2017-18 University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Grants recipients announced

The 2017-18 University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Grants will allocate $749,972.35 in funding to 36 innovative projects across campus that will enhance student learning and integrate research evidence into teaching practice.

“Teaching excellence is at the heart of a rich learning experience for students, a commitment that the University of Calgary continues to work toward every day,” says Dru Marshall, provost and vice-president (academic). “The Teaching and Learning Grants help individuals and groups enhance how they bring complex ideas to the classroom or lab, to educate our students in becoming leaders and community-builders.”

Improving teaching practice

Alix Hayden, Heather Ganshorn and Jennifer Lee from Libraries and Cultural Resources will use one of the grants to develop a project on teaching the systematic review process. “A systematic review is an attempt to identify, appraise and synthesize every study that has ever been done on a particular question,” explains Ganshorn. “We encounter a lot of students working on these, either for a dissertation or as research assistants, who have not had formal training in this area.”

“We want to move away from our current informational approach to more instructional approach,” adds Hayden, the project’s principal investigator.

Their project will involve conducting an environmental scan, professional development and creating new resources on the topic. “Librarians are very practice-based and much of what we do, does not always fit into a traditional structure. It’s nice that these grants are available,” notes Ganshorn.

Imparting essential skills to students

Jessica Nicol, Faye Halpern, Derritt Mason, Morgan Vanek (all pictured above), Michael Tavel Clarke,  and Jaclyn Carter form a team of investigators from the Department of English who will develop a lesson study project on close reading — an essential skill for majors and non-majors alike.

“We teach English 201 and close reading to many people from different faculties. If you can teach students this skill, they can read the world better. For example, they can read a newspaper article and see the bias. It’s a term that is used in English but it’s important in a broader context,” says Nicol.

Through the grants project, their team hopes to create a shareable lesson that will define close reading and offer effective approaches to teaching it. Receiving the grant is an important opportunity “to think in-depth about a common element of our teaching practice. It’s something we teach regularly but often we don’t talk about how and why we teach it,” says Mason. 

2017-18 Teaching and Learning Grants recipients

Three grant streams — practice, lesson study and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) — support the development, implementation and sharing of innovative approaches to student learning. Nancy Chick, academic director of the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, notes that “these applications show a remarkable level of thought and care about meaningful student learning.”

Practice Grants

Investigators: Bruce Barton, Marie France Forcier, Melanie Kloetzel, April Viczko, Pil Hansen, Adam Bell, Jeremy Brown, Laurie Radford
Project title: Defining an Interdisciplinary Core at the School of Creative and Performing Arts

Investigator: Peter Bowal
Project title: Teaching and Learning Law through the Business Case Method

Investigators: Katharine Alix Hayden, Heather Ganshorn, Jennifer Lee 
Project title: Building Campus-Wide Capacity for Knowledge Synthesis Research

Investigator: A. Christie Hurrell
Project title: Preparing to Teach Research Metrics at the University of Calgary

Investigators: Amanda O’Rae, Zahra Shajani, Denise Hellman, Tracey Clancy
Project title: Fostering Confidence in Instructors' Perception of their Abilities to Promote Student Learning Related to Critical Reflecting and Thinking Within the Undergraduate Nursing Program

Investigator: Joanna Rankin
Project title: SoTL Immersion: Laying the Groundwork for SoTL in Disability Studies

Investigator: Ruth Swart
Project title: Support, Develop, and Sustain for Quality Student Learning

• Above: Alix Hayden, Heather Ganshorn and Jennifer Lee from Libraries and Cultural Resources received a practice grant to develop their project, Building Campus-Wide Capacity for Knowledge Synthesis Research."

Lesson Study Grants

Investigators: Morgan Vanek, Faye Halpern, Michael Tavel Clarke, Derritt Mason, Jaclyn Carter, Jess Nicol 
Project title: Reframing Close Reading

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants

Investigators: Umit Boz, M. Gregory Tweedie, H. Douglas Sewell 
Project title: Second Language Socialization in Pre-Enrolment and Post-Enrolment Tertiary Language Programs: A Mixed Methods Study

Investigators: Barbara Brown, Christy Thomas, Gabriela Alonso-Yanez
Project title: Fostering Student Collaboration and Assessing Group Assignments

Investigators: David T. Cramb, Hagar Ibrahim Labouta, Jennifer D. Adams
Project title: Authentic Science Process Learning: Shifting from the Teaching Paradigm "Learning about Science" to the Learning Paradigm "Learning Science by Doing Science"

Investigators: Hector de la Hoz Siegler, Kazi Sumon
Project title: ALTeR-Eng: Advancing Long-Term Retention of Concepts and Skills in Engineering

Investigators: Dianne Draper, Craig Gerlach, Sarah Skett 
Project title: Understanding the Value of Experiential Learning of "Sustainability in Action"

Investigators: Roswita Dressler, Colleen Kawalilak, Nancy Arthur 
Project title: Reflective Writing for Sojourn Preparation, Reflection and Debriefing

Investigators: Patti Dyjur, Fabiola Aparicio-Ting
Project title: Impact of Curriculum Mapping on Instructors and Students in an Undergraduate Health Science Program

Investigators: Sarah Eaton, Jennifer Lock, Meadow Schroeder 
Project title: Academic Integrity Online: Developing Support Mechanisms for Online Graduate Students to Understand Plagiarism

Investigators: Ilyan Ferrer, Jessica Shaw, Liza Lorenzetti
Project title: Making Social Work Accessible Through the Airwaves: Developing Podcasting as a Pedagogical Approach for Experiential Teaching and Learning

Investigators: Juan Antonio Garcia-Rodriguez, Maria Palacios Mackey
Project title: Using an Innovative, Structured Core Procedural Skills Learning Program to fill Procedural Skills Learning Gaps in Family Medicine Residency Training

Investigators: Dianne Gereluk, Amy Burns, Michael Holden, Kirsten Varsek, Devika Pandey
Project title: Supporting Pre-Service Teachers as they Develop, Articulate, and Reflect on their Teaching Philosophies Over Time

Investigators: Erin Gibbs van Brunschot, Kiara Mikita, Ashley Morrison, Felicia Guan, Ma. Christine Joy N. Mercado, Mikayla Waldman, Dylan Barnes
Project title: Student Learning Matters: A Collaborative SoTL Course Retrospective

Investigators: Zohra Hasnani-Samnani, Carolyn Wolsey
Project title: An interactive assessment method utilizing cooperative testing: Is it more effective than the traditional testing methods?

Investigators: Robert Johnson, M. Gregory Tweedie, Juliet Hoffart
Project title: English language (mis)communication in the Nursing Simulation Laboratory: Implications for patient safety and aural language instruction

Investigator: Derritt Mason
Project title: The Virtual Child: Teaching and Learning with Digital Texts for Young People

Investigators: Alan McLuckie, Karl Tomm, Sumerlee Samuels, Ashley Landers, Amy Jones, Sharon Bond, Marjorie Robb
Project title: Best Practices in Field Supervision for Multidisciplinary Training in Family Therapy: A Pan-Canadian Family Therapy Training Collaborative

Investigators: Robin Mueller, James Cross, Shahirose Premji, Haboun Bair
Project title: Exploring the expression of inquiry-based learning in the UNIV 201: Global Challenges Inquiry course

Investigators: Gregg Nelson, Lana Saciragic, Vanessa DiPalma 
Project title: The 5-minute surgeon. How Ob/Gyn residents learn from videos

Investigators: Shannon Parker, Karen Benzies, Jeff Caird 
Project title: Developing Nursing Expertise: Application of the Quiet Eye Strategy to Nursing Education

Investigators: Elena Rangelova, Kyle O’Keefe, Quazi Hassan, Ivan Detchev
Project title: Towards a Deep Learning of Core Geomatics Engineering Knowledge

Investigators: Sylvie Roy, Maisha Syeda, Jon Woodend, Gina Ko, Brit Paris, Konstantinos Chondros, Teresa Fowler, Brianna Hilman
Project title: Developing and Evaluating the Efficacy of a Peer-Reviewed Journal Operated by and for Graduate Students

Investigators: Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Tina Gabriele, Dianne Gereluk, Kerri Murray
Project title: The Impact of a Comprehensive School Health Course on Teaching and Learning

Investigators: Soroush Sabbaghan, Murray Peglar, M. Gregory Tweedie
Project title: Investigating the efficacy of digital recording on academic speaking skills

Investigators: Meadow Schroeder, Erica Makarenko
Project title: The inclusion of a late bank in graduate courses to reduce student stress: student and instructor evaluation of the teaching strategy

Investigator: Lisa Stowe
Project title: Defining and assessing the impact of culture shock and group dynamics on student learning in short term travel study programs

Investigators: Mindi Summers, Jessica Theodor
Project title: Investigating the role of drawing as a learning tool and scientific practice in undergraduate zoology

Investigators: Justin Weinhardt, Jaclyn Carter
Project title: Writing Skills Assessment and Development in the B-School Classroom: Haskayne Undergraduates and their "Soft Skill" Industry Deficiencies

Investigators: Jason Wiens, Andrea (Annie) Murray
Project title: Student-driven curation of a literary audio archive of contemporary poetry