Teaching Events

Teaching Commons Conference 2024

Join us for the Teaching Commons Conference 2024 – Cultivating Connection. Friday, May 10.

Registration and more information
Stanford
Teaching Commons

TEACH Conference 2022 Call for Proposals

Sustainable Teaching and Learning: TEACH Conference 2022

The Call for Proposals has closed. Thank you!

Overview

Sustainability is a crucial concept of our age, in education no less than in the world at large. As we return from the pandemic, let us use this time to focus our thinking on what we all have learned about, and what we can contribute to, sustainability in education.

This in-person conference aims to convene work in pedagogy around three major aspects of sustainability:

  1. Sustainable Practices of the Pandemic. What breakthroughs, major or incremental, did we discover in the pandemic, and how can they be perpetuated as the return to campus continues? What improvements were made? What practices, urged by necessity, turned out to benefit teachers and students? Let us share and think collectively to figure out how the lessons of these difficult years inform the future of education.

  2. Sustainability for the Planet. As Stanford pioneers the new School of Sustainability, and as the urgency of climate change looms on every side, what can education contribute to these historic efforts? How can we amplify the effects of education and research-based information on the broader world? What practices are being developed at the intersection of disciplines that teach topics of sustainability?

  3. Sustainable Work in Teaching. Traditionally, teaching in higher education has been an evanescent art: a class happens, the students learn, and then the class is gone. Is it possible to remove the built-in obsolescence of education? What can we do to preserve and benefit from the teaching of each class? What good work is happening to capture the experiences of courses, to iterate and improve them across quarters and across departments? And, in a time of overwhelm and burnout, what are the possibilities for reducing all of our work by treating the teaching materials of each class as a precious and revisable outcome?

Who you are

We welcome all applicants involved in teaching at Stanford: faculty, course instructors, teaching assistants, and staff involved in course design and teaching support. Instructors and staff from all Stanford schools, as well as online teaching programs, are invited to apply.

TEACH Conference

The TEACH Conference will be held in person on Friday, April 22, 2022, from 8:00 AM to 4:15 PM at Paul Brest Hall at Stanford's main campus.

Please note that this conference is entirely in-person. 

Session formats

All sessions are either 45 or 75 minutes.

Prospective facilitators may propose sessions of the following types:

  • Workshop: A highly interactive session where participants experiment, practice, create, and reflect.
  • Roundtable Discussion: A facilitated group conversation on a specific theme or topic.
  • Collaborative Working Group (possible additional time commitment after the conference to be determined by participants): Opportunity to identify potential collaborators for a resource-development, writing, event, or programmatic project.
  • Pedagogy Demonstration: Facilitators walk through a particular assignment or activity they have designed, highlighting the what, how, and why. A good opportunity to share the integration of a particular academic technology tool.
  • Lightning Talks (5 minutes): Short talks that focus on asking a big question or sharing a big idea. They should aim to stimulate, inspire, and spark conversation. You will be grouped into a longer session with other lightning talk speakers.

Proposal guidelines

The proposal form will ask you to submit:

  1. Name(s), email(s), institution(s), and position title(s) of proposed presenters.
  2. A Title.
  3. An Abstract of 75-100 words. This will appear on the conference website, so write it to your intended participant audience.
  4. A list of one to three Learning Goals for your session.
  5. Your preferred Session Length (75, 45, or 5 minutes).
  6. Your preferred Session Type (see above for more information).
  7. A Session Description of no more than 300 words. Provide an overview of what participants will learn or experience by attending your session. Depending on your session type, you may want to outline the activities planned, describe the problem or challenge your session is interrogating or solving, address why this topic is relevant now, or explain how you think other teaching professionals will benefit. 

Session descriptions will be evaluated according to: 

  • Alignment with the learning goals of the conference
  • Feasibility of format and length for the proposed session type
  • Opportunities created for educators across disciplines to talk to each other, take away new teaching tools, or launch new collaborations

Proposal due by 5pm on March 21