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Pedagogy + Practice
By The Teaching & Learning Commons
The Teaching and Learning Commons serves as a catalyst, collaborator, connector, communicator, and coordinator for teaching and learning at KPU. The teaching and learning blog “Pedagogy + Practice” strives to increase connection with faculty by sharing our thoughts on important teaching and learning topics and inviting you to share with others. We hope to invoke curiosity and provide resources for further exploration. If you would like this to be delivered weekly to your email, please subscribe, if you prefer to browse at your leisure, please visit as often as you like.
Latest Blog Posts
A Holistic Approach to Assessment: Integrating Self, Peer, Instructor, and AI
As educators, finding better ways to measure learning is always on our agenda. While we’re familiar with traditional assessment methods and the valuable insights they offer in measuring students’ mastery of specific content knowledge, we recognize their limitation in capturing the full range of students’ abilities and experiences, such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration….
Teaching Through Undergraduate Research: The Transformative Power of Active Learning
After the invasion of ChatGPT into our classrooms, you probably asked yourself, “What assignments can I give my students to defeat such an appealing tool, especially for students who have to work extensive hours per week besides studying?” In this piece, I will give you one effective and exciting suggestion: research projects. I will present…
A Rose by Any Other Name: Competency & Mastery-Based Learning and Assessments
Introduction In the ever-changing landscape of Canadian higher education, discussions persist around the “best” pedagogical approaches to student learning, instruction, and assessment. Traditional education often relies on seat time, percentage-based grading, and conventional “pen and paper” assessments like essays and exams (Malan, 2000; Diegelman-Parente, 2011; Sturgis, 2014). Non-traditional education, particularly evolving over the last century,…
Embracing the Chaos: The Power of Authentic Assessments and the Beautiful Messiness of Learning
Teaching and Learning’s continuing endeavor to create more active intentional partnering has me engaged in more conversations with faculty and staff. In some of our conversations, I asked instructors to share their thoughts and feelings regarding their practices and perception of the educational landscape from the start of the pandemic to now. Responses varied from…
Recognize the Whole Person: A Student-Centered Intercultural Teaching Framework
If we asked our students to tell us what is most important in an intercultural teaching practice, what would they say? That’s the question that came to my mind as I began my doctoral research several years ago. I’d read a number of helpful frameworks that provide guidance for my professional development as an instructor…
Introducing the FSH Notebook – A resource for STEM education
Access the FSH notebook here! At KPU, our faculty and staff in the Faculty of Science and Horticulture play a critical role in the education and training of the next generation of scientists. The work of our students will no doubt be needed in the future to tackle some of the biggest challenges humanity has…