching and learning. The LDL is a perfect example of how to incorporate work-integrated learning in different teaching contexts.
We also look at how one Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) project is now available to the public, thanks to the collaboration between faculty and the project’s student researcher. It’s a great example of how DARE is making real-life impacts thanks to the hard work of our students and the excellent mentorship of their faculty supervisors.
Finally, I’m proud to share more about our unique mentoring program Advance YU for Black and women students. In its second year, Advance YU is already accepting applications for 2023-24.
I want to thank our teams at LA&PS for making experiential education a critical part of learning at LA&PS.
J.J. McMurtry Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Welcome to the January 2023 issue of ‘Innovatus’
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Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 2023 issue of “Innovatus,” a special issue of YFile dedicated to teaching and learning innovation at York University.
This month, we offer an overview of the Academic Innovation Fund, a unique experiential learning initiative coming out of the Glendon campus, two unique forms of professional development and ChatGPT.
Will Gage
This issue offers a digest of sorts in that it does not have a specific Faculty in the spotlight. Instead, we opted to provide a wide array of interesting stories. The lead story focuses on the Academic Innovation Fund. The deadline for submissions is approaching and we thought you would find an overview of some of the past projects that received funding. It is interesting to see how the innovations arising out of the projects are now part of the fabric of the teaching and learning tapestry at York University.
There are also two interesting stories on professional development. One focuses on a reading group and the other on how a development tool known as Sandbox is inspiring new forms of professional development.
As well, Glendon, through its work with the Toronto French School, is deepening the experiential education for students who are studying French language with a view of a possible teaching career.
And finally, ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence platform, has dominated the news of late. This story explores how York University is harnessing the power and potential of this new technology.
I hope the ideas presented in this issue are both informative and inspiring.
Sincerely,
Will Gage Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning
Faculty, course directors and staff are invited to share their experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the “Innovatus” story form, which is available at tl.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=16573.
In this issue:
AIF funds a wide range of teaching and learning projects Over the years, York University’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) has promoted an inspired shift in teaching, learning, the student experience and internationalization of the curriculum.
Glendon’s partnership with Toronto French School is an EE success The partnership offers a win-win for students at Glendon and the Toronto French School. The collaboration between the two institutions has led to a full-year experiential education opportunity in the form of a professional work placement course.
Reading for teaching offers new perspectives and connections The new Reading for Teaching program offers an informal, collegial space to engage with colleagues from across York University and it is the result of an inspired collaboration between an educational developer and a teaching and learning librarian.
Coming soon: Innovative professional development online Although she realizes that faculty members across Ontario may never binge-watch professional development videos focused on learning innovations, Michelle Sengara hopes the learning modules being created will still be a hit with dedicated teachers.
How will AI tools such as ChatGPT shape teaching and learning? ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that has dominated the headlines of late, has been labelled as a transformational force in academia. How are York faculty harnessing this powerful tool?
AIF funds a wide range of teaching and learning projects
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By Elaine Smith
Over the years, York University’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) has promoted an inspired shift in teaching, learning, the student experience and internationalization of the curriculum. With the deadline approaching for applications to this year’s AIF, here is an overview of some of the examples of the past projects that received funding.
Will Gage
For Will Gage, York University’s associate vice-president, teaching & learning, the start of the winter term is a sign that it’s time to remind faculty members to submit their applications for Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) grants. And what better way to do so than to share some examples of projects that received grants in the past?
“For more than a decade, the AIF has provided faculty with funding to pilot, develop and test their innovative curricular and pedagogical ideas,” said Gage. “We are proud of the diverse, useful, practical output that has resulted, many of which have been incorporated into the classroom or the student experience.”
For example, an AIF grant is supporting a project related to a topic that is crucial to the University Academic Plan: the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ‘SDGs-in-the-Classroom” Curricular Innovation Hub is a pan-University, interdisciplinary, scaffolded strategy that aims to infuse the SDGs into more York classrooms more quickly.
Nitima Bhatia and Tracy Bhoola, members of the SDGs-in-the-Classroom Community of Practice, are working under the oversight of Sandra (Skerratt) Peniston, an assistant professor of nursing, to bring this effort to life, thanks to an AIF grant. They led the team that created an SDGs toolkit to make it simple to integrate the SDGs into courses on any subject.
“SDGs do touch on every single discipline, but many people may not realize that, so we want to spread the word across campus,” said Bhoola.
Added Bhatia, “The toolkit has launched, but we are adding resources every day, so it’s a living, breathing resource.”
In time, the toolkit will be located on the hub, which will be home to resources about SDGs, collaboration opportunities and videos created by SDG Curricular Champions. Bhatia and Bhoola are also involved in five workshops being held in conjunction with the Teaching Commons to train faculty to incorporate SDGs into their curricula, and they will be making presentations to the faculty councils about the accessibility and relevance of the tools.
“We really want to get the SDGs into York’s DNA,” said Bhoola.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals
Robin Sutherland-Harris, an educational developer at the Teaching Commons, has used an AIF grant to develop a speakers’ program for the community of practice that is dedicated to equity, diversity, decolonization and inclusion in teaching and learning. Sutherland-Harris, the project lead, works with co-leads Ameera Ali, another educational developer, and Jessica Vorstermans,an assistant professor of critical disability studies, health policy and equity, to line up speakers for their monthly meetings and set the group’s agenda.
“We launched the community of practice in Fall 2021,” said Sutherland-Harris. “It’s for anyone who deals with teaching and learning at York and we’re always accepting members. We started with 40 people and now have more than 70.
“During our first year, our monthly sessions largely featured members of our community sharing topics of interest or expertise. However, we felt that especially those who are less established or not in the tenure stream were devoting a significant chunk of work to preparing presentations. We wanted to have funding to help support and recognize their labour, and that got us talking about applying for an AIF grant.”
The team plans to apply for a second year of AIF funding to support their monthly lectures and plan for their upcoming May conference.
A partnership between the Schulich School of Business and YSpace is preserving guidance and insights gleaned from York and Schulich alumni in a video database that any faculty member can access. Based on lectures given by these visiting experts, The Entrepreneurial Mindset/Skillset eLearning and Video Database Initiative, offers faculty short clips on myriad topics, such as venture capital and protecting intellectual property, said Chris Carder, executive director of Schulich’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“Normally, when professors want to use video content for a class, they need to go out and find relevant stories,” said Carder. “Often, however, they are coming from American sources. At Schulich there are so many interviews done and appearances made by York and Schulich alumni and we’re saving it all.
“This program wouldn’t be possible without the AIF grant. I’m grateful that York has such a program that encourages us to push the envelope.”
Another current project, EE With, Not In, focuses on experiential education (EE). Led by Natalie Coulter, director of the Institute for Digital Literacies, and Byron Gray, manager of the TD Community Engagement Centre, this collaborative project supports students in their EE experiences in the Jane and Finch community. It uses a reciprocal approach that is respectful of community knowledge and expertise in the community, rather than being grounded in assumptions and stigmatizations.
Meanwhile, the Collective Inclusive Pathways to Access (CIPA) project is working to increase the success of students with disabilities in work placements. Currently, their access is heavily reliant on an accommodations model predicated on disclosure of a medical diagnosis. Led by nursing professor Iris Epstein, the project will develop a CIPA resource for professionals and those responsible for creating accessible EE.
The AIF fund allows faculty to exercise their pedagogical creativity. Don’t miss out on this year’s call for applications – check your Faculty’s fast-approaching deadline for submission.
Glendon’s partnership with Toronto French School is an EE success
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Glendon Campus
By Elaine Smith
The partnership offers a win-win for students at Glendon and the Toronto French School. The collaboration between the two institutions has led to a full-year experiential education (EE) opportunity in the form of a professional work placement course.
When Mallory Nettleton heard about the opportunity to engage students at Toronto French School (TFS) with the outdoors, “It sounded exactly like what I want to do.”
Julie Marguet
Nettleton, a 2022 Glendon graduate who is now earning her teaching credentials in French immersion and biology, is a strong believer in outdoor education and conservation and immediately contacted Julie Marguet, manager of partnerships and program development for Glendon’s professional development centre, about the Fall 2022 pilot program.
As an attempt to broaden EE opportunities for Glendon students, Glendon approached TFS early in 2022 to see if there were possibilities of working together. TFS was looking at ways to get their students away from their devices and screens and out into nature, and Glendon had students preparing for education careers who were eager for some hands-on experience. The collaboration between the two has led to a full-year professional work placement course that matches Glendon students with TFS faculty to lead activities in what Marguet calls “the outdoor classroom.”
“In the University Academic Plan, York University has highlighted its commitment to ‘attain the goal of providing every student with an experiential learning opportunity, regardless of program,’” Marguet said. “The strong Glendon-TFS alliance answers that call by providing meaningful, work-focused experiential education to all Glendon students through an equitable and accessible multidisciplinary approach.”
It is also part of a larger experiential effort, Projet FranCOnnexion, to support and highlight local francophone EE along Toronto’s Bayview corridor, an initiative supported by Canadian Heritage in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Education for Official Language Minority Communities, as well as partners such as Oxford Learning and the Canadian Film Centre.
For their professional work placement, upper-year Glendon students spend eight paid hours each week working with TFS students on outdoor activities that are appropriate for their grade levels. There are scavenger hunts conducted in French that require young students to find items such as one petal and two leaves as a way of teaching numeracy, games based on nature and walks through the nearby ravine system to discuss the local ecosystem. They also required to meet with their professor bi-weekly to hone skills such as leadership and communications that they can use at TFS and throughout their careers and to participate in career modules in collaboration with Glendon’s career centre.
“Through skill awareness, skill acquisition and skill articulation, we want to set our students up for success,” said Marguet.
The outdoor specialists’ pilot began in September 2022 with six students and its success has led to a second, three-credit version that began in January 2023 and is focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) leadership.
“TFS was thrilled to have potential teaching candidates filling these placements,” Marguet said. “We will continue to look for ways to expand and diversify this cherished partnership.”
The project now involves 18 Glendon students although many more applied. Marguet required all applicants to work with the career centre to craft a resume, which she reviewed. She met with each of the applicants and chose a set of resumes to forward to TFS. Their staff selected students to interview, which required an additional student foray to the career centre for guidance about job interviews.
“We want our students, even those who aren’t chosen for the program, to build their career toolbox,” Marguet said.
When asked about the program, Nettleton said, “Honestly, it’s dream job stuff. I’m so inspired to get to work with students outdoors in a natural setting on an ongoing basis. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy being there and how much I’m taking in.
“I’m interested in watching how the teachers I work with manage their classrooms and keep students engaged and it’s great to see the students connect what they’re learning to the bigger picture. It’s exciting to see these processes happen and to discover the different strategies that teachers use for different age groups. To watch the students get passionate about the subjects we’re talking about is absolutely incredible.”
Reading for teaching offers new perspectives and connections
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By Elaine Smith
The new Reading for Teaching program offers an informal, collegial space to engage with colleagues from across York University and it is the result of an inspired collaboration between an educational developer and a teaching and learning librarian.
When Teaching Commons educational developer Lisa Endersby and Scott McLaren, teaching and learning librarian, came up with the idea of a Reading for Teaching program, Endersby was looking for ways to continue collaborating with York University Libraries on teaching and learning, while McLaren, who had earned his PhD in the history of the book, was interested in reading communities and their practices and saw an opportunity to see how such a group functioned. The Reading for Teaching program met those goals and many more.
Reading for Teaching is “an informal, collegial opportunity to engage with colleagues from across campus interested in reading and talking about teaching.” Endersby and McLaren brought it to life pre-pandemic and opened it up to York faculty and staff. Originally, the group met in person, but during the pandemic, the group met online. They hope to return to in-person gatherings soon.
Scott McLaren
“We draw people from all over the University and every discipline,” McLaren said. “We have faculty from both teaching and research streams, graduate students, post-docs, CLAs and librarians and they all come from different backgrounds. You wouldn’t necessarily think that someone from biology could shed new light on teaching to someone from the humanities, but they do.”
The group reads books about teaching and meets to discuss them, although the approach has changed over time.
“We tried to organize around themes and tried to have participants vote on books from a curated shortlist, but we’ve found that reading a common text is the best way to foster engagement,” said McLaren.
Added Endersby, “The group suggests a topic; Scott can curate suggestions and the two of us pick a book. As a group, we discuss how we want to explore the book together; since they are generally non-fiction, we might look at individual chapters.”
Lisa Endersby
The program meets four times each term; this winter, the group is discussing How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching by Joshua R. Eyler, a hold-over from last term, given its popularity with the group and the amount of relevant material to discuss. The program’s group generally has 10 people or a few more each term, a size that both facilitators find is conducive to participation and good discussion. Members read the books in varied formats: print, online or as audiobooks.
“People read as much as they can and come as often as possible,” Endersby said. “If they attend two of the four sessions, we consider that they’ve successfully completed the program.”
What draws people to Reading for Teaching? There are a variety of reasons, said McLaren.
“People join to improve their teaching and explore different teaching practices, to experience a sense of community around a common concern and to have a support system,” he said. “It’s a great way to share success and failures in a safe environment.”
Endersby finds that Reading for Teaching offers people an opportunity to read for professional development with some accountability and to reflect on teaching and take part in reflective conversations.
“We’re all so busy, we don’t often get to pause and think about what we’re doing,” she said. “I know that personally, I talk about reflection a lot in my work on pedagogy, but I don’t get to do it myself, so this is a learning opportunity for me. I also enjoy hearing various different perspectives; it’s really good learning.”
McLaren agrees and notes another personal benefit. “I’ve discovered an incredibly rich literature around pedagogy, both fiction and non-fiction; it was quite surprising to me and it’s hard to narrow the selection down to shortlists,” he said.
Other books the group has read include The Slow Professor by Professors Maggie Berg (Queen’s University) and Barbara K. Seeber (Brock University) and the memoir From the Ashes: My Story of Being Homeless, Metis and Finding My Way by York University Assistant Professor Jesse Thistle.
Anyone who would like to join the Reading for Teaching program in exploring their current read is welcome to register. For questions or suggestions about books to read, Endersby and McLaren invite you to contact them.
