Boost for women in trades programs Pg. 2
The Omega Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student Newspaper
News
Editorial & Opinion
Pages 1, 2
Page 3
Volume 23, Issue 20 February 26, 2014
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Life & Community
Arts & Entertainment
Sports
Pages 5, 9
Pages 6, 7
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Reinventing the classroom How professors are learning to deal with social and structural constraints Jessica Klymchuk Ω News Editor
Roy Henry Vickers shares the story of his struggle with suicide and his decision to continue with life.
(Ashley Wadhwani/ The Omega)
Recognized Canadian artist comes to TRU
Annual Story Teller’s Gala celebrates art, leadership, a sense of self and community and the education received from stories Karla Karcioglu Ω Roving Editor Roy Henry Vickers was this year’s featured guest at TRUSU’s annual Story Teller’s Gala. At the event, he said that the most important things to be learned aren’t in university, but in life. The fourth annual gala was held in the Campus Activity Centre’s Mountain Room on Feb. 12. Vickers’ works are recognized across Canada and have been gifted to visiting foreign leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II. Vickers was the recipient of the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada in 2006. TRUSU’s Aboriginal representative, Liz Whiting, introduced Vickers as a personal friend, sharing her own story of the first time the two met. She met
Vickers as a child with her father and remembered him introducing himself with a hug and telling her that as a friend to her father, he was a friend to her, too. During the Story Teller’s Gala, Vickers talked about growing up in the small northern
60 attendees shared laughs, tears and nods of understanding with the presenter. After the event, Vickers shared more of his thoughts with The Omega. “I live my life as an artist, but more as a storyteller artist, because life is about stories and stories are where we get our education,” he said. Vickers described institutional education as an “old, archaic, industrial revolution type of teaching which hasn’t changed.” He —Roy Henry Vickers, said he feels it is important the teaching of his First Nations Internationally renowned artist ancestors be learned by the academy and taught BC town of Hazelton, about within academic institutions like visiting Vancouver Island and TRU. experiencing discrimination for Vickers said the stories he was the first time, about trying to learn taught growing up were filled with what it means to be “an Indian,” emotion, and emotion is how he about contemplating suicide and now creates his artwork. overcoming addiction, about his life as an artist and much more. See VICKERS Pg. The full room of approximately
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While students were enjoying the first day of reading break, professors were learning how to overcome the constraints they face in trying to deliver quality and cutting edge education. The 10th annual TRU Teaching Practices Colloquium was themed “Beyond the Boundaries: 21st Century Education” and dove straight into the timeless concerns that professors continue to struggle to overcome: class size, timetables, course evaluations and the social paradigm that puts professors at the front of a lecture hall and students behind a grade. These structural and social constraints were discussed early on by keynote speaker Russell Hunt. “How do we deal with the boundaries we are given as teachers and as professionals? How do we get outside the boxes we’re in?” Hunt said. “Is it always a good idea to get out of the boxes we’re in?” Although Hunt touched on constraints professors deal with on their own, such as how to conduct group work or discussions in classes of seven people or exercises when a class is only 50 minutes long, he discussed two constraints in which students have a direct influence: student course
evaluations and interpretation of professor feedback. “If you can measure it, it’s real. If you can’t, it’s someone’s opinion,” he said. “Those numbers come to be way more important than they ought to be.” Hunt said course evaluations are concerning to young professors who fear their results will affect their contract renewal or their ability to get a full time positions, actual concerns he heard when he worked as a faculty advisor. With the TRU Senate recently passing a mandate for TRU to implement mandatory course evaluations, many in the room would have shared similar concerns. “Course evaluations should be used only to provide information to teachers, and we have to find other ways of evaluating teaching, but as long as we are in that situation, that’s a constraint we labour under,” he said. Hunt suggested that professors provide midterm course evaluations and then share the feedback with the class and discuss it. He said at the end of term students will better understand what they were going to say and that it might affect the way the course was taught in the future. Online forums could be used so the conversation is ongoing and doesn’t use class time.
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Each one of us is already an artist.”
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Faculty gathered on Feb. 17 for the TRU Teaching Practices Colloquium, starting with keynote speaker Russell Hunt. He instructed them to “ink shed,” a form of free writing to discuss thoughts about constraints professors work under. ( Jessica Klymchuk/ The Omega)