2025 Vancouver Community College Teaching, Learning and Research Symposium

March 3 & 4, 2025 9:00am-3:30pm (PST)

VCC Teaching, Learning, and Research Symposium 2025:
Teaching and Learning with Heads, Hands, and Hearts

Join us at the VCC Teaching, Learning, and Research Symposium, a dynamic space designed to inspire, connect, celebrate, and deepen learning among educators, staff, students, researchers, administrators, and others in post-secondary education. As a community college dedicated to inclusivity and accessibility, our symposium is free of cost to participants and fully online.

Theme: Teaching and Learning with Heads, Hands, and Hearts

Indigenous pedagogy practiced since time immemorial centers holistic learning through attending to the mind, body, spirit and heart, and fosters learning in relationship with connection to community and to land (First Peoples Principles of Learning). Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, a Swiss educator (1746-1827), advocated for a pedagogy of holistic, integrated and experiential learning through heads, hands and hearts. Universal design for learning emphasizes providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression to accommodate diverse learners’ needs. All these approaches share a common goal of creating inclusive, holistic, and student-centered learning environments.

For the 2025 Teaching, Learning, Research Symposium, we invite proposals on creating inclusive and holistic experiences that honor diverse ways of knowing and learning.

Key topics related to this theme:

  • Indigenous pedagogies
  • Inclusive learning, accessibility, and universal design for learning
  • Student and educator well-being
  • Experiential learning
  • Land-based and place-based learning
  • Authentic assessment
  • Preparing students for emerging needs and opportunities
  • Students as partners in teaching and learning
  • Ethics of technology; educational technology in teaching and learning (including but not limited to generative AI)

Proposals for the following types of session are welcome: 

  • 45 minutes (interactive session)
  • 30 minutes (20 min presentation + Q&A)
  • 10-minute lightning talk

Proposal Submission Form >>
Proposal Deadline: November 29, 2024.

Registration and keynote speaker information to come.

We hope that you will join us March 3-4, 2025, for this exciting virtual symposium. We look forward to seeing you there!  

If you have any questions or require further information, contact IASupport@vcc.ca

“Effective learning environments pay attention to the whole learner, including the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual aspects of the person. Understanding the holistic nature of life- the interrelationships among all parts of who we are and how we are connected to everything around us – is foundational to Indigenous knowledge about effective teaching.”
- Jo Chrona, Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-Racist Education, pg 127.

 

You can review past symposium contents here.