Refining Your Research Question & Exploring SoTL/TAR Methods – June 4, 2024

TAR Workshops are designed to give interns authentic teaching experiences and to apply their understanding of evidence-based teaching practices in the classroom or in an informal science education or outreach setting. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, together with their teaching partner, identify a challenge to student learning in the classroom, develop new teaching resources or approaches, and test if this new approach did improve student learning.

This series of workshops will prepare applicants of the TAR program to implement an educational research project in their discipline regardless of previous experience. Those who are not intending to submit a TAR application but are interested in developing their understanding of SoTL research are also welcomed to attend.

Interested students can devise their own TAR projects, or can create TAR projects around existing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects (see the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund project descriptions and faculty proposed TAR projects for existing projects). Eligible teaching partners are UBC faculty or instructors, local college instructor, or outreach partners.

All UBC graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are eligible according to the program requirements outlined below can apply for a TAR project. Applicants whose application are accepted will be able to conduct their project as TAR Interns.

The TAR Awards are open to graduate students & postdocs, with graduate students needing to be in their second year of study.  The award is $3000.  The TAR Awards application opens on May 13 and closes on July 2 at 11:59 pm. Results of the award will be shared by August 1.

Program Requirements:

The requirements for a successful TAR project include:

1. Completion of CIRTL Associate status
2. Application and acceptance to the program, including a teaching-as-research proposal, developed in cooperation with the partner.
3. Pre-TAR planning course through CIRTL@UBC or CIRTL-Central.
4. Participation in an internship with the faculty or instructional partner(s). TAR Interns and partners collaborate to define a teaching and learning question and devise, implement, and evaluate a solution for improving participant learning.
5. Writing a reflective statement and a final short summative report.

There will be five pre-TAR workshops being held on the following dates and times. Please register for the session(s) that you will be attending separately.

• Epistemology of  SoTL/TAR | May 29, 11 am – 1 pm | Online
• Refining Your Research Question & Exploring SoTL/TAR Methods | June 4, 10 -11:30 am | Online
• BREB & SoTL Research Ethics | June 11, 2 – 3:30 pm | Online
  • (pre-work recommendation: finish the BREB Mandatory Ethics Course, approximately 4 hours)
• Accessing the SoTL Literature | June 18, 10 – 11 am | Online
• Drop-In Application Help Session | June 28, 10 – 12 | Multi-access: online or in-person at Irving K Barber, CTLT room 216

For more information visit:

TAR in general: https://cirtl.ubc.ca/get-involved/cirtl-practitioner/tar-internship/

TAR Graduate Student Award: https://cirtl.ubc.ca/get-involved/cirtl-practitioner/tar-graduate-award/