From accessibility to attendance: Teaching and learning insights from your faculty teaching fellows

From making learning more accessible to motivating students to attend in-person workshops, SFU’s faculty teaching fellows are working to create solutions to challenges facing their faculties.

Learn what some of them have been up to in their roles, as well as insights they have gained from tackling these challenges that you can apply to your teaching.

Creating conditions that encourage students to access in-person learning (Science)

One of the challenges math lecturer Joanna Niezen has addressed during her role as a faculty teaching fellow in the Faculty of Science is student participation in drop-in learning centres, called workshops. 

“It is well-documented that a lot of deep learning comes from collaboration, sharing ideas, and social interaction. Students who did high school online may not have experienced the value of in-person studying. The math department noticed that participation in the drop-in workshops had fallen off after COVID-19. One idea I explored was whether the lack of a formal service model was deterring students from asking questions. The "first-come, first-served" basis meant students had no systematic method of having their questions answered by TAs unless they wasted time by forming a queue and standing in line. I adopted a computerized queuing system to avoid this issue. Now, even shy students can drop into the workshop and have their questions answered efficiently. We also have ... put together TA biographies so that students get to know their TAs, making them more approachable ... I believe anything we can do to encourage students to participate in the in-person aspects of the learning environment will serve them well over the long term."

Reducing student stress and anxiety through intentional groupwork support (Business)

For business lecturer Kevin Stuart, reducing student stress and anxiety through group work support has been a top priority during his time as a faculty teaching fellow.

“What we discovered was that one of the primary drivers for students going to seek mental health services is stress and anxiety over group work—which is something we do quite a bit in the Beedie school. So, one area that I focus on in my teaching and which I provide support to my colleagues on, is setting up processes to support student teamwork. For example, this could mean flipping a class to allow space and time for the instructors and TAs to sit down with groups throughout the semester and give them feedback on their drafts. I have done this in a writing course and what it meant was that we could help the groups resolve little conflicts early on that could otherwise have ended up exploding and further straining students’ mental health.”

Supporting instructors to explore decolonization and Indigenization in the STEM classroom (Science)

For biomedical physiology and kinesiology lecturer Leanne Ramer, the focus of her faculty teaching fellowship has been decolonizing and Indigenizing teaching and courses in STEM.

"While many faculty are making great strides, there is still some confusion and lack of direction among us as STEM faculty about how decolonization and Indigenization apply to our disciplines. Combined with heavy faculty workloads, it's no surprise that many--myself included--struggle to implement change. However, one of the most significant insights I've gained through my exploration in this role is that Indigenizing your curriculum doesn't have to be just about content; it can also involve pedagogical processes, techniques, and strategies. For example, instead of focusing solely on how writing code can be Indigenized, a computer science instructor could integrate more storytelling into their teaching.”

Ramer adds that, in addition to consulting with her peers on this topic, she is producing a series of micro-learning videos to break down decolonization and Indigenization concepts into discrete, actionable steps that she hopes will resonate with STEM instructors. The videos are intended to be a starting point for further conversation and communal learning.

Helping instructors deliver more accessible learning opportunities (Communication, Art & Technology)

Communication professor Cait Mckinney has focused their faculty teaching fellowship on helping FCAT instructors offer more accessible learning environments to their students.

“One of the big questions our Faculty has been grappling with since the post-pandemic return to classes is how to create learning environments that anticipate and address the different access needs of students. Over the last two years, I have been organizing learning events to help my colleagues develop skills and knowledge in this area and the most surprising thing I’ve learned is how simple changes can make a big difference. For example, adding captioning to audiovisual materials, including PowerPoint presentations, videos, Zoom calls, can improve comprehension dramatically for students with disabilities and multilingual students. In fact, this helps all students learn, particularly Generation Z students who have been watching videos with captions their whole lives and can find it quite jarring when captions are not present.”  

Helping instructors pull back the curtain on teaching strategies (Environment)

For geography lecturer Tara Holland, fostering teaching community has been a large focus of her faculty teaching fellowship. Holland designed and coordinated a teaching squares program in which groups of four instructors observed their peers’ classrooms once per semester and then met to share their reflections and insights.  

“Teaching can be a siloed activity—and we are often so caught up with all that’s required to run a course we don’t have time to attend workshops and programs. Observing someone’s classroom does not require a big time commitment, but it can have a big impact. Seeing the teaching choices other instructors are making can encourage you to notice and think about the choices you have made, and ultimately reflect on your teaching. Participants in the program reported gaining a lot of useful tips and strategies from the experience, especially around communicating with students. And what I learned through the process is that it’s very valuable for instructors to share notes on how they teach—not only what. And that can be done through something as simple as grabbing a coffee together or exchanging an email.”

Supporting instructors to explore experiential learning (Arts and Social Sciences)

For urban studies/gender, sexuality and women's studies lecturer Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, one area of focus for her faculty teaching fellowship has been supporting her colleagues to integrate experiential learning into their teaching.

“Part of the work in raising the profile of experiential learning involved sharing techniques, such as a data walk assignment, with instructors who are interested, but unsure of how they might incorporate such approaches in their own teaching practice. An unexpected, but important, sideline arose when I was doing this work: that is, how to best share pedagogical strategies in such a way that demonstrates educational leadership. For teaching faculty in particular, being able to document the circulation of one's pedagogical expertise is akin to having one's research cited. This remains an important focus for me, both in terms of creating a community of practice among instructors using experiential learning and in terms of professional development. There is a nascent community of practice for those using experiential pedagogies. Anyone who is interested in that or in trying out assessments beyond commonly assigned text-based evaluation methods is welcome to reach out to me."

Streamlining teaching information for new instructors (Business)

One of the big projects that business lecturer Kathleen Burke has worked on during her time as a faculty teaching fellow is helping new instructors navigate the academic semester.

“There are a lot of timelines and processes that new faculty need to navigate, and one of the concerns I was hearing from my peers is that it can be very overwhelming. What are the things you need to know if you are teaching on the Surrey campus versus the Burnaby campus? What should you be telling your students about academic integrity? When should you start thinking about midterm accommodations? I have put all this information together into a Canvas course that our instructors can work through. Although the teaching and learning resources are created with new instructors in mind, all instructors can benefit from reminders, one-stop access to information infrequently referenced, and guidance for the many aspects of teaching that are at the instructor's discretion.”