Faculty and staff are invited to submit a program proposal at this time. All proposals will be subject to a peer-review process. Proposals are due by Sunday, December 15, 2019. The FYE Educators’ Symposium will be held on February 20, 2020.
Update: January 10, 2020
The call for proposals has now closed.
Roundtable Format
During the roundtable, you are asked to prepare a short 5 minute talk on your topic/idea, as well as a question that you will pose relating to your topic/idea. You will host the table and moderate the discussion for ~15 to 20 minutes. You are able to share handouts and/or artifacts at your table but A/V is not available.
Please prepare a brief proposal:
- Title of your proposed session
- Associated theme(s) for your proposed session (learn more about the themes)
- Brief abstract, which connects your topic to the chosen theme, and proposes a question for the table to discuss (max. 300 words)
All submissions will be reviewed based on fit within the chosen theme(s) in addition to the relevance to a broad audience of first-year educators across the university. All proposals will be subject to a peer-review process. We plan to notify all submitters no later than January 17th.
Themes
To draw on the wealth of knowledge on the First-Year Experience (FYE) from educators across campus, the Symposium is organized under four broad themes:
- Educator as Learner: At the same time as students are learning, we are also learning alongside them as educators. Proposals can feature (but are not limited to): educator’s personal and professional learning processes, issues you are exploring and want to discuss with other educators, wisdom you’ve gained from the mistakes you’ve made, and reflections/aha moments you’ve had as a result of working with first-year students.
- Inclusive Excellence: Sessions focused on theory and practice that strives for a fully inclusive learning environment. Presentations and roundtable discussions on current research, pedagogical strategies, course design models, and/or promising initiatives across the university that address inclusion in areas such as disability, socioeconomic status, race, culture, and Indigeneity are encouraged.
- Innovative Pedagogies: Whether it’s incorporating new technology or reinventing a practice that’s been used in a different context, educators in the first-year context are challenged to consider ways to reinvigorate their practice. What have you been up to in your learning environment that is innovative, exciting, or otherwise avant-garde? Share your successes and also what you’ve learned through failure: we can all learn from each other’s risk taking and reflection.
- Theory ↔ Practice: Share authentic research, embedding theory into practice in first-year education. Proposals can highlight SoTL projects, the implementation of current theories in your learning environment or showcase teaching practices that are grounded in the literature.