Foundations of Teaching in Higher Education: Seminar and Practicum
Foundations of Teaching in Higher Education is a semester-long, foundational course for doctoral students preparing for their role as teaching assistants and future scholar-teachers. This course also forms the basis of the comprehensive certificate program for teaching in higher education offered by the Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research (The Elkana Center).
This 3 US-credit course (6 ECTS) consists of both a seminar (YELC 6101) and practicum (6103). Participants must enrol in and successfully complete both the seminar and practicum in order to pass the course. Doctoral students are encouraged to enrol no later than the semester in which they serve as teaching assistants.
The course fosters an understanding of the university teacher as a professional scholar ready to engage in teaching informed by research, models of good practice, a spirit of inquiry, and critical intellectual engagement. Our approach to teaching in higher education combines knowledge of theoretical foundations, a strong practice orientation, and an appreciation for collaborative, inquiry-driven, and technology-enhanced learning environments.
This course will allow for the development of your own teaching approaches and values through a combination of reading, reflective writing, and practical tasks. You will gain a research-driven foundation for your work as twenty-first century scholar-teachers through the study of key issues and experimentation in a variety of approaches.
Thus, the main goals of the course are as follows:
- To facilitate preparation for future academic careers by providing participants with an intellectual and practical grounding in the skills associated with academic teaching;
- To develop effective teaching approaches and techniques in the context of a class session;
- To begin linking the design, facilitation, and assessment of a class session with the broader course and curriculum in which we teach;
- To develop participants’ critical self-awareness of how to grow and develop as a scholar-teacher.