Western’s Teaching Fellows are outstanding educators who, in partnership with the Teaching Support Centre, provide educational leadership to the university community through research on teaching and learning.
Each Fellow develops, implements, and assesses the impact of a unique teaching innovation. They also support educational excellence within their own faculties by mentoring colleagues, coordinating workshops, facilitating learning communities and providing other instructional development opportunities.
One Teaching Fellow is appointed in each faculty and receives a three-year secondment, funding to conduct their teaching innovations and support from the Teaching Support Centre. These fellows will join the program starting May 1:
Michael Buzzelli (Social Science)
Undergraduate Research Partners: ‘Working’ Curriculum to Integrate Campus and Community
Michael Buzzelli’s project will provide new work-integrated and professional experiences for senior undergraduate students. A ‘tech transfer for the social sciences’ spirit motivates this project – an approach to teaching and learning that integrates campus and community.
Learning outcomes are built upon a classroom-based, collaborative and research-driven foundation; together with unique interactions with the professor and community-based experts in the field. This fellowship also creates new curriculum-relevant professional networks for senior undergraduates poised to embark on the next phase of their professional lives.
Nicole Campbell (Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry)
Making the Implicit Explicit
Nicole Campbell’s project involves effectively communicating learning outcomes to students and assessing and recognizing student achievement of Western’s core competencies. Campbell will develop an interactive visual syllabus that links program and course outcomes to teaching activities and assessments.
Campbell’s research on the impact of these initiatives will explore how improved transparency of outcomes, making learning targets and expectations clearer, allows students to engage in deeper learning. She will also research the impact of student self-assessment and determine the most effective ways to promote students to reflect on and integrate the knowledge that they have gained.
Quazi Rahman (Engineering)
The Programmers’ Den: Programming Readiness Resources for Students and Academics in the Higher Education
Quazi Rahman’s project will create an online hub designed to engage Engineering students in learning and practising programming in a variety of programming languages. Since coding is everywhere and is likely to become a required job skill for students from many other disciplines, this project will also aid students from all academic backgrounds with an interest in learning programming.
The interactive online modules will introduce programming languages commonly used in industry, research and high-performance computing. The modules will include playful resources and hands-on activities that allow students to develop familiarity with basic programming concepts.
Sophie Roland (Don Wright Faculty of Music)
International Experiential Learning in Music and its Impact on Students’ Academic, Personal and Professional Development
Sophie Roland’s project will measure the long-term impact of the Don Wright Faculty of Music’s International Summer Operatic Program, for example the Accademia Europea dell’Opera (AEDO) housed in Lucca, Italy, in order to enhance the ways to deliver experiential learning to Western students. The AEDO is a uniquely focused European opera experience centered on the preparation, creation and performance of full operatic roles. The program brings together selected singers, pianists, instrumentalists to work with pianists, conductors and directors from some of the world’s most celebrated opera institutions, during an intense period of musical and dramaturgic study and rehearsal.
Thomas Telfer (Law)
Mental Health Awareness and Mindfulness Education
Thomas Telfer’s project involves the integration of mental health and mindfulness education into Western’s Law program. The goal of the education component is to raise awareness of mental-health issues, reduce stigma and build student resiliency. Telfer will study mental-health education initiatives at other law schools and, in consultation with the faculty, develop and implement a new mental-health education program. The course will support students’ personal, academic, and professional well-being through its focus on mindfulness, emotional intelligence and professionalism. He will also conduct research on the impact of these mental health and mindfulness initiatives.