Setting the Climate: Creating Supportive Learning Environments

Event Date & Time

Event Description

A university classroom is not a self-contained space. It is a site of unique and complex interactions that can greatly impact a student’s ability to learn. How an instructor sets up and navigates this space has great impact on students’ ability to learn. However, the factors that shape the space are not always readily visible.

In the first half of this session, we will explore situational factors of a course. Using a case study in pairs, you will brainstorm the factors – ranging from the nature of the course subject to learners’ identities – that might have great impact on the student experience of your course and how you could integrate these key factors into your course design and delivery.

The second part of this session will narrow the level of analysis to the classroom so that we become more attuned to the complexity of the classroom space in which we actually deliver our courses and how this relates to student learning. We will introduce a framework to explore different dimensions and layers of classroom climate. We will discuss how all these elements of classroom climate intricately interact with one another to have an impact on student learning and performance.

Facilitators: Amy Perreault, Erin Yun, Hanae Tsukada

TA Summer Institute Theme – Managing Your Workload

Graduate students have many competing demands on their time and energy – not just TAing, but research, coursework, professional development, preparing for a career, and maybe even having a life beyond the university! All of the workshops specifically offered for TAs during the Summer Institute will include support to help you manage your workload as a TA – whether it is dealing with time management, stress, or just planning out your work. You can be an excellent TA while at the same time having space for other aspects of your life

This event is part of our CTLT Summer Institute. For more Institute events, please click here. If you are unable to register for this event, please register for the waitlist here.