Expanding the Classroom: Integrating Archives & Special Collections into Teaching & Learning

About this event

This session will focus on the importance of primary source research in the development of student’s critical thinking and analytical skills. We will outline the ways in which primary sources can be actively integrated into courses in a variety of disciplines, and explain how the Library’s Archives and Special Collections (ASC) can support instructors in this process. We will cover a variety of possible hands-on, active learning activities and assignments that can be developed with the ASC using our collections to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities for students.

As students learn to engage with archival material, they also gain a critical understanding of silences and biases in collections and how to navigate different sources of information. By the end of the session, participants will be able to list the benefits of primary source research literacy for students, examine their own course for opportunities to incorporate primary source learning for their students, and be able to identify collections and types of assignments that would be appropriate for their discipline.

Facilitated by:

• Tanis Franco, Archivist, TMU Libraries
• Holly Forsythe Paul, Special Collections Librarian, TMU Libraries