Teaching as Research: Accessing the SoTL Research Literature – June 12, 2023

TAR Workshops are designed to give interns authentic teaching experiences and to apply their understanding of evidence-based teaching practices in the classroom or in an informal science education or outreach setting. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, together with their teaching partner, identify a challenge to student learning in the classroom, develop new teaching resources or approaches, and test if this new approach did improve student learning.

This series of workshops will prepare applicants of the TAR program to implement an educational research project in their discipline regardless of previous experience. Those who are not intending to submit a TAR application but are interested in developing their understanding of SoTL research are also welcomed to attend.

Interested students can devise their own TAR projects, or can create TAR projects around existing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects (see the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund project descriptions and faculty proposed TAR projects for existing projects). Eligible teaching partners are UBC faculty or instructors, local college instructor, or outreach partners.

All UBC graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are eligible according to the program requirements outlined below can apply for a TAR project. Applicants whose application are accepted will be able to conduct their project as TAR Interns.

The TAR Awards are open to graduate students & postdocs, with graduate students needing to be in their second year of study.  The award is $3000.  The TAR Awards application will open May 15 and close June 20.

For more information visit:

TAR in general: https://cirtl.ubc.ca/get-involved/cirtl-practitioner/tar-internship/

Program Requirements:

The requirements for a successful TAR project include:

1. Completion of CIRTL Associate status
2. Application and acceptance to the program, including a teaching-as-research proposal, developed in cooperation with the partner.
3. Pre-TAR planning course through CIRTL@UBC or CIRTL-Central.
4. Participation in an internship with the faculty or instructional partner(s). TAR Interns and partners collaborate to define a teaching and learning question and devise, implement, and evaluate a solution for improving participant learning.
5. Writing a reflective statement and a final short summative report.

There will be five pre-TAR workshops being held online on the following dates and times. Please register for the session(s) that you will be attending separately.

• May 25: Teaching as Research Epistemology | 2 – 4 pm
• May 31: Defining Your Research Question & SoTL Methods | 10 am – 12 pm
• June 6: SoTL Research Ethics & the BREB Process | 10 – 11:30 am
• June 12: Accessing the SoTL Research Literature | 3 – 4 pm
  • (pre-work recommendation: finish the BREB Mandatory Ethics Course, approximately 4 hours)
• June 16: TAR Application Help Drop-In | 2 – 4 pm