Efforts to look deeper into classroom learning styles and farther into the cosmos have been lauded with a Fellowship in Teaching Innovation, the Western Centre for Teaching and Learning announced today.

Since 2002, the fellowship has supported undergraduate and professional school teaching at the university. Fellow receive $10,000 that can be used to develop teaching innovation projects through the purchase of release-time, support for graduate students or the acquisition of technology.

This year’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Fellowship in Teaching Innovation award winners are: 

Health Studies professor Aleksandra Zecevic, along with fellow Health Studies professor Tara Mantler, are exploring the impact of engaged-learning courses on the skill development of their students and how, if at all, it helps prepare them for their future careers.

Health Studies professor Tara Mantler, along with fellow Health Studies professor Aleksandra Zecevic, are exploring the impact of engaged-learning courses on the skill development of their students and how, if at all, it helps prepare them for their future careers.

Aleksandra Zecevic and Tara Mantler
Health Studies

Despite the presence of engaged learning in classrooms for almost a decade, neither professors nor administrators truly know the impact it has on post-graduation career paths – until now. Western School of Health Studies professors Aleksandra Zecevic and Tara Mantler are exploring the impact of engaged-learning courses on the skill development of their students and how, if at all, it helps prepare them for their future careers.

Social Sciences student Sasha Doxtator and Physics and Astronomy professor Robert Cockcroft, along with fellow undergraduate student Brianne Derrah, have created an Indigenous astronomy course for this fall. It would be the first such course offered at a Canadian university.

Robert Cockcroft, Physics and Astronomy

Robert Cockcroft understands the importance of exploring the intersection between Indigenous and Western astronomy, particularly as it relates to naked-eye observations of the night sky. Through the development of an new Indigenous astronomy course, the first such course offered at a Canadian university, the Physics and Astronomy professor hopes to use it as gateway to learn more about Indigenous culture, history and the process of decolonization and reconciliation.