Teaching and Learning Academy by Gardner Institute

Gardner_InstituteFaculty, staff, administrators, or teaching assistants on all levels are invited to take advantage of UConn’s Institutional membership  to resources from the Teaching and Learning Academy (TLA) hosted by the Gardener Institute

Access to the on-demand material and resources for professional development in teaching will appeal to individuals or departmental groups who are engaged or wish to be engaged in advancing equitable teaching and need flexibility in their schedules. The self-paced remote modules are applicable in a variety of contexts, but have a broad focus on redesign for gateway course, through the use of liberatory and anti-racist pedagogies.

Since 2020, we have offered a version of the online signature course, The Humanity of Inclusive Practices, synchronously (the course is available on demand for the duration of the year). This year's signature course will expand the original focus to examine the concept of recasting agreements for teaching and learning.

Course Description

We welcome you to our 2024 community where we re-engage a conversation on higher education’s agreements with the students we serve, and the global society we hope to help improve. Inspired by Laura Rendon’s 2005 classic article on ‘recasting agreements’, we will identify the implicit and explicit agreements students, society and instructors expect from a robust, equity-minded education. 

As we gather in this year’s course, we will revisit the ways in which higher education prepares students for both technical and civic participation within a peaceful society. We will discuss why the agreement for both preparation pathways are still critical, and develop specific activities, backwardly designed that positions our classrooms to achieve both, regardless of institutional and academic context. This year’s theme calls us to continue to make and remake the case for the transformative and transcendent properties of education, and prepare ourselves as willing changemakers to make transformations possible.

Course Outcome

At the end of the course, participants will develop a plan to recast 1-2 existing teaching and learning agreements in your courses and/or professional context.

The course recordings and materials will be available in Brightspace (materials are generally available 24-48 hours after the synchronous sessions).

The course will remain  available, on demand, for the duration of the 2024-25 academic year.

To register for free email Stacey.Valliere@uconn.edu