UBC Annual Review 2009-2010

posted in: Uncategorized 5

PhD
OUTSTANDING WORK ENVIRONMENT

Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning
As a teacher in the Faculty of Education at UBC’s Okanagan campus, Peter teaches students to be good teachers. But as Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, his job also extends to ensuring that the campus’ 300 faculty and 100 TAs have the tools and support they need to teach effectively. “Our mission is to support, promote and lead excellence in teaching and learning through a variety of programming opportunities.”
Partners in Teaching and Scholarship 
One of the ways he promotes excellence in teaching is through the Partners in Teaching and Scholarship Program, which pairs new faculty with experienced faculty members outside their department to discuss goals, teaching, scholarship and even work/life balance. “We have lunches where the pairs gets to meet. It helps the new faculty members in their transition, and we have so many mentors who want to give back and really make an impact on their new colleagues.”
Inspiring Excellence through Support
Making sure UBC’s faculty can stay on top of their game requires Peter to keep on top of his. With one of his specialties being learning technologies, he keeps abreast of the ever-changing field so that he can support UBC’s staff as they work to improve their teaching efforts. “We support the course management system (Web CT Vista) and other learning technologies,” he says, adding that because technology is always changing, it’s critical to provide support in order to ensure it’s used effectively. “Faculty are willing to take risks in the classroom if they know someone is there to assist them. They come to us with ideas for improvements, and we support their efforts.”
Question

Why did you choose to work at UBC?
Answer

I came here to lead the work in educational technology and it was a natural progression to build an academic development centre for teaching and learning. We’re now a team of five immersed in learning about successful learning environments, and we have such a good working relationship with the amazing people here. We all love coming to work.

5 Responses

  1. Miranda
    | Reply

    Where’s the rest? Is there more?

  2. Sandra
    | Reply

    Congratulations Peter! Always nice to be written up.

  3. Johan
    | Reply

    Cool dude, that Peter. Is this from a publication, a pamphlet or…
    Along the lines of Miranda’s question: “was there only one question?”

  4. Melissa Mix Hart
    | Reply

    That was the end of the article. It was edited of course. And it was published in UBC’s Annual Review.

  5. theresa_hart
    | Reply

    Yeah Peter!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *