Ann Bigelow is Canada’s godmother of Service Learning, a teaching method that combines theory with reflective practice. Students participating in Service Learning complete a placement in the community either at home or abroad, such as working on fair-trade coffee projects, tilling community gardens, or facilitating English lessons. They learn first hand about history, politics and culture; they see their own communities differently, and for many their participation in service learning, either course-based or immersion, is the defining change point of their university experience. As a result of Ann’s dedication to the integration of service learning into post-secondary education, a movement was launched across Canada with programs now being offered in every province, a national organization was born, and thousands of students across our country are being positively transformed into engaged citizens.

As one of her colleagues put it, “Dr. Ann Bigelow is a teacher-researcher par excellence, one who is at once a scientist and a humanitarian of great depth. To be taught by Ann Bigelow is to be touched by the brush of excellence.”

Etienne Côté teaches with heart, both literally and figuratively. He advises his veterinary cardiology students to remember that when they’re in the examination room with a pet and an owner, they are dealing with more than one heart. In such complex and intense situations, he wants the student to feel that it is OK not to know, but it is not OK not to care.

What fuels Etienne is the challenge of recognizing a need, then its corresponding opportunity, and addressing them together in a new way. This includes stepping outside his comfort zone to do long-distance surgery by Skype with a recent graduate. The patient was in Alaska, and Etienne was assisting from five time zones away. To help students study, he co-created the Veterinary Board Exam Game which students routinely use during “down times” on clinical rotations and during impromptu games nights. And he developed a Veterinary Drug Index app that creates a direct connection between pharmacology and daily veterinary practice.

English professor David Creelman is a champion of first-year students. He led the efforts to start the “Student Persistence Program,” which includes a first-year experience course, an “early warning system,” and a mentor-led Learning Communities Project. All of these help ensure that students successfully navigate that difficult transition to university life.

David’s devotion to his teaching is described by one student as “galvanizing” and “inspirational” by another. A believer in change, renewal, and rejuvenation, David commits himself to improving his own teaching and developing an enlightened and lively teaching and learning environment for students and fellow faculty. To that end, he led the development of a Teaching and Learning Centre at his university. A multiple award winner, David leads by example, sharing his energy, creative spirit, and passion to innovate and to foster the opportunities for students’ and colleagues’ academic, personal, and professional success.

Sara Harris is “simply an amazing instructor.” This comment is repeated again and again by students in her classes of over 250 students. They are engaged by her use of interactive teaching methods such as i>clickers, peer instruction, and concept sketches to learn all they can about climate change. As one student said “ Although I am not an earth sciences major, the skill of critical thinking that Dr. Harris promoted and emphasized will help me the rest of my career and the rest of my life.”

At a time in which climate change is uppermost in our minds, she pioneered one of UBC’s first Massive Open Online Courses on “Climate Literacy,” incorporating active learning methods, such as creating a student-led crowd-sourced map of climate change and climate impacts. This map is now a valuable open resource with contributions from all over the world. And Sara has had a pivotal role in transforming the teaching in her home department of Earth, Oceans and Atmospheric Sciences. Most of her colleagues have switched from lecture-based teaching to using a variety of research-based instructional strategies. As Carl Weiman , the Nobel Laureate, comments “Sara stands out as a leader. She is among the best I have seen, and I have seen some of the best everywhere.”

Steve Joordens is an educational activist. Like so many who teach first-year Psychology, Steve routinely faces classes of 1700+ students, but rather than bemoan the problems of the megaclass, he invents solutions. His technological innovations – peerScholar, mtuner, Digital Labcoat – help students feel like they are part of an intimate discussion, no matter where they are in the world. Witness this message from one of his students: “I have just completed the 2 mtuners and I am feeling so awesome now! It’s 6 a.m in Vietnam, and a new day comes with a lot of energy after a sleepless night! I want to say THANK YOU!”

His spirit of innovation brought him to the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the transformation of his face-to-face class into a MOOC: a Massive Open Online Course. Steve believes that education is the best way we have to improve lives and living conditions around the world, and to that end, he contributes his expertise and that of his lab the Global Teenager Project, an initiative that brings young people from 40 different countries together to learn about issues of child rights in learning circles. An innovator, activist, and passionate lecturer, Steve Joordens uses his classroom to bring the world together.

Students call Veselin Jungic the Math Therapist. With a passion for mathematics and his devotion to students, Veselin Jungic has an impressive capacity to bring his subject alive for the most varied audiences – from young to old, from rural to professional, from the most academically challenged to the most advanced students. He understands that mathematics can be a stumbling block for many of those with, as he puts it, “deep mathematical scars,” but he recognises how crucial numeracy and mathematical competence are for success in today’s world. And even more, he shares with them how learning math is a form of soul-searching. His No-Fear Mathematics, Math Catcher, Math Girl programs build students’ confidence.

Veselin has a dream of educational equality, particularly for aboriginal people in Canada. He has developed and taught the math component of the SFU Aboriginal University Preparation Program, and he also organizes and coordinates a province-wide outreach program in BC called the Math Catcher Outreach Program. His goal is to encourage and support mathematical education among the aboriginal population.

Peter Ostafichuk is a catalyst for change in engineering education. His students’ projects compel them to design engineering solutions for society’s most pressing needs. Examples include a device to detect and remove landmines, a vehicle to rescue survivors of a natural disaster, and a mechanical chair to help persons with neurological diseases perform therapeutic exercises. He writes, “I believe my peers and I have a duty to instil in our students the societal, environmental, and ethical responsibilities that all engineers carry.”

Dr. Pete, as he is known to a generation of students, is deeply committed to a personalized and very human approach to engineering education. At UBC, he was instrumental in transforming elements of the Mechanical Engineering program that had followed a traditional format, and he introduced such new features as team-based and project-based learning and organized design competitions involving engineer-client simulations. He has become a role model for other professors and has worked with other institutions, supporting them as they revise their programs in engineering. His teaching is about the kind of “deep learning” that is transformational for the lives of students and that strives to change the world.

Jessica Riddell’s business card should list “Party Planner” and “Knight Errant” just beneath “English Professor.” As one colleague says “When you walk into a room, you know if Jessica Riddell is in it. There is a bright, electric mood, a sense of occasion.” She insists that delight is at the centre of learning, and she ignites it by inviting her students join her in “revels” and “quests” in the process. Jessica reminds us that “an ideal teacher must generate delight to stir the heart and shape the mind.” She has come to recognize “not that we take academia too seriously, but that we don’t take party planning seriously enough.”

Jessica champions critical liberal education by having her students perform a public trial of Shakespeare. She promotes social activism by persuading a popular MTV program, 1girl5gays, to bring its production to Bishop’s and ignite campus conversations on sexuality. A celebration of undergrad research becomes an annual conference for Quebec universities. Revels and quests—the twin emblems on the shield of this knight errant and 3M Fellow.

At the heart of Pamela Toulouse’s teaching philosophy is the Ojibwe word Kinoomaage, a term that sums up the importance for her of compassion, community, reciprocity, critical thinking, engagement, interactivity, and humour. A role model amongst First Nations communities, she is a highly respected scholar in the areas of Indigenous student success and interactive pedagogy. Since 2004, she has conducted 115 workshops and presentations, helping to guide the Ontario conversation about First Nations, Métis and Inuit education.

“As a First Nations woman,” she writes, “I know, and have lived, all the negativity that schooling and life can offer. My family are survivors of a legacy of harm. I know that I have the ability to make a difference in my role as a teacher, researcher and human being”: and she does, combining passion, warmth, and rigour to guide a new generation of teachers.

3M Speaker
Discipline of Study / Research Field: K to 12 Education, Inclusion in Higher Education, Teacher Education, Indigenous Issues.

Presentation Topic/s:

• First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) Student Transitions from Preschool to Career OR Returning Home,
• Achieving FNMI Student Success through Curriculum, Pedagogy and Community Engagement,
• Literacy Practices that Support FNMI Student Success,
• Role and Impact of the FNMI Education Counsellor on FNMI Student Success,
• Respectful Research in FNMI Communities (Protocols and Process),
• Contributions of FNMI Peoples to the World and the Importance of this to Equitable Education, and,
• FNMI Self-Esteem and Strategies for Respectful Inclusion in Lifelong Learning.

ptoulouse@laurentian.ca

Jin-Sun Yoon came to Canada as a child from South Korea and is keenly aware of being a settler on traditional Indigenous territories. This has led her to work collaboratively with racialized, queer, immigrant, refugee, and Indigenous youth and communities. Her students talk about how she radically changes their way of thinking by challenging them to expand beyond traditional western ideas. She is known to bring difficult social issues into her classrooms—whether on campus or in a virtual online class—but students still love to attend her classes. Many stay in touch with her long after they graduate, as they continue to seek her mentorship and collaboration on projects.

A Teaching Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care, Jin-Sun works to create kind, compassionate, informed, and globally-minded practitioners who will make a difference in the lives of children, youth, families, and communities in Canada and internationally. In the words of a colleague, “Jin-Sun helps all students to see themselves as that bright star to shine somewhere and somehow in their own lives and in the world.” This award-winning professor ignites a passion for social change that students carry with them into their professional careers and personal lives.