Faculty and Academic Staff
Enrich your teaching and research, and build a meaningful, sustainable academic career.
UCalgary Continuous Learning Model
Continuous Learning Model
The best faculty leaders are lifelong learners. Learning may happen through structured professional development, but just as often it emerges from reflective teaching, peer dialogue, collaborative research, or resources that continue to inform our practice over time.
The UCalgary Learning Model organizes development across four areas — Work, People, Formal, and Resources — with Personal Reflection & Application at the center. Use this framework to build a well-rounded development plan that fits your role, your goals, and the way you learn best.
Explore the resources below and consider how each area can strengthen your practice.
ON THE JOB
Develop your academic and professional practice through the work you do every day.
Learning through work is particularly effective when:
Learning through work is particularly effective when it strengthens professional judgement and decision‑making confidence, especially as academic, professional, or leadership roles evolve or expand in scope. It is well suited to preparing for additional responsibility, such as program leadership, committee chairing, or broader institutional service, and when learning needs to occur alongside ongoing teaching, research, service, or administrative responsibilities, rather than through separate or time‑intensive programs.
This approach should be used with care when workload is unsustainably high, when expectations or decision‑making authority are unclear or shifting, or when there is limited opportunity for reflection, dialogue, or feedback. Learning through work is most effective when opportunities for stretch are intentional, bounded, and supported, rather than continuous or incidental.
Practical ways to learn through your work
Learning through work develops capability by using everyday academic and professional responsibilities as opportunities for growth. This can include taking ownership of decisions, leading meetings or agenda items, representing your unit in cross‑faculty work, or moving from executing tasks to proposing options.
As experience deepens, development may also come from leading small initiatives, taking on new stakeholder relationships, collaborating across units, or navigating work where direction is still emerging. The most effective learning comes from well‑timed stretch, supported by reflection, feedback, and clear expectations—more stretch is not better.
THROUGH OTHERS
Learn and grow through connections with colleagues, mentors, and academic communities.
Learn by connecting with others and learning through relationships
When learning through others is the right choice
Learning through others is particularly effective when navigating new, ambiguous, or high‑stakes academic or institutional situations, and when insight is needed into how to approach a challenge, not only what action to take. It is especially valuable as professional confidence, academic leadership presence, or role identity is still developing, and when decisions benefit from perspectives beyond one’s immediate role, unit, or discipline.
This approach should be used with care when interactions lack a clear learning purpose, when time is spent connecting without reflection or follow‑through, or when learning depends primarily on informal access rather than intentional engagement. Learning through others is most effective when there is clarity of learning intent and purposeful engagement with colleagues, mentors, and professional networks.
Practical ways to learn through others
Learning through others supports development by drawing on experience, professional judgement, and diverse perspectives across roles, disciplines, and units. This can include asking peers how they approached a complex decision, observing meetings outside your usual context to understand decision‑making approaches, or comparing how different individuals respond to similar challenges.
Development may also occur through more intentional engagement, such as participating in mentoring relationships, joining communities of practice related to current challenges, seeking feedback from multiple perspectives, co‑leading work with others, mentoring colleagues, or representing your unit in broader institutional initiatives. Learning through others is most effective when engagement is purposeful and insights are applied in practice, rather than remaining purely conversational.
Resources Available
FORMAL EXPERIENCES
Build your knowledge and skills through courses, workshops, and certificates.
Learn through structured programs, courses, conferences, and academic programs
When to consider formal experiences
Some learning benefits from structure. Formal learning is especially valuable when a shared academic or professional language, framework, or standard is needed; when complex concepts benefit from guided instruction or scholarly grounding; when credentials or formal study strengthen credibility or professional effectiveness; and when exposure beyond one’s discipline or institution prompts reflection and new perspective.
However, formal learning alone does not change practice. Meaningful development occurs when learning is intentionally connected to teaching, research, service, or leadership work, applied soon after learning, and accompanied by reflection on what changes and what does not.
Structured learning, academic programs, and professional events
Formal learning supports the development of specific skills, shared frameworks, and professional capability when learning is chosen with purpose and connected to real academic or institutional work. At UCalgary, this includes curated workshops and learning pathways through People & Culture (ULearn), non‑credit certificates and courses through Continuing Education, and undergraduate or graduate academic programs that provide theory‑informed, rigorous, and credentialed learning.
Formal learning is most effective when it is aligned to current responsibilities or future scope, integrated with ongoing work, and followed by intentional application and reflection. Conferences and professional events can also be valuable when they align with role priorities, expose participants to external thinking, and lead to concrete application or knowledge sharing afterward. Without this integration, formal learning risks remaining a standalone activity rather than contributing to sustained academic and professional growth.
Resources Available
The Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning
Academic Leadership Academy
RESOURCES AND TOOLS
Strengthen your academic practice with on‑demand resources, libraries, and tools.
Resources
Policies and Procedures
Faculty/Unit Specific Resources
Cumming School of Medicine
The Office of Faculty Development is your go-to resource for growth, support, and connection at the Cumming School of Medicine.
Faculty of Social Work
Professional development opportunities offered by the Faculty of Social Work to enhance practice in mental health and human services.
What You Can Explore Next
Contact & Support
Our programs are managed by a range of faculties, departments, and external partners, each with their own dedicated team. Connecting directly with the right contact is the quickest way to get the help you need. For more specific support, see the resources below.