Mount Allison hosts unique conference for students involved in undergraduate teaching
2013-04-24 11:12:06
University collaborates with Bishop’s, Acadia, St FX, in Teaching In and Beyond the Classroom
Mount Allison University will host a special conference focused on the role of students involved in undergraduate teaching April 28-29. Teaching In and Beyond the Classroom will explore the unique learning opportunities students experience at small, mainly undergraduate universities such as Mount Allison, in the role of teaching assistants, markers, lab assistants, and peer tutors.
A truly collaborative effort, students and faculty from three other universities — Acadia, Bishops, and St. Francis Xavier — have been invited to join in the conversation.
Eileen Herteis, director of Mount Allison’s Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre, and one of the conference organizers says, “The purpose of this conference is to share our individual and collective experience with students’ contributions to undergraduate teaching, look at the benefits of these experiences, and discuss the training and mentoring needs of our students and ways to meet these needs. We’re excited to welcome our counterparts from Acadia, Bishop’s, and St. FX to discuss this very important role for our students.”
Mount Allison physics student and teaching assistant Ian Roberts is participating in the conference. He says, “My experience as a teaching assistant has been a very rewarding one and I am glad that I chose to attend a school where undergraduates get the opportunity to TA. It is great to have the chance to work one-on-one with other students and be able to directly take the concepts that I have learned in classes and help teach them to students.”
The conference will include designing an outdoor education classroom project at Sackville’s Salem Elementary School and workshops on a number of topics including student writing skills, ethics of peer teaching, and active learning strategies. Participants will also visit the Varma Experiential Physics Lab, the Music Conservatory, and the Mount Allison Gemini Observatory as well as enjoy a performance by Tintamarre, Mount Allison’s bilingual theatre troupe directed by professor Emeritus and 3M Teaching Fellow Alex Fancy.
More information, including a full conference program is available at mta.ca/pctc.
Mount Allison, Acadia, Bishop’s, and St. Francis Xavier universities will continue the discussion on undergraduate education when they come together again in the next academic year.