By Sonja Klotz (The Cascade) – Email
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As many people around the world know, May 4 was “Star Wars Day” — Star Wars fans greeted each other with the phrase, “May the ‘fourth’ be with you.” Meanwhile, here at UFV there was a different kind of “force” stirring for UFV’s Professional Development Day (PDD). This was a day set aside for the university’s faculty, staff, and administrators to learn about some of the ways to strengthen the university, both professionally and academically.
“We host an annual event for all faculty, staff, and administrators to participate in a variety of professional development activities,” says Claire Hay, associate professor in the geography & environment department and coordinator of PDD. “This year we have 32 unique workshops running, facilitated by staff, by faculty on topics that are professional in nature.”
These workshops focused on teaching strategies, finance planning for events, classroom branding, and social media development strategies. Hay says that, by gathering together to connect on the same topic, the usual division of labour at UFV could be set aside.
“I’ve seen connections between people who would not normally talk to each other or meet each other in our jobs here at UFV, so this way we built connections, and hopefully those continue,” Hay says. “Teaching and learning opportunities for all of the staff and faculty will hopefully steamroll from here.”
This was clearly evident in the more than 277 participants that attended the day’s event.
One of the more popular workshops that was attended was the student panel, where staff and faculty had students talk about their ideal university, ideal instructor, and ideal classroom.
“The student panel was about getting the student perspective on how they felt with things [and it] was interesting to see from their perspective … how it’s different from an instructor’s,” said Grant Fritzke, a lab instructor in the chemistry department. For example, he learned that “Students do not like group work. As they get higher up in the disciplines, they want to have an ability to be more involved with their instructors and their research projects.”
Although there seemed to be many people who had positive experiences with the workshops overall, there were some who seemed somewhat skeptical of the workshops they attended. Rajnish Dhawan, assistant professor for the English department, shared some mixed feelings about the entire day.
“It’s been a mixed bag,” said Dhawan. However he, like Fritzke, also noted the valuable lessons that were learned at the student panel workshop. “We’ve had the student’s panel, which was very interesting, the students were able to be open about their ideal instructor. Their good experiences and their not-so-good experiences.”
With that said, however, he also experienced some bumps along the way, specifically pertaining to the keynote speaker, Jan Unwin, superintendent of graduation and student transitions with both the Ministries of Education and Advanced Education. Unwin spoke about how the Ministry is modernizing its approach to learning, as seen in new K-12 curriculum, and how that will impact schools and jobs in the future.
“Her ideas were definitely interesting, but there were a few questions that popped into my mind, and I’m sure they’ve popped into other people’s minds,” Dhawan says. “[This is] especially with regards to the funding model for the kind of idea that she was presenting. But then we didn’t get enough time to talk about that.”
Overall, people from various departments, positions, and backgrounds were able to connect, learn, and grow from these workshops. To top it off, the event ended with a happy hour featuring complimentary wine and snacks.
