Principles and Scope of Practice
The Centre for Teaching and Learning is the central academic service unit that promotes and supports quality teaching while building capacity in teaching and educational leadership in direct support of Queen’s students’ learning experiences.
Our mandate is to:
- Inform and consult on institutional priorities for teaching and learning at Queen’s;
- Provide and support evidence-based, strategic, innovative and sustainable course and program enhancement initiatives to Faculties, Departments and individual educators that are pedagogically sound, inclusive, equitable, intellectually challenging and inspiring to a diverse student population
- Support evidence-based integrations of technology that promote equity, increase accessibility and enhance learning;
- Encourage, support and engage in emerging, grassroots investigations of effective and novel approaches to teaching and learning; and
- Ensure that Queen’s learning spaces, virtual as well as brick and mortar, meet the existing and emerging needs of students and instructors.
We are committed to implementing the current institutional imperatives of:
- Decolonizing Queen’s curriculum (The processes of acknowledging the Eurocentric bases of knowledge and research in the academy and of broadening conceptions of what counts as sources of knowledge, research and knowledge creation.) and
- Inclusion (Creating a campus environment that is designed to welcome, value and invite different identities, backgrounds and perspectives)
and the institutional priorities in teaching and learning to:
- Adopt and implement aligned and pedagogically sound assessment practices;
- Make widespread use of active learning strategies; and
- Integrate experiential learning opportunities into courses and programs.
Under the broad mandate to support Queen’s educators in the development of teaching to enhance students’ learning, members of the CTL actively participate in institution-wide, Faculty and Departmental committees to inform and shape the direction of teaching and learning at Queen’s in order to:
- Ally with Faculty-embedded teaching support units to develop responsive and anticipatory programming for all Queen’s educators and teaching assistants, regardless of rank or position, as well as for annual professional development retreats for educational support professionals at Queen’s;
- Meet and collaborate with central support units from across campus (e.g. Student Academic Success Services, the School of Graduate Studies, Queen’s Student Accessibility Services, the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, the Experiential Learning Hub, the Human Rights and Equity Office, and the Queen’s University International Centre, among many others) to set strategy and create programming and resources that support the ongoing development of teaching; and
- Provide space and opportunities for collaboration with networks of educators and teaching support professionals to engage in discourse on teaching, educational scholarship and educational leadership.
Additionally, we serve as resources to all Queen’s instructors in interpreting course evaluation results, developing professional teaching development plans and documenting teaching success through teaching dossiers.
Standard of Service Commitment
The CTL serves Faculties, Departments, Units, and individuals including faculty members, adjuncts, teaching assistants, graduate teaching fellows, post-doctoral fellows and staff with connections to teaching and learning on campus. When these individuals and/or groups contact the CTL for consultations, resources or collaboration, they can expect, as a minimum standard of service:
- To meet with an Educational Developer or Associate for a consultation on any aspect of teaching or teaching professional development and be provided with feedback
- To receive or be directed to resources, workshops or like-minded colleagues
- To receive follow-up to assess progress and plan next steps.
Our staff is recognized across campus for their expertise, creativity, and literature-informed pragmatic approaches to dealing with teaching and learning challenges and their solutions. We are active members of institution-wide, Faculty and Departmental committees, working to inform the strategic direction of teaching and learning and educational inquiry at Queen’s.
CTL Philosophy
The Centre for Teaching and Learning is committed to engaging with all Queen’s educators in their ongoing development of evidence-based practice and conceptions of teaching and learning in order to meet the strategic priorities and goals of the institution and enhance students’ learning experiences. In doing so, we adhere to the following principles of practice:
Our work is educational and educative
Our mandate is educational in that we work to collaborate on the improvement of teaching for the express purpose of improving students’ learning; our work is educative in that all stakeholders learn and develop through the process of engagement.
Our approach is developmental
Our intention is to meet individual instructors and Departments where they are in terms of both their conceptual and skill development, and to then build on exhibited strengths. We work with, rather than for, instructors and Departments to help them achieve their goals for professional teaching development and program improvement.
Our intention is to build both capacity and educational leadership
Our commitment is to provide expertise, support and resources to individual instructors, Departments and Faculty-embedded teaching support units to create the integrated and collaborative networks that are necessary for the ongoing development of teaching across Queen’s campus.