Congress brings together scholars from dozens of universities, myriad disciplines, and uncountable research niches. Within this diversity, there is one thing almost all of us have in common: in our profession, we teach. Congress 2019 at UBC will recognize this shared ground with a new feature: the Pedagogy Hub. Located in the heart of Congress, next to the book Expo and registration zone on the second floor of the Nest, the Pedagogy Hub will create a physical and intellectual space for a Circle of Conversation around teaching and learning. The Hub invites crossover discussions among associations and disciplines over the course of six days of special event clusters, workshops, and a series of one-hour conversations around research and innovations in teaching that we are calling “Coffee Talks.”
Like many Canadian universities in the last decade or so, UBC has made significant philosophical, policy, and budgetary investments in teaching and learning, as a classroom practice, as a site of critical inquiry, and even as a tenurable faculty rank in the Professor of Teaching. The Pedagogy Hub will use this work as a jumping-off point for an interdisciplinary national conversation about the most public-facing part of our profession.
There will be lots of ways to be part of the Pedagogy Hub while you are in Vancouver:
- Try out the Augmented Reality teaching tool.
- Join us at the drop-in space to connect with others interested in the best new thinking on post-secondary teaching, or maybe the special drop-in event, “The Doctor is in: Conversations with Killam and 3M award-winning teachers.”
- Participate in one of our special-interest clusters on pedagogies in Asian-Canadian studies, or the latest in instructional technology, or teaching modern languages, or how experiential learning can work as a class, a module, a course, or a degree.
- Attend a talk on managing hostility and risk in the classroom, or on inclusive teaching, or hear the Conference Board of Canada “Addressing the Myth of the Humanities and Work.”
- Have a coffee and peruse the poster display on some scholarship on teaching and learning (SoTL) research projects.
- Come to one of the daily Coffee Talks, offering one-hour shots of caffeinated teaching inspiration on topics like:
- How many?!? Successful strategies for active learning in larger classes;
- Life hacks for the classroom: Easy, small changes with a big impact on learning;
- Can students really evaluate each other? Using peer feedback and peer grading;
- Using the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in your courses; and
- What is SoTL, and how can I get it funded and published?
Everyone is welcome to all sessions and we hope to see you there to converse about teaching and its innovations across disciplines and geographies.