The Teaching and Curriculum Development Centre (TCDC) has grown over the past year, and we now have more curriculum development consultants (CDCs) who can support faculty and departments with their curriculum projects.
So, who are the CDCs and what do we do?
What We Do
Curriculum Development, Assessment & Renewal
Curriculum consultants are faculty members who support and guide departments with curriculum development, assessment and/or renewal projects. We work with departments that are interested in developing new credentials or courses or looking for ways to assess and enhance the programs and courses they currently offer. During program review, we assist departments with developing/updating learning goals, program and course learning outcomes, and curriculum maps. But this type of work doesn’t need to wait until program review; we are happy to work with departments anytime on their curriculum assessment planning and/or renewal projects.
Course Design & Planning
We are also available to help individual instructors who would like support with course planning, assessment or assignment design, or strategies for using more engaging instructional activities in their classes.
Teaching & Learning
Finally, we support instructors in their professional development efforts by researching, developing and disseminating resources related to teaching and learning. Throughout the year, we develop and facilitate workshops, often in collaboration with our colleagues in EdTech, and we explore and share teaching tips and strategies through TCDC guides, toolkits, book clubs, and the Academic Innovation newsletter.
Who We Are
Full-Time Curriculum Consultants
Natalie Knight, PhD
Natalie is Yurok from northern California and Diné (Navajo) from New Mexico. She has interests and experience in facilitating discussions about decolonizing education, supporting Indigenous students, and blending Indigenous knowledges with Eurocentric knowledge.
Carmen Larsen, M.Ed, GCert in Instructional Design
Carmen taught in the fields of EAP and teacher education for many years before coming to TCDC. She has a specific interest in exploring ways to apply research from the cognitive and education sciences to improve all aspects of instructional design. As a settler working on the unceded traditional territory of the Musqueam Nation, she is keen to learn more about decolonizing education and her own practice.
Shawna Williams, M.Ed
Shawna has several years’ experience teaching in EAP classrooms and has been an instructor in teacher education programs since 2013. She is interested in investigating instructors’ continuing professional development journeys, and is particularly keen to assist departments with developing curriculum assessment plans.
Part-Time Curriculum Consultants
Sarah Bowers, M.A.
Along with her CDC work, Sarah is also the department chair of TCDC and EdTech and an EdTech Advisor. Her areas of interest are research- and evidence-based teaching and learning and one of her passions is dispelling neuromyths in educations.
Jessica Kalra, PhD
Along with her work in TCDC, Jessica is also an instructor in Biology and Health Sciences. She has a specific interest in applying evidence-based pedagogical principles and Indigenous ways of knowing to science curriculum. Her current areas of research in teaching and learning include universal design for learning and assessment design to address academic dishonesty.
Mirabelle Tinio, M.A., Maîtrise en lettres
Mirabelle has taught French at Langara for the past 15 years. She is interested in exploring cooperative and experiential learning techniques, ways of integrating metacognition in the classroom and teaching students study skills. Currently, she is developing core competencies with her articulation committee and researching ways to assess intercultural competence.
If you’d like support with your upcoming curriculum project, please email us at TCDC@langara.ca.
