Pedagogies of Care: Bringing it All Together – Sharing Our Stories

Date and time: Tuesday, April 1, 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.

Join us for a series of four monthly 50-minute sessions designed for graduate students, instructors, and professors committed to exploring pedagogies of care. These sessions offer strategies that foster care, inclusion, and broaden perspectives in higher education, including insights into how brain science can enhance teaching effectiveness. Each session will provide practical tools for creating inclusive, engaging, and empowering learning environments, drawing on research into neural connections, brain plasticity, and how these processes affect learning, memory retention, and student engagement. Whether you’re teaching in-person or in an online format, this series will equip you with neuroscience-based strategies and pedagogical approaches that cultivate caring and inclusive educational spaces.

During the Bringing it All Together – Sharing Our Stories Spaces session:

• Participants will collaboratively share their experiences and insights, synthesizing the pedagogical strategies learned throughout the series to create an integrated teaching approach.
• Participants will discuss their practices through storytelling, identifying ways to further develop their teaching practices.

Register for the Pedagogies of Care workshop

Decolonizing Classrooms: Start here

Date and time: Wednesday, April 2, 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

As part of the Decolonizing Classrooms Series, “Decolonizing Classrooms: Start Here” is designed for those beginning their journey in decolonizing and reconciliatory learning. This workshop offers foundational knowledge about Indigenous Peoples, their Knowledges, and the important relationships we all maintain with the Land in what is now commonly known as Canada. Participants will learn about colonization and processes of decolonization, and identify initial steps to engage in important decolonizing and reconciliatory processes. This workshop will equip you with the necessary information to meaningfully engage with Indigenous pedagogies and foster ongoing learning and action. Additionally, it provides the background necessary for full participation in other workshops in the Decolonizing Classrooms Series.

Register for the Decolonizing Classrooms workshop

From Theory to Practice: Using the UM Competencies Framework to Level Up Experiential Learning

Date and time: Friday, April 4, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Have you thought about the kind of people you want your students to become upon graduating? You might envision them as empathetic listeners, critical thinkers, effective collaborators, or team players. How can education use Experiential Learning (EL) to move beyond traditional content delivery, actively nurturing these skills? Join us as we dive into the dynamic combination of EL and the UM Competencies Framework, equipping educators to foster real-world skills, growth, and empowerment in students.

Register for From Theory to Practice: Using the UM Competencies Framework to Level Up Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning Community of Practice Brown Bag Lunch Conversations: Experiential or Active Learning What’s the Difference?

Date and time: Tuesday, April 15, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Bring your lunch and connect with other members of our community of practice! There is no formal agenda for these casual meetings just good people and conversation! Everyone is welcome to share their thoughts and experiences as we explore different topics in experiential learning.

Topic: Experiential or Active Learning what’s the difference? Are they different approaches, or different names for the same approach? Come tell us what you think!

Register for Experiential or Active Learning What’s the Difference?

Universal Design for Learning in Practice: Represent a Diversity of Perspectives and Identities in Authentic Ways

Date and time: Thursday, April 24, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Join us for the last Thursday of each month in an ongoing series, where participants will review discreet elements of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Participants will work together to develop pedagogical practices that align with the UDL principle being discussed that month.

Topic: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of representing a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice. There will be a brief presentation of the core elements of this principle followed by a question-and-answer session where participants can collaborate with the facilitator to develop their practice. 

Register for Universal Design for Learning in Practice: Represent a Diversity of Perspectives and Identities in Authentic Ways

Gradual change path  

If you’re looking to make changes at a gradual pace, the series Small Shifts: Significant Gains might be the right choice for you. In this brown-bag lunchtime series, you’ll learn about the micro improvements UM colleagues have made to their practices and discover how you can apply them.  

“This series is packed with beneficial components to make it well worth the one-hour time commitment,” says Anna Nekola, Education Developer and session facilitator. Each session includes 2-lightening presentations (less than ten minutes each) and extensive connection time. The sessions were designed intentionally to build stronger UM instructional support. Nekola explains, “By creating spaces where instructors share teaching wisdom and intermixing departments and disciplines, we are also seeking to foster faculty community across the campuses of UM.” Nekola continues, “Our faculty are terrific teachers and it’s really exciting to see all the innovative, practical strategies they are using on a daily basis.”   

Begin a small but powerful journey by registering for a Small Shifts: Significant Gains session. 

Removing barrier path 

Are you interested in learning how to reduce barriers to learning in your classroom? The new workshop series Universal Design for Learning in practice is the choice for you. Each session is stand alone and focuses on one UDL element, helping you integrate UDL concepts into existing course materials while gradually including UDL into your course design. “Taking the time to work through an individual UDL principle will help you understand where there are barriers in your practice.” says facilitator Johnathan Bevan, an Educational Developer with The Centre. 

Begin your UDL journey with session one: Optimize Relevance, Value, and Authenticity Learn more about the series in the UM Today story Explore how to apply Universal Design for Learning in the classroom.  

Planning pedagogical research path 

Are you a faculty member looking to explore pedagogical research? Then the Plan your SoTL Study workshop is a great way to start your journey. “It turns curiosity about teaching into action, helping educators craft thoughtful research questions, design impactful studies, and uncover the stories hidden in student learning outcomes—transforming classrooms into spaces of discovery and innovation.” says Halyna Malyk, SoTL Developer. 

Join the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning path by registering for Plan your SoTL Study  

Learning foundational teaching skill path

Are you a graduate student who is new to teaching in post-secondary education in Canada? If so, then the Graduate Teaching Program (GTP) is the path for you. The GTP was crafted to build foundational skills in graduate students who are new to teaching. Renato Bezerra, PhD candidate in Engineering Education and a recent participant in the GTP pilot explains “the program is valuable to any graduate student interested in teaching. Whether you have never taught or learned about teaching in higher education before, or you have taken courses, taught, or researched about education, the GTP has something for you.” 

Begin your teaching journey by registering for the Graduate Teaching Program. To learn more and register, please visit the GTP website. Registration opens on February 4th, 2025, 

Our commitment 

The Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning is dedicated to offering a range of supports that give faculty and staff opportunities to customize their own teaching and learning journey, while collectively working towards UM’s goal of Empowering Learners. Each service (workshop, series, presentation or resource) offered is specifically designed to support the elements of Empowering Learners.  

Small Shifts: Significant Gains and Plan your SoTL Study workshop support intra-UM faculty collaboration to improve student success and create high-quality learning experiences for students. The Graduate Teaching Program and the UDL in Practices series provide faculty and graduate students with tools to adapt to changing learning environments. The UDL in Practice series, specifically provides practical and attainable strategies for faculty to incorporate inclusive teaching methods into their practices. 

Read more about how we support Empowering Learners, including workshops, support, research and technology support on The Centre’s website 

Developed by CAST, a nonprofit education research and development organization, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve teaching and learning, based on scientific insights into how humans learn. The framework includes three principles and nine sub-categories, each with individual elements.

“When you first engage with the UDL framework, it can be overwhelming because there’s so much to look at, it can be hard to know where to start,” says facilitator Johnathan Bevan, an Educational Developer with The Centre. “Our goal with this series is to break down the overall framework and look at the discreet elements, one at a time, and work through how to put them into practice.”

Each workshop will include a brief presentation on a framework concept, followed by working through an exercise on how to apply the concept to course materials. Each workshop explores an individual consideration. Each event in the series is self-contained, you do not need to attend the entire series to understand and participate.

“It is important that we start to dismantle the ableism that exists in higher learning. For those who do not experience barriers to engaging in education, it is difficult to perceive how people are being excluded,” says Bevan. “Taking the time to work through an individual UDL principle will help understand where there are barriers in your practice. Incorporating one element of UDL to your pedagogy will influence other aspects of your teaching. This is because each element functions individually and is also complimentary to the wider philosophy.”

Bevan notes that integrating UDL is an ongoing process of learning and refinement. “Universal design should not be understood as a destination or a checklist. It is a process that exists in conversation with the people who are engaging with our practice,” he says.

Bevan is hopeful this series helps faculty, both in integrating concepts into existing course materials and to look at including UDL in their course design—something Bevan can also support.

“The whole point is to engage critically with pedagogical practice to remove barriers,” he says. “The more we practice implementing UDL principles, the more meaningful our pedagogical design will be for the students we are seeking to teach.”

Universal Design for Learning Workshops – Winter Term 2025

UDL in Practice: Optimize Relevance, Value, and Authenticity
Thursday, January 30, 12 – 1 pm

Description: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of optimizing relevance, value, and authenticity and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice.

Register

UDL in Practice: Clarify the Meaning and Purpose of the Goals
Thursday, February 27, 12 -1 pm

Description: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of clarifying the meaning and purpose of the goals and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice.

Register

UDL in Practice: Recognize Expectations, Beliefs, and Motivations
Thursday, March 27, 12 – 1pm

Description: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of recognizing expectations, beliefs, and motivations and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice.

Register

UDL in Practice: Represent a Diversity of Perspectives and Identities in Authentic Ways
Thursday, April 24, 12 – 1pm

Description: The session will focus on CAST’s UDL principle of representing a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways and how it can be directly applied to pedagogical practice.

Register