Waterloo’s Science Undergraduate Teaching Initiative: Observations of the impact on teaching, learning and culture

In early 2018 the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo announced a one-time commitment of $500,000 for an initiative to support teaching and learning in Science. The focus of the initiative is to provide funding for implementing innovative and effective evidence-based teaching approaches within the Faculty. Applicants were encouraged to develop collaborative proposals involving either multiple courses or multiple departments, and include relevant support units as appropriate. The departmental Faculty Teaching Fellows and the Science Liaison from the Centre for Teaching Excellence helped guide proposal development, adapting many of the principles of course transformation of the Wieman Science Education Initiative to our context (Chasteen & Code, 2018). An intended outcome of this initiative is to foster connections and build community within the Faculty to create significant networks and a culture of teaching quality (Roxå & Mårtensson, 2009). We will describe some of the funded projects and steps taken to coordinate resources for course design, implementation, and assessment of impact. Although the initiative is still in the early stages of implementation, we will share observations regarding the immediate impact of the initiative on faculty engagement and teaching community/culture. We will share our framework that could be used as a starting point for other institutions, highlighting some of the challenges, successes and lessons learned. Participants will engage in discussion and brainstorming around the opportunities and challenges of cooperative yet competitive initiatives, sustainability after implementation, and how one measures success of such an initiative. Roxå, T., & Mårtensson, K. (2009). Significant conversations and significant networks –Exploring the backstage of the teaching arena. Studies in Higher Education, 34(5), 547–559. Chasteen S.V, & Code W.J. (2018) The Science Education Initiative Handbook. Accessed at https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/seihandbook/