Proceedings of the Atlantic Universities‘ Teaching Showcase
These proceedings are produced by the Association of Atlantic Universities' Coordinating Committee on Faculty Development from the annual Atlantic Universities' Teaching Showcase hosted by a member institution.
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We are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance our efforts at ADC to decolonize teaching and learning. Technologies such as ChatGPT can be resources by which to practice heutagogy (self-determined learning) in the classroom, a pedagogical approach that invites more inclusivity and creativity. We have designed an REB-approved experiment to leverage AI in our classrooms as a decolonizing resource that empowers diverse graduates and helps them imagine how to use AI in their diverse future work contexts. We have designed an ADC Course Content Creator AI tool and are using it to create and deliver a 10-week course on AI, ethics, and pastoral ministry. The session will highlight the theories behind our experiment, includingcomparative “gogies” (pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy) and their connections with decolonization1 as well as the case for including heutagogy across academic disciplines.2 We will reflect on challenges and opportunities of AI as a heutagogical resource that can offer decolonized, personalized learning experiences for diverse students.
Copyright (c) 2024 Proceedings of the Atlantic Universities‘ Teaching Showcase
Navigating the Emotional Labour of Teaching
"Emotional labour" is a term that was first coined by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild (1983) to describe the process of managing outward expressions of feelings to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. It involves wearing a "mask" that requires the suppression of negative emotions and the display of only positive emotions, regardless of one's true feelings. Engaging in emotional labour can lead to lower job satisfaction and burnout (Humphrey, 2021). Considering emotional labour of teaching in this post-COVID time is particularly important because as emotional labour increases, occupational commitment to the teaching profession decreases (Yantao & Mingkun, 2024). This presentation aims to break the stigma and start the conversation about emotional labour, and help instructors see that there are hopeful pathways to reducing impacts of emotional labour. Attendees will learn: a) what emotional labour looks like in the context of teaching, b) its associated influences and impacts, and c) a set of strategies to redirect the energy and efforts used for emotional labour toward effective pedagogy and instructor self-care.
Discovering Effective Mentorship: Positive Experiences of International Graduate Students through Appreciative Inquiry,
This proposal builds on my doctoral dissertation (Ankomah, 2022a) and previous studies (Ankomah, 2024, 2022b) using the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework to explore the positive experiences of international graduate students at a Southern Ontario University. While much of the literature on international student experiences focuses on challenges such as academic uncertainties, language barriers, and social isolation, my study is the first to apply AI—a strength-based research approach—to highlight the life-affirming moments that foster effective mentorship and enhance students' educational experiences. Focusing on the discovery phase of AI, the study gathered stories of success from 14 individual interviews and 3 focus groups. Participants shared how mentorship, especially the emotional and professional support offered by supervisors, was critical to their success. This presentation will share these findings and discuss how policymakers can improve mentor training and create more supportive environments for international students.
The Sisters On Screen Film Festival: A Case Study of Playing with Popular Culture to Achieve High-Impact Learning
The Sisters On Screen Film Festival was a class project undertaken by the undergraduate students of the Women in Music seminar at Acadia University (Nova Scotia, Canada) in 2019 and 2023, both times resulting in a three-day event that screened three films for the local community. This presentation offers The Sisters On Screen Film Festival as an example of how playful pedagogy using popular culture can yield high-impact practices (Hayford and Kattwinkel, 2018): student-centered collaborative learning, both in and beyond the classroom. Drawing from feedback collected from both the audience and participating students, it outlines the student-perceived learning outcomes achieved through this process and considers both the benefits and challenges of a community engagement project of this nature. It will also address the project’s development, and the impact of modifications made to its design and implementation from the 2019 to the 2023 iteration.
Teaching as a Collective Endeavor: Lessons from the CBU CTL Mentorship Collective
We will explore how the Cape Breton University Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) utilized a mentorship collective model to foster community and enhance expertise within a small but dedicated team focused on teaching and learning. The initiative evolved out of both a teaching chair program, a cornerstone for supporting innovative teaching practices, as well as ‘teaching triangles’ with small groups of faculty providing feedback in a structured format. Our aim with the Mentorship Collective is to provide participants with access to a collective learning environment where early career and more established faculty can simultaneously experience both the mentee and mentor role. New faculty seek out the services of the CTL and are eager to develop networks and supports across the institution, and this program allows the established CTL clientele to “increase their expertise and better serve mentees while development of a community of practice is taking place” (Lari & Barton, 2017).
Differentiating Indigenous Projects of Social Change in Education
To begin, I draw on Indigenous scholarship to characterize four Indigenous projects of social change: reconciliation, decolonization, Indigenization, and resurgence. Broadly, reconciliation can be seen as a strengthening of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, decolonization as a removal of coloniality in all forms, Indigenization as an integration of Indigenous presence into dominant social structures, and resurgence as a sovereign assertion of traditional Indigenous cultural and governance practices. I then suggest that awareness of these distinct but overlapping projects is useful in post-secondary. For example, while efforts to Indigenize program requirements are laudable, Indigenous authors often critique such efforts as being superficial when they do not include Indigenous language or other forms of grounded, land-based Indigenous knowledge. Such efforts, then, are best lead by Indigenous knowledge keepers, Elders, or scholars. Decolonial efforts, on the other hand, should be undertaken by everyone. An understanding of how these projects differ can, thus, facilitate a nuanced response to the growing calls to decolonize and Indigenize post-secondary.
The discourse on teaching and learning includes work on anti-racist education, decolonization, trauma informed pedagogy, universal design for teaching and learning, feminist, and queer pedagogies, etc. While each of these frameworks represents a different set of interests, they vibrate in harmony around critical reflections on the production of knowledge and the practices and processes of teaching and learning. Elder Murdena Marshall and Elder Albert Marshall characterize Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) as the gift of multiple perspectives; the ability to perceive the world through two lenses, one framed by Western Science, the other by Indigenous ways of knowing. This gift of multiple perspectives provides a means to find the common threads in the calls to engage in transformative teaching and learning practices and processes outlined above. Etuaptmumk, as an ethic, calls us to imagine ways to harvest the practices of various pedagogies as if they were blades of sweetgrass and weave them together to create transformative and sustainable classroom spaces.
Exploring the roles and responsibilities of non-Indigenous allies in the repairing the Treaty Relationship
For years at CBU, a small group of settler professors have been discussing what we should be doing for Treaty Day (October 1st) as an educational institution. Our Mi’kmaw College is closed this day, because many L’nu leaders travel to Halifax for Treaty Day events. Typically, the President’s office sends out an email about how “We are all Treaty People living under the Peace and Friendship Treaties”. Beyond that, little occurs apart from individual-efforts in a minority of classes. This is a lost learning opportunity for faculty, staff and students about our roles in the Treaty Relationship. But to what extent is it appropriate for non-Indigenous professors to lead on-campus Treaty Day events? This year we are trying a multi-step process beginning in mid-August, followed by a session one week before Treaty Day, and then an informal learning opportunity on Treaty Day itself. We will also begin offering sessions for faculty to discuss Indigenizing and decolonizing education. This talk will detail these efforts to more adequately ‘plant the seeds of knowledge’ for faculty about what it means to be treaty people and why healing the treaty relationship remains so crucial.
Decolonizing institutional foodservices: learning through doing making food more acceptable for First Nations, Metis and Inuit.
Institutional foodservices are often overlooked as a place for decolonization initiatives. Yet, these foodservices may provide all the food eaten by residents in their facilities. Lack of culturally appropriate food can cause harm. Despite the evidence for the benefits of making hospital foodservices more acceptable to First Nations, Inuit, and Metis there remains many barriers to doing this including legislation, access to traditional foods, supply of traditional foods, knowledge of traditional foods and institutional barriers such as the budget, meeting nutritional targets and working around dietary restrictions. To prepare students who may become foodservice managers for decolonizing foodservices in the foodservice management class the students complete a project which culminates in providing a meal to Indigenous students and faculty. Students learn about the importance of the work, hear of examples of institutions that have started to decolonize their foodservices, and conduct a survey asking Indigenous students at St FX about food. Based on the survey the nutrition students prepare a meal for Indigenous students and faculty.
Experiential learning has been shown to improve student outcomes and enhance empathy, particularly in service-oriented professions such as dietetics. The "Just Gardens" project combines service learning, interdisciplinarity, and community involvement to support sustainable and culturally relevant knowledge sharing and learning. This presentation will: i). Share pedogeological approaches applied by the project to integrate community-based learning into competency-informed university courses; and ii). Share lessons learned and experiences from the university professors, community partners, and student perspectives. With funding from CEWIL (Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning) Canada, students in the three courses co-learned and collaborated with community gardens and emergency food programs, through both in-person and virtual engagements, enhancing learning beyond the classroom setting.
Inclusive, Student-Centred Course Design in the Undergraduate and Graduate Context
As an instructor of inclusive practices courses in a B.Ed. program, my extensive experience with implementing inclusive teaching practices with children, has facilitated my ability to provide student-centred postsecondary courses as I model the principles of inclusive education for emergent pre-service teachers and strive to ‘practice what I teach.’ In this way, my concurrent experiences as a classroom teacher and instructor in teacher education, offer me the unique perspective of instructor-practitioner. What I have learned and practiced as a public-school teacher has made me a more effective university instructor. Drawing on emerging literature on inclusive practices along with concrete examples from my practice, I will relate how I endeavor to include such pedagogical practices as formative assessment, choice boards, exit tasks, flipping the classroom, flexible grouping, scaffolded instruction, collaborative and interactive learning strategies, and use of exemplars to develop more inclusive and accessible course design, while maintaining high academic standards and expectations.
Out of the Classroom and into the “Artifactory”: Experiential Learning and Local Heritage Partnerships
This presentation offers a reflective study of experiential learning in an undergraduate History course in partnership with local heritage organizations. It is based on a new course I offered in the winter of 2024 at UPEI: The Hidden Histories of Objects. This course introduced students to the burgeoning field of material culture in historical research. Students worked directly with historical artifacts housed at the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation’s collection facility (known as the “artifactory”) and were introduced to practices and skills in museum and heritage professions. This presentation seeks to encourage instructors to think creatively about how to collaborate with local organizations and identify linkages between academic disciplinary content and community resources.
Kinesiology is a broad field of study. It encompasses many subdisciplines that can lead to professional careers within the allied health fields, in education, and in coaching and leadership. Professionalism and networking skills are essential in these careers and as a result are key learning outcomes within the kinesiology degree pathway. A series of in class activities helped students in semester one year one of their degree develop a 30 second professional pitch to introduce themselves, their interests in the field of kinesiology, and their future career aspirations. Students then attended the Foundations of Kinesiology Professional Networking Event with their class peers as well as invited guests that included faculty, staff, and leaders from the campus wide community. This presentation will provide an overview of the experiential learning activity, the assessment used for its evaluation, and a summary of the reported student experiences collected via a reflection assignment from the past two consecutive years.
Introducing Preservice Teachers to the History of Women Teachers in Nova Scotia
The history of public education in Nova Scotia cannot be divorced from the feminization of the teaching profession. During the rapid expansion of Nova Scotia’s public school system in the mid-nineteenth century, women were hired as the majority of teachers because they were considered inherently suited to the moral training of children. In turn, this “innate ability” justified paying women teachers low wages for labour that came "naturally" to them. Little to no teacher training requirements only exacerbated the idea that learned skills were not necessary in order to perform the feminine act of teaching, which hindered teaching's professionalization for well over one hundred years. Today, popular discourse regarding "good teachers" is often reminiscent of the nineteenth-century notion that teaching comes naturally to a predominantly female workforce and that it is somehow bad taste when teachers demand fair working conditions and compensation. Thus, it is important for preservice teachers to challenge this contemporary embracing of the very beliefs and attitudes that sought to hinder the teaching profession throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Community-based Mathematics Education in the Wabanaki B.Ed. Program
The Ugpi'ganjig Community office, Campbellton and Miramichi libraries, and cafeterias to classrooms at Mah Sos (Neqotkuk), Chief Harold Sappier Memorial Elementary School (Sitansisk), Esgenoôpetitj, Elsipogtog, Wejgwapniag (Gesgapegiag) schools, and UNB served as sites for Fall 2023 math course offerings in the Wabanaki B.Ed. Directed efforts to bring courses beyond a web delivery format took many shapes. Community visits extended beyond class gatherings to include math outreach in multiple elementary classrooms. Community engagement enhanced the voice of students. Assignments featuring place and local cultural contexts highlighted the significance of mathematics and one's surroundings. For instance, the project component produced efforts ranging from quillwork to drum making to the building of structures. In summary, the community‐based component enabled deeper understanding of students and teacher alike with respect to context, while fostering the development of richer relationship building at personal and community levels. Among other benefits was the lessening of mathematical anxiety. Please join us as we unpack layers of this experience including its richness and challenges.
As a (delayed) 60th birthday present to myself, I walked a two-week section of the Camino Portuges solo. At the end in Santiago de Compostela, I got my passport stamped, and the volunteer who checked my passport asked “How are you going to bring the Camino into the rest of your life.” Great question. I started thinking immediately about the classroom and ways to bring some of the transformative experiences – and the rich metaphor of journey as life – to my learners. While I haven’t yet been able to organize the dream (a course on literature of the journey that happens in Portugal and Spain on that amazing pilgrimage), I have found two more modest ways to bring the Camino to the classroom. The first is in a research methods course that I have taught by contract grading for the past few years: I imported the idea of the Camino “Credential,” a passport (with stickers) that marks the various stops on the journey. And in a second class, I incorporated a trail walk-and-talk as a part of the class time experience. Both allowed us to incorporate something a little playful into our learning, and in the second, we were able to move beyond the classroom and to connect the student experience to the journey metaphor. In this session, after I outline my plan and experience of each innovation, participants will be asked to imagine ways to adapt the Camino experience to their own disciplines.
Research suggests an increase in anxiety and depression among higher education students (Haidt, 2024). How are university educators supporting students to understand and manage stress, so that they can thrive in their studies and in their future profession? This research investigates how students (pre-service teachers) in the Bachelor of Education program at Acadia, learn about and apply course content to engage in personal action research projects affording insights into their own wellbeing. How do they apply their insights and course learning to support their own wellbeing and be well-positioned to coregulate dysregulated students as future educators.
Science and Science Education by, with and for Underrepresented Students
n this session, we will share lessons from the co-creation of a microbial diversity research study motived by the principles of environmental justice. We will also describe and evaluate its delivery as a science education workshop - a Microbial Observatory Science Outreach Module (MOSOM) - for underrepresented students in STEM. The MOSOM program uses inclusive science communication and teaching-as-learning models to highlight diversity and prosocial values while preparing students to communicate their science. With this case study we illustrate how undergraduate students can design and carry out a study of environmental racism within their community through the lens of microbial biodiversity and explore how their pro-social science communication goals shaped their learning. During this discussion participants will be asked to consider who knowledge is produced by, with and for, and how those expectations shape the creation and communication of knowledge.
A recent article, Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome (Tulshyan and Burey, 2021), discusses the idea of imposterization without explicitly using the term that others have since adopted (Gutiérrez, 2021; Holmes et al., 2022; Phelan, 2024). In this session, we will be framing our experiences navigating academic spaces by articulating how the intersectionalities of our identities have shaped our academic careers as migrant scholars. We will argue that instead of placing the onus on academics belonging to equity deserving groups for ‘feeling’ as imposters, many of the common practices in academia are the root cause of these feelings. Rather than having imposter syndrome, these academics are being made imposters…have been imposterized. We will discuss how to dismantle the barriers that keep marginalised people from fully participating in academic spaces. We advocate for recognizing such barriers by sharing our experiences – among ourselves as well as with others – and naming them for what they are.
Cultivating an Openness to the Other in Higher Education through Phenomenology, Beginner’s Mind, and Storytelling
To make higher education inclusive and support Indigenizing the curriculum, we must acknowledge the limits of our knowledge when engaging others and create safe spaces for them to share their experiences. How can we foster a space where the knowledge embodied by others is ethically engaged and its interpretations respectfully explored? As praxis, I will share personal-professional stories to illustrate how I integrate Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the concept of shoshin or “beginner’s mind” in Zen Buddhism, and Indigenizing storytelling principles into a unified approach that honors the preconceptual aspects of others’ stories. This approach avoids imposing fixed interpretations, allowing for exploration of diverse meanings with others that honors both the sensible and intelligible. To deepen understanding, I will include brief exercises in suspending preconceptions, attending to the sensible, and sharing personal-professional stories. By the presentation’s end, participants will understand the interplay of the sensible and intelligible in engaging others’ stories ethically and feel inspired to adapt these examples and exercises in their own teaching.
Enhancing Experiential Learning Through Reflection and Accessibility
This presentation will highlight the "Empowering Rural Educators" program at Acadia University's School of Education, which focuses on supporting Bachelor of Education students through high-impact Work Integrated Learning experiences. The program, funded by CEWIL Canada’s iHub, integrates experiential learning with reflective practices while addressing the financial and logistical barriers that often prevent equitable access to these opportunities. By focusing on experiential learning and accessibility, this presentation aims to inspire educators, administrators, and WIL practitioners to rethink how they design, support, and fund experiential learning opportunities in higher education. The strategies shared will be relevant to those looking to foster inclusive, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences for their students.
Experiential Learning Research as Student led Publishing
Explore student led publishing project that incorporates experiential, collaborative learning, research and documentation of the work of Canadian artists and Art History. The publication project places students into a creative and research based relationship with living art history, established visual artist and other professionals, designers, arts writers, and editors in the creation of a publication on the artists work. The project has seen over 20 books documenting the work of Canadian artists in published books that range from 80 to 200 pages.
Research-based learning allows students to study topics of interest, understand research processes, and explore career opportunities. It reconfigures students as intellectual producers. Combined with community-based projects, research-based learning may enhance students’ academic and personal growth through both research and service learning. We aim to bridge community and classroom more effectively by integrating research-based learning with community-based research within a single course setting. We designed an undergraduate course, Research for Social Change, which immerses students in research-based and experiential learning utilizing STU’s Promise of Home project as a case study. The course includes a workshop on the ethics of community interaction, discussions on research justice, and project reviews to prepare students. Coursework involves students planning and conducting community meetings and reflecting on their research and engagement. This paper discusses the pedagogical outcomes of the project and evaluates our course design, focusing on the pedagogical methods, impacts, and limitations of incorporating community-based research projects into university classrooms.
Connecting learning in university classrooms and science centers with perceptual illusions
Perceptual illusions (the illusory experience of perceiving something that is not there or not real) are often used in university teaching to increase students’ curiosity in psychology and neuroscience. At the same time, perceptual illusions are frequently curated in science museums for informal education to generate the interest of lay audiences across ages in science. Despite being widely used and anecdotally effective in engagement, teaching with perceptual illusions in formal and informal settings often runs in parallel with little overlap. This presentation presents an exploratory class project that bridges this gap: students enrolled in Perception class (200-level) at St. Thomas University engage in semester-long learning activities to curate resources on the science of perceptual illusions for a local community partner, Science East – the science centre of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Specifically, students work in groups on a chosen perceptual illusion and produce an infographic or a video explaining the science behind perceptual illusions to the general audience across ages by the end of the semester. Drawing inspiration from the Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle and recent examples of high-impact practices in higher education (Schwartz & Miller, 2020), students engage in structured learning activities such as visiting the science centre, reflecting on the visit, a guest lecture by the community partner, iterating with peers and the instructor, and presenting their products to the university community. In addition to sharing the design considerations, this presentation will present the presenters’ observations and reflections on the project’s first and second implementations. Did we meet our objectives, and to what extent? What have we learned beyond what was intended? What were the obstacles, and how have we adjusted the course? What were the critical conditions for success (if success was met), and how can we improve? Final pondering thoughts will be discussed in the broader context, for example, how to engage community partners in experiential learning, and how to harness the possible overlap between formal and informal education by considering students as co-creators of teaching materials for others (Ribosa & Duran, 2022), how experiential learning might be structured to develop social metacognition - students’ knowledge of others’ knowledge, emotions, and actions (Chiu & Kuo, 2009).
Ubuntu-informed approaches to addressing plagiarism and the use of Artificial Intelligence in higher education
With more AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) at students’ fingertips to assist in their academic writing, we address these questions: 1.What is the general understanding of academic integrity/ plagiarism of a group (n=80) of university students of African descent? 2.How can faculty be culturally relevant and responsive in their support of students who are grappling with issues of academic integrity/plagiarism and their use of AI? 3.How can Black students be empowered to use AI as a tool for academic writing? To explore these complex issues we draw on the philosophy of Ubuntu. We refer to an electronic survey completed by 80 university students of African descent. We recommend Ubuntu-inspired pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning about plagiarism and the ethical use of AI tools that support students’ academic writing practices. We also point to issues of policy development on academic integrity.
Understanding Student Perceptions of Generative Text Artificial Intelligence in Writing Centres
Have students ceded the process of academic writing to genAI? Have faculty, on students’ behalf? And what role do writing centres play? Since the advent of large language model (LLM) generative-text artificial intelligence (genAI) two years ago, writing pedagogy and student conduct have received enormous scrutiny. Institutions have responded to genAI by releasing guidelines, recommendations, information, and limited policy pieces. But questions abound regarding how faculty are actually regulating and discussing genAI tools with students in the classroom, and how students perceive and negotiate genAI in university writing assignments. Our study seeks to reveal answers to these questions, and especially where and how writing centres figure in. In this session, we will present on the development of our study, and early findings from our faculty survey.
Artificial Intelligence-Driven Digital Transformation in Higher Education
This paper presentation will discuss strategies to motivate educational leaders to welcome artificial intelligence to drive good changes in higher education. Having worked at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu, India and as a higher education administrator, I have personally seen the transforming power of artificial intelligence (AI) in improving administrative procedures, teaching, and learning. With an emphasis on its advantages for administrative responsibilities like financial planning and budgeting and its function in data analysis for monitoring student performance, I will discuss the contemporary significance of artificial intelligence in higher education. Using artificial intelligence allows organizations to provide individualized learning opportunities and increase accessibility for students from impoverished backgrounds.
Managing Your Classroom with the F-R Framework: Friendliness, Firmness, and Fairness
Have you ever had Argumentative Alex, Chatty Charlie, or Disruptive Drew throw a wrench in your carefully prepared lesson plan? With the average Generation Z student having an attention span of only 8 seconds (Williams, 2019), it becomes even more imperative for today’s educators to curtail disruptive or challenging student behaviour. Students who regularly display disruptive behaviour are at the highest risk of poor academic achievement (Alperin et al., 2023), while instructors report that the inability to effectively manage disruptive classroom behaviour is associated with increased feelings of inadequacy, depersonalization, and job stress (Aloe et al., 2014). In this presentation, attendees will learn the goals and impacts of classroom management, as well as identify different classroom management styles and how it influences personal teaching approaches. The F-R Framework – Friendliness, Firmness, and Fairness – and supporting “R” strategies will be introduced to help proactively and effectively manage challenging student behaviour and other unplanned factors in the classroom, which in turn nurtures an environment conducive to student learning.
At Acadia Divinity College, we are taking constructive steps in our classrooms in response to the Calls to Action from the TRC and our increased number of international students. We have partnered with NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community to practice Indigenous Appreciative Inquiry (IAI) as an asset-based approach to decolonization and indigenization. In a separate project, Jodi developed an evidence-based tool that helps departments and institutions identify the degree to which they are or would like to become more multicultural. This tool suggests how to enhance diversity efforts in four areas: education and scholarship, access and success, climate and intergroup relations, and institutional viability and vitality. Both resources, IAI and the multicultural tool, are easy to use for faculty who may be struggling to host conversations that can make a real difference for students from diverse backgrounds. The resources support diversity work in ways that are specific to a school’s unique context, and they aim not only for inclusion but for belonging for all. They do not suggest grandiose responses to increased diversity but rather small steps of iterative improvement over time.
Exploring the limits of knowing and discovering reverence.
We live in an era of ecological emergency that is the inevitable consequence of our alienation from the Earth, and Sea. We feel that an axiological shift that challenges our existing and collective relationship to the environment can help facilitate a movement towards ecological reverence. In this presentation, Shane, Robyn and Megan theorize, conceptualize and operationalize reverence as an essential element in science education. It is our intention through our presentation to shift the narrative in science education from Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) to CREATIVE, an acronym of science teaching and learning that includes all the elements of STEAM (with Calculation being used as a substitute for math. We feel that Calculation might be more inclusive as it incorporates abstract math concepts while also allowing for the application of these concepts in areas such as risk calculation (Kvalnes & Sandseter, 2023) in education contexts that promote risk taking) but also opens up a space for Reverence, Innovation, and the Environment (Calculation, Reverence, Environment, Art, Technology, Innovation, Values, and Engineering).
From Panel to Archive, and from Atlantic Canada to the World
The rewards and challenges of experiential learning have long been acknowledged. In this paper, I discuss my teaching, training, and mentorship of RAs for a study of Superman’s son Jon Kent. This monograph project advances scholarship on popular culture, cultural studies, and immigration studies. That my RAs belong to Jon’s generation and that they face so many of the pressing issues that Jon does make our collaborations especially fruitful and insightful. My RAs’ responsibilities involve contributing to the identification and cataloguing of Jon’s and his siblings’ appearances. In the first half of this paper, I canvas what I’ve learned while working in the Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University, and how I draw on this experience to teach my RAs about researching such a universally beloved character, via comics, and at archives internationally. And in the second half, I attend to how my RAs’ readings and activism revitalize this research project. My central argument is for the value of intergenerational and international collaboration for a project that’s inherently intergenerational and international.
Using Technology Enhanced Learning to Introduce Students to University Libraries
Post-secondary students have been transitioning away from physical research materials in favor of digitized sources for decades. This shift was exacerbated by the pandemic, as students began exclusively working from home. Since returning to campus, a disconcerting trend has developed, which has involved students continuing to solely depend on digitized sources to complete their research projects. Rather than taking an antiquated pedagogical approach to this issue, this session will describe how educators can harness the opportunities offered to us by technology to introduce learners to university libraries. More specifically, this session will detail how instructors can develop online learning modules that can be incorporated into pre-existing courses; ultimately, creating a blended learning environment that will benefit students as they begin their research projects.
This presentation will introduce WikiEdu’s Wikipedia assignment for university students, based on my experience of assigning it in two small undergraduate courses: one in world music and one in Celtic studies. By the end of this presentation, attendees will be able to determine the applicability of the assignment to their own disciplines and courses, having a clear sense of how the assignment works, how it is scaffolded, the nature of instructor and student supports, and its benefits and challenges. Teaching students how to evaluate Wikipedia articles for strengths and weaknesses, locate and summarize secondary scholarly sources, and edit existing articles has many potential benefits, including improved skills in critical information literacy, research, writing, editing, and digital tools. Assigning Wikipedia editing functions as a “real-world” assignment, increasing student engagement while providing students with a real-world audience for their work. WikiEdu provides a well-developed, supported, and scaffolded Wikipedia assignment for free. An extensive library of resources is provided for both instructors and students.
Experience Points-Based Grading as a Type of Alternative Grading: Pros, Cons, and How-To
It is becoming a focus to design learning experiences that promote student agency and choice. Flexible course design is a student-centred way to ensure students have a say in what and how they learn, and is in line with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In addition, there is concern that student’s fear of failure, anxiety, and stress about grades impacts their ability to learn. Pressure to perform well on assessments can stifle the learning process and impede creative thinking. There are many types of alternative grading methods that provide flexibility and reduce pressure on students. Some popular examples are ungrading, specifications grading, and contract grading. Experience points (XP)-based grading is another highly flexible alternative grading method. When applied thoughtfully in a theory-driven way to a learning experience, this kind of gamification serves as a playful pedagogy that can enhance student engagement and motivation. It also provides an environment in which it is safe to fail. This presentation will introduce the concept of gamification, focusing on XP-based grading.
Introductory surveys create a positive classroom climate from day one
Accepting the Terms and Conditions: An Evaluation of a Parole-Based Experiential Assignment
Degrees relating to criminal justice issues are growing in popularity as more students seek to understand the cultural, societal, personal, and situational precursors and solutions to criminal behaviour. As experiential learning is a natural extension to the criminal justice field given its applied nature and focus on understanding complex societal problems, many instructors are keen to adopt these practices to enhance student experience and understanding. However, concerns about student safety, respect for justice-involved persons, and resource limitations are among several hurdles in organizing such an experience. What is needed are flexible, scalable opportunities for students to easily engage in protracted activities that provide first-hand experiences of criminal justice system involvement. The current study presents an evaluation of one such activity where students abided by a set of parole conditions for one week, documenting the impact it had on their daily lives. Results indicated that students enjoyed the assignment, believing that it provided real-world experience, transformed their perspectives, and helped them better understand course material.
Effective Teaching: Bridging Classroom Learning and Home Study
This proposal highlights an integrated teaching strategy that combines traditional lectures with independent home study to enhance critical thinking and engagement in psychology courses. By employing a flipped classroom model, students actively engage with real-life applications and case studies during lectures, while hands-on projects and interactive group activities deepen their understanding. Outside the classroom, students are supported with pre-lecture videos, detailed notes, and interactive quizzes, allowing for flexible, self-paced study. This balanced approach ensures that classroom learning is reinforced through independent work, fostering problem-solving skills and promoting continuous engagement with course material.
Prioritizing Experiential, Place-Based Learning
"Place-Based Learning (PBL) uses the power of place to personalize learning. It challenges learners to engage with their environment and provides equal opportunities to ‘learn by doing.’ Educators can tie curriculum outcomes to local contexts, fostering innovative ways to increase learner engagement.PBL fosters an organic, visceral learning environment where a natural sense of wonder flourishes, promoting the development of healthy individuals and communities. By acknowledging the wealth of intergenerational knowledge, skills, and systems of mutual support in local communities, PBL aligns with both traditional and 21st-century literacies. This approach empowers educators to embrace their dual roles as both teachers and learners, creating a collaborative, community-driven model of education. Traditional and 21st-century literacies can guide teaching and learning across various fields, including business, arts, engineering, health sciences, and community studies. These themes create fertile ground for powerful engagement strategies, fostering incremental knowledge growth through lived experiences and real-world applications.
Reimagining higher education in Canada requires collaboration with students as partners, yet student voices are often undervalued at the decision-making level. Recently receiving the 3M National Student Fellowship has given Erin and Basmah the opportunity to influence the Canadian landscape of higher education. Reflecting on their achievement, they recognize that students often have to prove themselves to be taken seriously. Erin and Basmah highlight their experiences navigating barriers to higher education in Atlantic Canada and share their framework combining mentorship and students as partners, showcase the importance of experiential learning and interdisciplinary education, and demonstrate the value of accessibility. This presentation will provide educators with tools to transform pedagogy into practice, and equip students with strategies to actualize their aspirations for higher education into reality.
It Takes a Village: Student Partnership in Archaeological Course Design
Ready to get your hands dirty? No archaeological experience necessary! In this workshop, participants will discuss the challenges of interdisciplinary course design through a case study that aims to move away from traditional top-down learning. Specifically, the authors (a faculty member and undergraduate student team) discuss the ongoing development of experiential, interactive “lab”-style activities for the Acadia undergraduate course Introduction to Archaeology (CLAS 1803). This presentation will be of interest across all disciplines, since the activities themselves were designed to challenge traditional methods of teaching and learning (passive, lecture-style), in order to create a more fulsome, bi-directional classroom environment with engaged learners (communities of practice). Attention will be paid to the issue of student labour, the models of traditional laboratory sessions (typically in the pure and applied sciences), and challenges faced when teaching interdisciplinary topics. And, of course, participants will take part in one of the lab activities - led by the undergraduate RA for this course - on the topic of osteoarchaeology.
Faculty, Student, and Gallery collaborations for enhanced classroom learning
The Acadia University Art Gallery, under the leadership of Dr. L. Dalton, provides students the opportunity to work with items from the gallery collection. This promotes object-based learning, an active learning technique which puts source material at the centre of the discussion. Such an approach makes galleries/museums excellent sites for Cooperative Learning and Project Based Learning (PBL) pedagogies. These principles were put in practice as students in Dr. J. MacDonald’s classes worked with items from The Bleakney Donation of brass rubbings. Dr. MacDonald will talk about developing students’ skills through multimodal assignments, share her work with various assignment types and will discuss the flexibility needed from instructors for successful PBL.Workshop participants will interact with objects from the Acadia University Art Gallery, ones chosen by Dr. Dalton to appeal to those teaching in various disciplines. Working in groups, participants will think about what can be learned from their objects and how they might include object-focused PBL in their courses.
Active community partnerships can be at the heart of experiential education and high-impact practices, and community-based education that communities value can foster long-term community partnerships. This workshop will engage participants in actively exploring Acadia’s Community Development program’s efforts toward reciprocity with community partnerships. We will share the why and what of community partnerships as pedagogy and, more importantly, the how. We will share lessons learned, strategies and practical advice to support asset-based approaches that connect and nourish community organizations, students, and post-secondary institutions.
SoundPainting is a live-composing, multidisciplinary, sign language. It was invented almost 50 years ago by the composer and jazz musician Walter Thompson. There are approximately 1500 different gestures which the SoundPainter accesses in order to create a new composition based on the improvisations of the ensemble. The ensemble can be any size and can include musicians, painters, actors, dancers, comedians, puppeteers, lighting designers — it is open to any creative medium. In this workshop Dr, Hopkins will share the basic tenets of SoundPainting, and the members of the MUSI 3303 SoundPainting Course at Acadia University will provide a live demonstration.
This workshop focuses on equity and inclusive educational strategies that foster transformative pedagogies. The workshop will critically explore and problematize some current inclusive educational practices that appear to commit to inclusivity while reproducing power gaps and colonial pedagogies. The workshop is designed to 1) enhance educators’ critical dialogue about performative inclusive education, and 2) adopt anti-oppressive and anti-colonial pedagogies that support students’ sense of belonging, wellbeing, and representation in learning. The workshop content will draw on our scholarly, interdisciplinary, and intersectional work in post-secondary inclusive education and mental health at Acadia University, within Canada and internationally. We will invite participants to actively explore the sociocultural and sociopolitical forces that shape knowledge and impact all learners’ experiences and provide frameworks for the development of authentic educational practices that promote social justice.
Experiencing Positionalities, Privilege, and Powers
This workshop will engage participants in experiential and embodied activities to facilitate learning and reflection on positionality, privilege, and power and the ways in which these shape our everyday interactions and broader societal contexts. The conceptual framing, exercises, and reflection processes will support participants in better understanding their own positionality. We will explore how our intersectional identities shape our worldviews and, consequently, our learning and teaching. We intend to model and facilitate discussion around bringing anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspectives into our classrooms and other educational settings in practical and effective ways through experiential learning, play, and embodiment. In our experience, such holistic practices make room for more grounded engagement with and discussion of critical concepts in ways that bridge theory and practice. We are holding questions of what methodologies and practices can support us in slowing down and exploring our inner worlds, recognizing that these are intimately entangled with our external social and ecological landscapes and systems and essential to transformative change.
Lessons learned teaching in living classrooms
A robust body of scholarship explores the transformative power of internationalization in higher education. At the same time, a growing body of work articulates and aims to identify ways to address the significant barriers to participation in these rich educational opportunities. The significance of international teaching for faculty, particularly our pedagogical practice, is comparatively less well understood. This interdisciplinary, interactive workshop will explore how university educators’ teaching practice both informs and is shaped by the experience of bringing faculty-led, short-term study abroad programs to life. The workshop will have three parts: 1) we will begin with a presentation in which the authors speak to their field school experiences, 2) we will welcome questions and comments from workshop participants as a whole, and 3) in small groups (led by authors) we will pursue four questions through discussion.