Developing an e-portfolio tool, promoting collaborative learning in Engineering and creating a network of faculty who engage students in critical international service learning will be the focus of the three new teaching fellows at Western’s Teaching Support Centre.
The goal of the Teaching Fellows Program is to enhance teaching innovation and teaching quality at Western by bringing together a cohort of faculty members who will provide educational leadership, conduct research on teaching, and disseminate the knowledge they acquire to the larger university community and beyond.
Professors receive a secondment for a three-year term and are eligible for funding for three years to conduct their scholarly project. The long-term vision of the initiative is to have one teaching fellow in each of the faculties.
The new fellows include:
- Angela Borchert, Arts & Humanities, will develop an e-portfolio-based curriculum in intercultural communication in the context of a community of practice in Modern Languages and Literatures. With e-portfolio templates, Arts & Humanities students will create individual learning plans, demonstrate learning outcomes and showcase creative critical thinking;
- Sandra Smeltzer, Information and Media Studies (FIMS), will create a community of practice for faculty members interested in enriching current international service learning and research. She will develop a new theory/praxis seminar course for FIMS that critically examines concepts and case studies of service learning and how they intersect with the field of media studies and communications; and
- Ralph Buchal, Engineering, will develop tools to engage students in computer-supported collaborative knowledge building in face-to-face, blended and online courses, using a design-based research methodology.
The winners of this year’s competition will join the five already appointed teaching fellows, including Dan Belliveau, Health Sciences; Sarah McLean, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry; Peter Ferguson, Social Science; Bethany White, Science; and George Gadanidis, Education.
