On April 8th, 2025, we (Maggie and Yun) attended the Centre of Teaching and Learning (CTL) Celebration of Teaching Showcase. This new space is filled with great active learning spaces (like the active learning spaces in Myhal). These spaces support instructors in delivering teaching that centers the student and their experience in the instructional design.
We found that the speakers at the CTL Showcase also put students at the centre of their teaching. We noticed a common theme among the speakers: instructors wanted to develop unique ways to centre the student experience by respecting student lives and working with students to develop authentic learning experiences.
Here are some of our key takeaways from the CTL Showcase.
Maggie: Respect for students’ lives
One key takeaway I had from the CTL Showcase was how empathy for student lives and needs in your teaching results in better student success. Professor Sarah Elaine Eaton shared one great quote that helps us better understand this idea:
“All people have inherent worth because they are people”
Students are people and deserve respect for their personal experience and struggles in school. Professor Eaton reflected on this idea in the context of academic integrity and interrogated how higher education institutions address students cheating. She argued for an approach that prioritized respect for students who cheat and gave them an opportunity to do better (6 Tenets of post-plagiarism).
Many speakers at the CTL showcase understood that students deserve respect and understanding. Be it through providing customized peer support, developing alternative evaluation or by studying how students learn online, these speakers showed what it means to know the student as a full person.
Customized peer support
Assistant Professor Emily Bell and Associate Professor Mark Fitzpatrick from the Biological Sciences department at UTSC described their pilot program for peer support called the Biology Academic Success Series (BASS). Professor Bell and Professor Fitzpatrick built a program that promoted metacognition through peer built and led weekly workshops. They took inspiration from the article Promoting student metacognition to design a program that would encourage students to reflect on how they learn and what study techniques work best for them. Student mentors were chosen based on not only their academic success, but their ability to use metacognition strategies to succeed.
Professor Bell and Professor Fitzpatrick understand that helping students succeed means understanding what they need. They worked with students to build the program, ensuring that content was relevant and delivered in a familiar way for the participants. And it worked! Professor Bell and Professor Fitzpatrick proved (through student interviews) that the aspect of the workshops that involved sharing among peers was the most effective method for teaching metacognitive skills.
Alternative evaluation
Professor Brian Harrington and his teaching team talked about their project to reach students through an alternative grading system, one that relied on skill mastery vs. task completion. They outlined how traditional grading can be unfair to students with varying workloads and can be demotivating.
Through an iterative approach, they were able to develop a simple system for assessment that allowed students multiple attempts to demonstrate specific skills. Professor Harrington and his teaching team saw a few benefits:
- Learners were less stressed for individual assessments as they were not the last opportunity for them to demonstrate skills.
- Learners spent time in office hours and tutorials asking questions about skills instead of asking what they could do to pass.
This shows how Harrington’s understanding of a student as a person with a full life can lead to innovative and caring approaches to teaching and assessment.
Prior online learning
Associate Professor Liang Chen wanted to better understand how students responded to emergency remote teaching (ERT), like the teaching that happened during the periods of lockdown of the COVID19 pandemic. She conducted a study that compared the perspective of students who experienced ERT in Canada and Russia.
The key finding was that students from Russia had a more positive experience with online learning due to their prior experience with online courses (In Canada, not many students had taken online courses before they did ERT). Also, she learned that in general students prefer in person learning, but like the flexibility of online learning. Chen took these lessons into her teaching and incorporated blended learning, such as recording lectures and providing additional online resources for students.
Yun: Student-led learning
Another key takeaway throughout the CTL Showcase was how powerful it can be when students take the lead in their own learning. When educators step back and make space for students to create, design, and guide their own learning experiences, it not only builds deeper engagement – it acknowledges their full humanity, agency, and insight.
Many speakers at the CTL Showcase demonstrated how student-led learning goes beyond simply involving students in the process – it gives them the opportunity to take charge of their learning through co-designing projects, evaluating educational content, or centring their thoughts and perspectives. These speakers also showed their own understanding of how student-led learning enhances engagement and fosters a deeper connection to the material.
Across ways of knowing
Associate Professor Tanzina Mohsin from the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences at UTSC shared how she encourages students to use artistic media to communicate about a science topic – climate change, helping them engage with the issue on emotional and cultural levels. She introduced the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which brings together Western science and Indigenous ways of knowing. This approach is also a key part of her Climate Change Communication project, where she highlights the value of diverse perspectives and ways of knowing.
She showed how creative forms like visual art, storytelling, and performance can help students share personal stories and develop awareness that’s often missing from traditional, data-driven climate communication. She aims to deepen student engagement while validating their individual experiences and perspectives – helping them feel more empowered and connected to the topic.
Professor Mohsin’s course project also invites educators to rethink their role – not just as sources of information, but as facilitators of transformation.
Student-led content creation
Associate Professor Kosha Bramesfeld also spoke about the student-led learning experience happened through her Authentic Learning Lab (ALL), where students spent three years developing The Game of Social Life: Journeys (featuring “Noor’s Journey”) – a game explores EDI from an intersectional lens. The students’ role within the process wasn’t just to contribute or participate in parts of the game – they took full ownership! They made key decisions, managed the project, and evaluated the game.
Professor Bramesfeld and her team emphasized the importance of the game delivering a sense of authenticity, highlighting that personal lived experience is at the heart of authentic storytelling. I think this value shaped the game itself and gave the team a meaningful way to celebrate and appreciate their own experiences, as well as those of others.
She also shared a few things that helped make this student-centred, collaborative project successful:
- The importance of building informal connections to encourage deeper contributions
- Staying open-minded and respectful of different perspectives in a multi-disciplinary setting
Similarly, Associate Professor Jessica Dere from the Department of Psychology at UTSC talked about the transformative potential of the “students-as-partners” approach in developing a new second-year breadth course, PSYB80. In this course, student research assistants worked as instructional co-creators and were involved in the early stages of course design, including creating the syllabus and assessment rubrics. Professor Dere and her RA team believe this partnership enriched the course by blending diverse perspectives and lived experiences, while centring the student voice.
Key Takeaways from the CTL Celebration of Teaching Showcase 2025
Overall, the main standouts we found from the CTL Showcase were:
- Empathy leads to impact: When designing learning experiences, centring care, respect, and empathy – and always acknowledging students as whole people with complex lived experiences – is key to driving deeper learning.
- Student voice matters: When students are trusted and invited to express their thoughts and co-create their learning (i.e., through peer support programs, course design, or artistic creations), the learning becomes authentic and sustainable.
- Technology serves people: The best uses of technology are intentional and human centred. While technology shapes how we learn and know, learning remains a human experience, with technology supporting engagement.