Faculty Education Development Day

The annual Faculty Education Development Day was held on May 23 and brought together faculty and staff from across the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Led by the Faculty’s Education Office, the theme of this year’s development day was “sharing our work, learning from each other” and topics presented included curriculum mapping to address the ongoing opioid crisis, exploring novel preceptor models, and unpacking the professional identity of practicing pharmacists.

“The goal of our faculty education and development day is to learn about some of the great work that is happening in our faculty and inspire each other to grow as educators.” says Sandra Bjelajac Mejia, Interim Director, Professional Programs at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

Preparing our students for future learning

Lecturer and Teaching Award Winner Naomi Steenhof led the group through the differences between procedural and conceptual knowledge and how conceptual knowledge helps future pharmacists to continuously build knowledge as they move through their careers. “Education must prepare future experts,” Steenhof said. “We need to start students thinking about a problem, then provide teaching that will compare their solutions with those of experts.” Building conceptual knowledge elevates the “why” over the “what” and helps to lay the groundwork for adaptive, innovative expertise.

Teaching tips

“This is an opportunity to hear about teaching innovations from across the Faculty and a chance to share ideas and lessons learned throughout the academic year,” says Dave Dubins, associate professor, teaching stream, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Professor Dubins’ participated in a presentation that focused on how to publish books, encyclopedias and online resources. “The day was fun and there was a lot of energy in the room. We really put a big magnifying glass on teaching itself, which was very valuable.”