We provide a broad range of support and services to York’s teaching and learning community, from conferences and orientations, to consultations, support with grants and awards, as well as customized workshops.
Events
New Faculty Orientation
A teaching and learning orientation for new faculty is offered a few times a year.
Teaching in Focus (TiF) Conference
This annual conference is an opportunity for the York community to connect, present their innovations, and talk about teaching.
Services
Faculty specific workshops
Workshops can be requested by a Faculty or Department/School to meet your specific teaching needs. These sessions may be facilitated by an educational developer or in collaboration with Faculty members at a date, time, and location convenient for you and your colleagues.
Consultations
Consultations are individual appointments with an Educational Developer offered as a means to explore a wide variety of topics related to your teaching here at York. You may wish to meet with an Educational Developer to explore your own teaching practice through reflection and research, or to discuss the learning outcomes, teaching strategies, and assessment strategies for your course(s).
Support for internal & external teaching awards nominations
There are a variety of awards and grants internal to York and external awards and fellowships recognizing outstanding teaching and teachers. To learn more or to request support in developing your award application, please contact us at teaching@yorku.ca.
In addition to one-on-one support, in 2023 the Teaching Commons offered a combination of roundtables, talks, workshops, resources, and one-on-one consultations to support the development of dossiers and applications for internal and external teaching awards. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions with the expectation of creating and application and dossier by the conclusion of the programming, but we welcome faculty to sign up for individual sessions that may be of interest.
Classroom Observations for Formative Feedback
The Teaching Commons offers Course Directors the opportunity to participate in a formative teaching observation. A formative observation can be requested for a course at any level and of any type (e.g. lecture, seminar, etc.).
This process is not a formal evaluation or assessment, but rather a voluntary and collaborate activity designed to inspire a reflective dialogue on classroom teaching. By engaging in this process, you will gain insight into your current teaching practice while also exploring diverse teaching strategies or course design ideas. A teaching observation is just that, an observation of the teaching and learning processes in a classroom. It is an observation of a single class and, as such, not meant as a statement on your teaching effectiveness as a whole.
Observations are currently offered for synchronous (live) classes occurring face to face or virtually (via Zoom). The observation process begins with a meeting to discuss your goals for engaging in this process, an opportunity for an educational developer to observe a mutually agreed upon scheduled class time, and a post-observation meeting to share reflections and explore an action plan.
Teaching and learning committees
Educational Developers serve on a variety of cross-functional committees supporting interdisciplinary projects and programs. If your committee could benefit from the pedagogical insights and expertise of an educational developer, please contact teaching@yorku.ca
