MRU Institute for SoTL

Call for applications for the 2014 Nexen Scholars Program – deadline Dec 1

Mount Royal faculty members (full time & contract) are invited to submit research development proposals for participation in the 2014 Nexen Scholars Program. This program brings together selected faculty committed to working together to develop classroom-based inquiry projects designed to shed light on a significant aspect of student learning, share evidence and findings publicly in an effort to influence teaching in the field, and create a culture of teaching and learning inquiry at Mount Royal and beyond.

Faculty selected as Nexen Scholars will design and undertake an inquiry project in the Fall 2014 and/or Winter 2015 semester aimed at understanding or improving student learning.  Note that in the past, this program has only supported projects where scholars were investigating a question related to student learning in their own class.  This year, the Institute will also start accepting projects proposals that explore student learning in a collaborator’s class or over multiple classes.  In order for such projects to qualify, they must have direct implications for improving the scholar’s teaching practice.

More info here:  2014nexenscholarsrfp

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Free article: SoTL Scholars’ Identity Development

teachlearninqu.1.issue-2.coverThe recently published article, Conflicts and Configurations in a Liminal Space: SoTL Scholars’ Identity Development, is the free sample for the 2nd issue of Teaching and Learning Inquiry, so anyone can access this article.  MRU’s Karen Manarin is one of the co-authors.

In it, the authors describe how “navigating among conflicting identities can lead us into a troublesome but deeply reflective liminal space, prompting profound realizations and the reconstruction of our academic identities.”  Thanks to the authors for helping to normalise the sometimes “unsettling” experience of engaging in SoTL!

Nicola Simmons, Earle Abrahamson, Jessica M. Deshler, Barbara Kensington-Miller, Karen Manarin, Sue Morón-García, Carolyn Oliver and Joanna Renc-Roe
Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal
Vol. 1, No. 2, Special Issue: Writing Without Borders: 2013 International Writing Collaborative / Guest Editors: Mick Healey and Beth Marquis (2013) (pp. 9-21)

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Intro to SoTL: Recommended Readings

The ISSoTL13 Online conference is hosting some Intro to SoTL sessions over the next couple of weeks.  Here is their website and list of recommended readings:

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Teaching with Tablets for Increased Student Engagement and Accountability

Teaching with Tablets.pdf

Hi everyone,

Please see the following announcement from the Chemistry Department and Brett McCollum:

The 2013-2014 academic year marks the 5th year of the Chemistry and Biology Speaker Series!  The Department of Chemistry would like to invite you to our first colloquium of the Fall 2013 semester,

Brett McCollum, PhD, will be speaking on “Teaching with tablets for increased student engagement and responsibility“.  

Dr. McCollum received his PhD from Simon Fraser University in 2008, investigating chemical reaction mechanisms of organic and organometallic compounds using a light “isotope” of hydrogen, muonium.  In addition to his research at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, he has been engaged in the systematic investigation of educational practices and the use of technology in chemistry.  McCollum is a current Nexen Scholar with the MRU Institute of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and a Apple Distinguished Educator.

“Touchscreens are doing for education what books, chalk, computers, and calculators have done in the past.  They are opening the doors of education, they are allowing us to acquire, create, and share knowledge faster than ever before.  What we’re really doing here is building on the strengths of the traditional teaching model and modernizing it for technology available today that students are well-adapted to use.”

Date: Monday, September 23, 2013
Time: 1:00-1:45pm
Place: B-341

We invite you to join us for the best 45 minutes of your day.

Brett McCollum, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Apple Distinguished Educator, Nexen Scholar
Department Chemistry

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Vol. 1 No. 2 of Teaching and Learning Inquiry is out!

I’m looking forward to reading this new issue which features articles by the “International Writing Groups”, organized as part of ISSoTL 2012.  In particular, there are 3 articles to which Mount Royal scholars have contributed:

Conflicts and Configurations in a Liminal Space: SoTL Scholars’ Identity Development(pp. 9-21)

Nicola Simmons, Earle Abrahamson, Jessica M. Deshler, Barbara Kensington-Miller, Karen Manarin, Sue Morón-García, Carolyn Oliver and Joanna Renc-Roe
DOI: 10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.9

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.9

Being Ethically Minded: Practising the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Ethical Manner(pp. 23-32)

Ruth L. Healey, Tina Bass, Jay Caulfield, Adam Hoffman, Michelle K. McGinn, Janice Miller-Young and Martin Haigh
DOI: 10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.23

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.23

The Power of Social Networks: A Model for Weaving the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning into Institutional Culture(pp. 49-62)

Andrea L. Williams, Roselynn Verwoord, Theresa A. Beery, Helen Dalton, James McKinnon, Karen Strickland, Jessica Pace and Gary Poole
DOI: 10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.49

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.49

**note: Andrea is now at UofT.

 

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Reminder: Symposium on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Nov 7-9 in Banff, Proposals due Sept 13, Registration Now Open

 

We hope you will attend our annual Symposium on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Banff this November.  This practitioners conference is dedicated to developing teaching and learning research, sharing nascent findings, going public with results of completed projects, and building an extended scholarly community.  

 

Symposium on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
November 7 – 9, 2013 in Banff, Alberta Canada


Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Mount Royal University
Calgary, Alberta
Please access the

Call for Proposalshttp://isotlsymposium.mtroyal.ca/proposals.html  accepted from individual scholars or teams of scholars committed to presenting their work in one of two venues:
a 60 minute concurrent session or a 90 minute poster session in the following categories;

completed teaching and learning research,
early returns and initial findings of work in progress,
calls for collaboration, triangulation, and development.
Call for Proposals closes September 13, 2013 

Registration is now open: http://www.cvent.com/d/94q7kb


Keynote Speakers:


Nancy Chick, Ph.D.

Assistant Director, Center for Teaching
Vanderbilt University


Lynn Taylor, Ph.D.

Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning)
University of Calgary 

and
Gary Poole, Ph.D.

Associate Director
School of Population and Public Health
University of British Columbia


Karen Manarin, Ph.D.

Departments of English and General Education
Mount Royal University 

and
April McGrath, Ph.D.,

Department of Psychology
Mount Royal University


Pre-Symposium Workshops:

Qualitative Methods of Data Collection & Analysis in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 
Facilitator: Deb Bennett, Ph.D.
Mount Royal University
 Ethical Considerations for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 
Facilitators: Michelle Yeo, Ph.D. and Janice Miller-Young, Ph.D.
Mount Royal University

 

 

 

 

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