Are you a graduate student who is interested in getting involved in STEM Education development and research? If so, check out the many opportunities available at UBC listed below:
Biology TA Development and Advancement (TADA) Series:
- TADA is a series of workshops focusing on evidence-based and inclusive pedagogical practices, directed towards graduate students who are teaching biology courses at UBC. Workshops are mainly developed and facilitated by experienced TAs (and getting involved as a TA facilitator is a great way to gain experience as an educational developer/support person). Announcements about workshops are sent out to Biology TA, and Zoology and Botany grad student email lists. You can also enroll in the TADA Canvas site to access online resources and modules.
UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT):
- The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is a three-day workshop focused on developing and enhancing instructional skills; the Foundations of Pedagogy course is an 8-week course focused on pedagogical theory and its application. You can take either course independently, but both the ISW and Foundations of Pedagogy also serve as pre-requisites for other certification programs (e.g., CIRTL and CATL).
- The Certificate Program in Advanced Teaching and Learning (CATL) for graduate students is a one-year program that includes a teaching practicum, mentoring, and a small-scale SoTL project. (CATL website)
- The Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) provides programming to support grad student and postdoc professional development in pedagogical scholarship and practice (including Teaching as Research internships — see below). (CIRTL website)
- The CTLT also provides a wide variety of other supports and programming for teaching and learning, some of it specifically for graduate students (list of CTLT Graduate Student and TA Programs).
STEM Education Projects:
- There are a growing number of graduate students who engage in some form of education research as part of their thesis work. For some, STEM education research is their principal research area; they would be supervised or co-supervised by a faculty member who is in an Education Leadership (tenure-track teaching faculty) role or in the Faculty of Education, and their research funding would come from somewhere like SSHRC or another fund that directly supports educational research. For others, biology research is the core of their thesis, but with the support of their supervisor one of their thesis chapters includes an education research component. This work might be funded by UBC funding for teaching and learning projects or a dedicated scholarship (see examples below).
- Teaching as Research (TAR) internships (offered through CIRTL@UBC) pair a graduate student with a teaching partner (e.g., course instructor) to work on an education research project; this could be a novel project devised by the student or part of an existing project. TAR interns are often funded through a UBC Public Scholars Award (i.e., held by the intern) or through existing project funding (i.e., Teaching & Learning Fund grant held by the project PI).
- Faculty members with funding for education research projects are often looking for engaged, experienced graduate students to serve as research associates (typically a Graduate Academic Assistant position that would be held for one term in lieu of a TAship); experience as a TA, familiarity with evidence-based and inclusive teaching practices, and transferable academic skills (e.g., ability to conduct literature reviews, data analysis, report/presentation writing) are assets. These opportunities are not always widely advertised, though, so if you are interested in this type of work, it’s important to let potential PIs (e.g., instructors) know! You can also reach out to one of the Biology SESs (erica.jeffery@ubc.ca or christine.goedhart@botany.ubc.ca), who may know of relevant projects that are underway.
Resource list curated by Erica Jeffery