Making Tutorials and Labratories into Active Learning Experiences

Active learning, making students responsible for their learning and helping them do so through guided experiences, has been shown to have positive impacts on student learning (and is a lot more fun to teach or TA than....inactive learning).

The Carleton Department of Geography and Environmental Studies TA Mentorship Program is offering a workshop called Taking the Next Step: Making Tutorials and Labs into Active Learning Experiences.

Small group learning sessions in DGES provide opportunities for in-depth coverage of course material, teach hands on skills, give direct experience of phenomenon under inquiry or a combination of these. This means that geography and environmental studies is already “most of the way there” in promoting an active learning environment. This workshop will focus on how YOU as the teaching assistant can set up, coach and debrief laboratories and tutorials to tease out their learnings and help your students put the insights from these assignments into context. Using the Experience ⇒ Reflection ⇒ Abstraction ⇒ Generalization model, we will explore how to access powerful learning opportunities by processing student work with them (not just handing back near-forgotten assignments).

The workshop will be offered twice to accommodate busy schedules:
Monday, September 21, 12 to 1 pm, Loeb A211
Tuesday, September 22, 2 to 3 pm, Loeb B341
Friday, September 25, 12 to 1 pm, Loeb A220

E-mail geographyTAmentor@carleton.ca to register