Program Overview
Stepping Stones: Foundations in Education is our foundational program at the Centre for Faculty Development (CFD). It provides support to health professionals in their multiple education roles and activities including teaching, education scholarship, advocacy and academic leadership. This introductory level program is aligned with other CFD programming which provides more advanced content in the same areas.
There are now two ways to engage with the Stepping Stones Program: (1) Stepping Stones and (2) Stepping Stones+.
Program Description
Stepping Stones: Foundations in Education is a 1-3 year program consisting of both workshops and a journal club. Program goals are:
- To promote growth and development of individuals in relation to their educational roles; and,
- To provide opportunities for educational networking and collaboration across caring and learning environments.
Workshops are offered on a variety of topics related to the roles and activities Stepping Stones supports – teaching, education scholarship, advocacy and academic leadership. Examples of topics include: clinical teaching, workplace based assessment, learning theories, curriculum development, mentorship, evaluation, equity and wellness. Stepping Stones follows a flexible, adaptive curriculum and participants choose to attend workshops that meet their needs and interests.
Journal club takes place once a month during Year 1 of the program. Journal club facilitates the integration of workshop content, the broader health professions education literature, and participants’ own education practice.
Program Structure
A new cohort of Stepping Stones: Foundations in Education participants begins every September. After you begin the program, you must complete the following requirements within three academic years.
Stepping Stones provides participants with 47 credit hours inclusive of monthly journal club in the first year and 9 workshops. All Stepping Stones participants who complete these requirements will receive a certificate of completion from the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) office.
1. Completion of 9 Workshops
To complete the workshop requirement, you must attend a minimum of 9 workshops within three academic years. Workshops are 3 hours in length, and are offered both in person and over Zoom. A list of Stepping Stones Stepping Stones topics offered during the two year program are listed here. We continually update this list in response to participant needs and environmental shifts. There are no mandatory workshops; participants are able to choose topics that best suit their interests and needs. Workshops are advertised and available for registration on a per term basis: October – December, January – March, April – June. Please click here to see current workshops offered this term.
2. Completion of Journal Club
You must complete the journal club requirement in the first year of the program. Journal Club is held virtually and runs monthly from September to June. You must attend 8 of the 10 sessions and complete 2 assignments in order to complete the Journal Club requirement.
Stepping Stones + extends the program to 80 credit hours, offering an opportunity for continued learning beyond the basic requirements. Participants in Stepping Stones + will attend an additional 11 workshops (for a total of 20 workshops) and will receive an advanced certificate of completion from the CPD.
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- How do I enroll in Stepping Stones+ ? First enroll in Stepping Stones. Once you have completed the 9 required workshops and met the Journal Club participation requirements, you may request to continue with Stepping Stones+.
- Additional Cost: Stepping Stones+ is available for an additional fee ($650.00). For more details, please contact the program coordinator.
Journal Club
The overall purpose of Journal Club is to acquire an appreciation of the breadth and depth of the health professions education literature; to learn how to critically appraise articles; to meaningfully integrate discussions in journal club to what is learned in workshops and participants’ own practice; and to build a community of health professional educators.
Journal Club is in the first year of the Stepping Stones program. Journal Club sessions are held monthly from September to June. Orientation (September Journal Club) is mandatory to attend. As mentioned above, there are two assignments within Journal Club, these details are below:
Assignment 1: Reflection Journal
After each Journal Club session, participants must make an entry in their Reflection Journal. This journal is meant to facilitate thoughtful connections between what participants are discussing in Journal Club, what’s being read in journal club, what participants are learning in workshops, and their practice. The journal will have 9 entries in total by the end of the year, the minimum to complete the program is 8.
Assignment 2: Co-facilitation of Journal Club
Participants partner with each other in their Journal Club site and prepare to co-lead the facilitation of two articles from October – May. The objectives of this assignment is for participants to:
- Work collaboratively with your co-facilitator
- Critically appraise the health professions education literature;
- Practice the skills of co-facilitation;
- Engage in dialogue with an inter-professional community;
- Thoughtfully consider how you might integrate what is presented and discussed in the article into your practice as educators.
Access and Inclusion Bursary
If you are a Senior Trainee or Fellow applying to Stepping Stones and need funding support, please email click here to apply for a discount.
Accreditation Details
- Certificate of Completion in Continuing Professional Development: 43.0 hours
The 2023-2024 Centre for Faculty Development Workshop Series has been accredited for up to:
- 63 College of Family Physicians of Canada Mainpro+ credits (Group Learning)
- 63 Royal College Maintenance of Certification – Section 1 hours
The 2023-2024 Stepping Stones: Journal Club has been accredited for up to:
- 20 College of Family Physicians of Canada Mainpro+ credits
- 20 Royal College Maintenance of Certification – Section 1 hours
Review complete accreditation details.
CFD Membership
You can save on tuition if you add-on CFD membership to your account BEFORE you apply. For more details on membership or to register, click here.
All Stepping Stones: Foundations in Education participants will be automatically enrolled as a CFD General Member for the academic year(s) you are in the program and in the academic year following completion of the program.
Program Team
Amanda is the Education Development Lead, Clinical Teaching and leads the Stepping Stones and Teaching & Learning in the Clinical Context programs. She is a clinician, researcher, and educator in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. She is an Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, and clinical manager of a Student-Led Environment at Holland Bloorview. Her program of research extends from years of experience providing interprofessional supports for neurodivergent children and their families.
Sarina is the coordinator for the Stepping Stones program at the Centre for Faculty Development. They started this role after they completed their Master of Education at OISE, specializing in Adult Education and Community Development. Sarina takes care of most of the coordination of Stepping Stones, from booking every workshop, to ensuring participants have everything they need to succeed within the program. In addition to handling the coordination of the program She also works with Lindsay to develop curriculum that addresses current health profession education topics and issues and other participant needs.
Meredith Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching Stream within the Physical Therapy Department at the University of Toronto and teaches in the neurological curriculum of the Master of Science in Physical Therapy (MScPT) program. She also is the Physiotherapy Academic Clinical Educator and Program Education Lead at Toronto Rehabilitation/University Health Network. In addition, she continues to practice clinically at Balance Physiotherapy. Meredith has also been involved in research related to racism and oppression. She is a graduate of the MScPT program at the University of Toronto and holds a Bachelors in Physiology from Michigan State University.
Sanne Kaas-Mason is an interprofessional educator whose research interests focus on the various ways that healthcare practitioners engage in interdependent work. She is interested in the spectrum of relatively stable or fluid ways that constellations of collaboration show up across healthcare spaces, and how these impact the delivery of care. This includes interprofessional ways of collaborating. She also explores how entrenched distributions of power, along with siloed understandings of illness and care, might influence collaborative practices of healthcare practitioners.
Tova has been working as a registered dietitian at St. Michael's hospital in acute care and critical care for the past 15 years. In addition to her clinical role, Tova has been teaching at George Brown College and Ryerson University at both the undergraduate and graduate level, supporting various future health professionals in their learning. Tova's clinical interests include gender sensitivity and inclusivity as well as clinical mentorship.
Stephanie Sliekers (she/her), MEd, is the Director, Simulation and Digital Innovation at Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is a leader and health professions educator focused on using simulation education and digital learning to create a more equitable and accessible mental health care system. As a Master’s student, Stephanie’s research focused on continuing education in the health professions. Her major research paper, “Written Assessments in Continuing Education: Examining the Tension between Constructivist Learning and Logical Positivist Evaluation,” was a driving factor in focusing her career on simulation and innovation in health care education. In her current role at CAMH, she manages Canada’s first Simulation Centre at a mental health hospital. She oversees CAMH Education’s digital innovation team, who develop and disseminate digital mental health education products, including online courses and podcasts. She brings to her work expertise in adult learning, education theory, instructional design, digital user experience/design, project management, and co-creation and co-design.
Jameela Lencucha is the Occupational Therapy Academic Clinical Educator and Interim Program Education Lead at Toronto Rehabilitation/University Health Network. She has been practicing clinically in acute care for over 15 years and currently is an OT in the Krembil Neurosciences Program at the Toronto Western Hospital. She has been involved in clinical education throughout her career within UHN and in the Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy program at the University of Toronto. She is interested in and committed to lifelong learning and adapting practice to optimize the learner experience.
Lynda is a pharmacist and Clinical Teaching and Learning Development Educator with the University Health Network (UHN). She completed a Master of Education in Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She is passionate about teaching and enhancing the experiences of learners in academic and clinical settings. Her current work involves partnering with learners at UHN, building their learning opportunities, and expanding their possibilities as future healthcare leaders.
Contact
Amanda Binns
Program Lead
amanda.binns@unityhealth.to
Sarina Iannelli
Education Coordinator
sarina.iannelli@unityhealth.to
Level: Foundational
Who should register: Open to anyone who is interested in learning about core concepts in health professions education.
Location: Online with select workshop offerings held in-person.
Program length: 1-3 years
Cohort size: 42 participants
Upcoming dates:
Registration opens March 1st.
New cohort starts every September.
Please click here to see our Upcoming Dates.
Fees*:
Non-member rate: $1125.00
Member rate: $1020.00
Please note: Fee covers both workshop and journal club components.
*Fees are subject to change.
CFD Membership is not the same as a CFD Account. CFD Membership is an ADD-ON. For the discounted member tuition rates above, register for annual General Membership here.
General membership is $90/year. It is free for Unity Health Toronto staff, physicians, learners, and patient/family partners and Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto staff, faculty (incl. status only) and learners.
Certificate: Participants will receive a certificate issued by the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Continuing Professional Development Office upon successful completion of the program.
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Upcoming Events
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18SepStepping Stones is our foundational program at the CFD, supporting health professionals in their education roles and activities including teaching, education scholarship, advocacy and academic leadership. -
29SepThe program is designed for people in an academic health science context who are committed to becoming change agents in their spheres of influence and beyond by centering principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, Indigeneity and accessibility in their leadership practice. This program is intended for those who are committed to challenging the status quo, and looking to develop tools, skills, and evolving practices to positively shape our future academic health sciences system. -
FAQs
Q. How do I create and/or activate my account to log into the site?
Q. Is there a cost to attend your programs?
A. There is a cost to participate in some of our programs. The cost of each of our programs varies and in some cases, the cost varies depending on your status with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at University of Toronto and/or in which hospital you work as well as whether or not you have an annual CFD Membership.
Q.I do not have a faculty appointment in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Can I still attend your workshops, programs and/or events? Is there a fee?
A. Anyone whose education activities include teaching, leading, scholarship and advocacy are welcome to attend our workshops, programs and/or events. Specific pre-requisite criteria may apply. Please refer to each workshop, program or event page for details. All fees and discounts (where applicable) can be found in the workshop, program and event pages.
Q.I am interested in having one of your workshops offered at my home site/department. Do you offer this type of service?
A. Please contact us for further information. The availability of this service is dependent on the resources and capacity of the CFD at the time the request is made.
Q: Is having a CFD Membership the same as having a CFD account?
A: No, a CFD Membership is not the same as a CFD account. However, in order to complete your CFD Membership registration you will be prompted to create a CFD account if you do not already have one. To register for a CFD General Membership and create your account click here.
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