SALTISE S4 Communities of Practice – Systems Supporting Student Success

The Biology Educators Community of Practice (BECoP) first met in the fall of 2021, with the goal of promoting discussion, a sharing of ideas, and collaboration between post-secondary Biology teachers. Members present at that initial meeting were from Anglophone CÉGEPs on the island of Montreal, but the community has expanded since then to include members from other Anglophone and Francophone CÉGEPs, from universities, and graduate students with an interest in education.

The community is growing, and we’re always interested in welcoming new members!

Meetings to date have been reasonably informal, occurring approximately once per month, online through Microsoft Teams. However, there are plans to occasionally organize hybrid meetings during the 2022-2023 academic year, allowing members in the Montreal area to meet in-person while still accommodating members outside of this area. Topics of discussion have included the Science program revision and new Biology competencies, inquiry labs in Biology, assessment strategies, and presentations on innovative pedagogical approaches. We often don’t get through all of the planned topics for a meeting… there’s just so much to discuss and share!

The online CoP has recently moved to a new home within the sharing platform Linkr. This site is very much still under construction, but you can already find several shared resources, including documents relating to the program revision, novel pedagogical tools, and recordings of all the meetings-to-date.

If you are interested in joining us, navigate to the following link and
sign up for Linkr: https://app.linkreducation.com/gp-WCPFWHW
This link will also bring you to the site in the future.

You should also send a message to Karl Laroche (larochek@vaniercollege.qc.ca) to indicate your interest, as we’re still sorting out the communication channels for the group.

The SALTISE S4-Chemistry team started out as a small group of educators and researchers in 2018, mainly from Quebec’s anglophone post-secondary institutions. Since then, the team has grown into a community of practice (CoP) and includes members from anglo- and francophone Cégeps, as well as Concordia and McGill University. The community has developed activities, resources and tools to support active learning in various chemistry courses. This includes General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, with class sizes ranging from 12 to 1200 students! Members have also found support through the CoP when exploring different pedagogical practices (i.e. two-stage exams, flipped classroom approach, at-home experiments) or educational technologies (i.e. Visual Classrooms, Lightboards, myDALITE). The S4-Chemistry team aims to meet bimonthly during the academic year to exchange ideas, share experiences, and discuss innovative pedagogical practices. More recently, meetings have also included discussions around the Cégep Science program revision, opening up the communication channel between Cégep and university faculty members. Meetings are usually in a hybrid format to allow for in-person and online attendance.

Chemistry educators and researchers interested in joining the SALTISE S4-Chemistry CoP can contact Carmen Leung at cleung@dawsoncollege.qc.ca.

The SALTISE community of Physics Educators is composed mostly of physics educators from anglophone colleges , but is open to anyone who cares about physics education. The group meets virtually two or three times per semester. The topics discussed are varied but focus on innovative pedagogical practices. During the last year, a fair portion of the meeting time was devoted to the pre-university Science Program revision. We also touched on the use of oral exams and ways to assess lab skills in exam settings.

Physics educators interested in joining the community of practice can contact Jean-François Brière at jfbriere@dawsconcollege.qc.ca.