Teaching Assistants' Training Program

Jennifer Esmail, Coordinator, Academic Initiatives, Centre for Community Partnerships

Community-engaged learning courses integrate several key features, including community placements for students and reflection assignments, into academic for-credit courses in a variety of disciplines. As a teaching professional working in this field, you will face unique challenges and opportunities as you negotiate the needs of your students and the given community. While there are many variations on community-engaged learning, the dominant pedagogical approach to courses emerges from the pedagogy of “service-learning.” In this session we will cover the fundamentals of service-learning pedagogy, introducing participants to different strategies for engaging students and community partners as an instructor or TA in a community-engaged learning course. We will learn about when a community-engaged learning component works most successfully, and finally, address the creation and assessment of reflection assignments.