Events

Learning Communities: In the Classroom and Beyond with Dr. John Bogardus, Dr. Jen Marchbank, and Dr. Jane Fee
Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 10:00 - 11:30 | AQ 5035, Burnaby Campus

Learning communities are recognized for promoting student retention, but their benefits extend well beyond that. Learning communities empower students as learners and create a rich intellectual environment. They promote critical thinking through their emphasis on how - not what - to think. In this session, we’ll look at how faculty members have used learning communities to enrich their classrooms. Dr. John Bogardus (Sociology and Anthropology) will look at "Creating an inclusive community of critical, independent thinkers: the role of critical annotations." Dr Jen Marchbank (Explorations in Arts and Social Sciences) will discuss “Community, cohort and curriculum design - reflections from Explorations,” and Dr. Jane Fee (Linguistics) will address the upcoming first year learning community project.

Navigating the Information Maze with Rebecca Dowson
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 | 10:30 - 12:00 | AQ 6106, Burnaby Campus

With the ever-increasing amount of information available through the web, students often have difficulty determining which online resources are suitable to meet their academic needs. By default, quality may be sacrificed for the comfort of working in the familiar terrain of Wikipedia and Google. Similarly, as the digital landscape rapidly expands, it can be difficult for even the most seasoned researcher to know what is available and how to effectively manage the sometimes overwhelming flow of information. Please join Rebecca Dowson, Liaison Librarian for English and History, for a discussion about common online information seeking patterns of students, strategies for helping students evaluate online resources, and tips to help researchers navigate the maze of information available online.

Listening as Learning
Thursday, November 4, 2010 | 9:00 - 10:30 | AQ 6106, Burnaby Campus

In this session, three professors will be addressing the issues of oral/aural learning and its intersection with writing and learning in innovative ways. Dr. Willeen Keough (History) will be showcasing her contemporaneous seminar on Oral History, in which she challenges her students to 'put the oral/aural back in oral history.' (see www.fass.sfu.ca/documents/doc/H451Keough). Dr. Dara Culhane (Anthropology) will detail an unusual approach to generating and evaluating critically annotated readings, and Dr. Rudy Reimer (Archaeology/First Nations) will discuss how his teaching incorporates ‘new oral history’ as a crucial element in sustaining indigenous communities inside and outside the academy. If you have ever found students who learn best aurally, if you wish to think about the conscious use of voice as a tool for teaching, or if you wish to be introduced to some wonderful experimental courses, please join us!

Inaugural Cormack Symposium celebrating excellence in teaching within FASS
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 |1:00 - 3:30 | IRMACS Theatre

View Symposium details and program.

Other Idea Exchanges have included:

• Designing Multiple Choice Exams that Test Critical Thinking with Dr. Martin Hahn
• Encouraging and Evaluating Participation with Dr. Nicky Didicher
• How Can I Read Better Work? Re-vitalizing Major Assignments
• Enhancing Critical Reading in your Courses
• W-course Idea Exchange with Dr. Andy Heard
• A Frank Conversation About Writing at SFU