Welcome all to this fall. There’s excitement in the air for it’s the beginning of a new season of learning for our post-secondary colleagues and students. This excitement for some of us is also due to anticipation of the launch of The BCcampus Online Book Club on September 10th.
Why a book club you might ask? Our community of post-secondary educators wanted a vehicle to create collegial connections; something to support opportunities to learn with each other and share what we are doing in teaching and learning. The idea of a book club focused on teaching and learning professional development was sparked and began to take shape at a meeting at the Festival of Learning in Vancouver in May 2018. Wonderful volunteer facilitators came forward to help. Yes, people are keen to do this kind of activity, but there would be some key stipulations: it should be open; easy to participate in; and it must be fun!
For our first book, we’ve selected How Learning Works: 7 Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching written by educators from Carnegie-Mellon University. First published in 2010, this book is “go-to” reading for those wanting to learn about what research says about how we learn and how it can inform our teaching practice. A copy of this book should be easily available: you can borrow the book from most post-secondary teaching and learning centres or libraries or purchase your own copy online.
Over the next several weeks, we invite you to read, reflect and share your thoughts and experiences in teaching and learning through suggested book club activities: commenting on the blog, posting your stories on social media (#BookClubBC), and participating in the weekly web conference chats. We challenge you to apply some of the principles featured in each of the chapters if you’ve not already done so. We support you to participate in what interests you and you are able to do and to reach out for collegial wisdom should you need suggestions or have advice to contribute. We’ve built-in a few reading breaks for catching up as needed. (Check the schedule here.) Our hope is these learning moments will be starting points for deeper conversations on teaching and learning and the ideas we as educators care about. In future, book selections will be driven by participants, so we invite you to hop onboard, get reading, and join us on this journey!
All the Best,
The BCcampus Online Book Club Facilitators
P.S. Please check out the Comments section!
