Education Commons^™

Strategies For The Social Inclusion Of Peers With Learning Difficulties: Perspectives Of Adolescents In Various Birth Order Positions, Sarah Lynne Breckenridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

While inclusive education has become common practice, adolescents with learning difficulties still tend to be socially excluded by their peers. Whether sibling birth order affects the way adolescents include students with learning difficulties is a limited area of research. By conducting semi-structured interviews with high school students, the present study aimed to explore beliefs about how peers with learning difficulties may be socially included, examining accounts from oldest, youngest and middle siblings. Through content analysis, 4 main themes were identified: (a) academic interventions, (b) group events and activities, (c) student-driven initiatives, and (d) creating awareness (about learning difficulties). Chi square …

A Research-Based Educator's Guide To Auditory Processing Disorder: Does It Improve Teachers' Confidence?, Danielle M. Fletcher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Auditory processing disorder (APD) occurs in an estimated 5-10% of the population, yet many educators are unaware it even exists, let alone have confidence in how to support students in their classroom with this disorder. With a shortage of professional resources and training for teachers about APD, many educators struggle to understand the disorder and know what strategies and interventions to implement to help students with APD. After reading a guidebook of research-based information about APD specifically designed for educators, it was hypothesized teachers’ confidence levels in working with students with APD would increase. Forty-three participants responded to the initial …

Keynote. Leadership And Research In Turbulent Times: Why They Matter For Democracy, Pamela Bishop

Western Research Forum

Engaging in leadership and research can be complex work in the best of times—for graduate students and professors alike. During times of conflict, confusion, or disorder, the nature of our leadership or research contributions can be additionally shaped or tested in ways that require highly astute responses. Sound leadership and research are part of what underpins the fuller functioning of a democracy, whether manifest in a community, university, or workplace setting. Most students who graduate will be well positioned to take up careers where they provide leadership and create or use evidence in concert with others, over the coming decades. …

A Qualitative Study Of The Fidelity Of Implementation Of An Evidence-Based Healthy Relationships Program, Deborah G. Chiodo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This case study examined the factors that are important to successful implementation of a violence prevention program, The Fourth R Program, in one school district in a large, urban city in Alberta, Canada. Teachers, school administrators, and a school district program coordinator participated in a structured interview. Students in Fourth R classes participated in a focus group. The interview focused on potential facilitators and barriers to implementation and perspectives on fidelity and adaptation of the Fourth R program in the classroom. The focus group focused on students’ experience, responsiveness and self-reported knowledge of program content. Teachers completed a survey at …

Anger Is Very Ugly: Results From A Classwide Socio-Emotional Skills Program, Kathleen Michelle Bond

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In school-aged children, healthy development of socio-emotional processes improves cognitive, social, and psychological well-being and promotes school and life success (Goleman, 1997; Mayer & Cobb, 2000; Greenberg, 2004; Zins & Elias, 2006; Brackett, Rivers & Salovey, 2011; Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger et al., 2011). However, despite the number of evidence-based socio-emotional programs, issues in implementation and sustainability are present among school boards and districts (Greenberg, Weissberg, O’Brien, Zins, Fredericks, et al., 2003). The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a socio-emotional skills program on emotional literacy in grade three students. Using applied thematic analysis, …

Exploring Mental Health In Justice Involved Youth: Relevance For Policy And Practice, Angelina Sarah Maclellan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the past two decades, awareness of the prevalence of mental health problems in young offenders (ages 12 to 17 years) has grown, with estimates suggesting significantly higher rates compared to the general population. While experiencing poverty does not cause crime, recent research drawing from the Social Psychology of Crime suggests that individuals who experience poverty tend to live in adverse social environments, which can facilitate exposure to modeling and/or reinforcement that is related to antisocial behaviour. In the present study, archival data were drawn from 281 young offenders’ files from an urban-based court clinic to examine how the youth’s …

Universal Design For Belonging: Living And Working With Diverse Personal Names, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

There is great diversity in the names and naming practices of Canada’s population due to the multiple languages and cultures from which names and name-givers originate. While this diversity means that everyone encounters unfamiliar names, institutional agents who work with the public are continually challenged when attempting to determine a name’s correct pronunciation, spelling, structure and gender. Drawing from over a hundred interviews in London (Ontario) and Montréal (Québec), as well as other published accounts, I outline strategies used by institutional agents to manage name diversity within the constraints of their work tasks. I explain how concern with saving face …

Healthy Relationships And Wellbeing Among Youth Offenders, Amanda J. Kerry

Healthy Relationships Plus Program Implementation Study

Historically, the perception of youth offender treatment programs was “nothing works” (Andrew & Bonta, 2010). Fortunately, we have since shifted from that view and current research suggests that effective programs for youth offenders should aim to reduce re-offending by targeting multiple risk factors and promoting the development of healthy, prosocial skills. Consistent with the effective ingredients of programming, the Fourth R and HRPP programs target multiple risk factors (i.e., substance use, risky sexual behaviour) and promote social and cognitive skill building (i.e., communication skills, help seeking). The goal of this research project was to examine the feasibility and fit of …

Teen Relationship Violence And Wellbeing Among Lgbtq+ Youth, Alicia A. Lapointe

Healthy Relationships Plus Program Implementation Study

Many LGBTQ+ youth experience mental health challenges (e.g., depression, anxiety, self-harm, attempting or dying by suicide, etc.) due to homophobia, heterosexism, heteronormativity, transphobia, cissexism, and cisnormativity, and other interlocking oppressions (e.g., racism, colonialism, ableism, sexism, etc.). Due to prejudicial attitudes and beliefs, LGBTQ+ youth may experience interpersonal issues with family members, peers, classmates, co-workers, etc. The HRP for LGBTQ+ Youth was designed to support queer, trans, and gender diverse youth as they navigate and cope with LGBTQ+-based oppression. Since youth groups and GSAs are ‘safer’ venues for LGBTQ+ youth to find support and develop relationships with like-minded folks, they are …

The Healthy Relationships Plus Program: National Implementation Summary, Claire Crooks

Healthy Relationships Plus Program Implementation Study

There is a clear need for evidence-based approaches to promote mental health and prevent violence among youth. These programs need to be flexible enough to be implemented in diverse settings. Ideally, they would also address multiple outcomes at once. We know that there is a significant overlap among violence, substance misuse, and unhealthy sexual behaviour (i.e., the adolescent risk triad). These problem behaviours are linked in several ways: they co-occur, they share risk factors, and they frequently emerge within the context of dating and peer relationships. More recently, researchers have identified mental health as an issue that overlays all of …

Western Guide To Working With Teaching Assistants, Erin E. Fraser, Kevin Morse, Natasha Hannon, Karyn Olsen, Nanda Dimitrov

Purple Guides

This guide offers valuable strategies for working effectively with both tutorial and laboratory TAs, preparing TAs for grading, managing TA teams, mentoring TAs as junior instructors, and more.

Tools For Integrating Computational Thinking And Mathematics In The Middle Grades, Immaculate Kizito Namukasa, Minakshi Patel, Marja Miller

Education Publications

Integrating computational thinking (CT) in teaching specific K-12 school curricular is a more recent development than teaching CT in university and college courses. In this article, we share some insights on teaching practices that support integrating introductory computational thinking activities with school curricular activities for middle grades students. We specifically reflect on the tools and materials to use when integrating computational thinking concepts and mathematics curricular concepts in grade 4-8 classrooms. In this paper, we refer to integration of computational thinking concepts and mathematics curricular concepts as CT and mathematics.

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Phrase-Focused Exercises. A Partial Replication Of Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, And Webb (2014), Frank Boers, Tu Cam Thi Dang, Brian Strong

Education Publications

In a recent article, Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, and Webb (2014) deplored the lack of effectiveness for the learning of verb-noun collocations of a number of exercise formats which they sampled from EFL textbooks and put to the test in a series of quasi-experimental trials. The authors called for further investigations into possible improvements to such exercise formats. The present article is a response to that call. It also addresses methodological issues which may have affected Boers et al.’s (2014) findings and which rendered their conclusions tentative. In the quasi-experiment reported here, EFL learners were given fill-in-the-blank exercises on verb-noun phrases …

Measuring Productive Semantic Associational Knowledge Of The Most Frequent Words, Alireza Barouni Ebrahimi

Education Publications

Associational vocabulary knowledge is associated with writing and speaking skills. These skills are essential for EAP students who express themselves in oral presentations or written assignments. Therefore, diagnostic measurement of associational vocabulary knowledge is of vital importance, especially in regard to the most frequent 1,000 word families that cover 81% and 85% of written and spoken text. This study measured 46 Iranian EAP students’ productive semantic associational knowledge of words at the 1,000 word frequency level. The findings indicate that while participants had productive form-meaning knowledge of the words, they did not seem to have extensive semantic associational knowledge of …

Language Planning, Farahnaz Faez, Shelley K. Taylor

Education Publications

English users speak many different mother tongues (L1s) and a variety of “Englishes.” They use English for different (cross-cultural and/or international) communicative purposes, depending on their contexts, needs, and their own unique “plurilingual” backgrounds (discussed in Part III). In many of today’s globalized societies, mobility and change are key features. Language planners, multi-national stakeholders, and transnational individuals affected by mobility and change view English as crucial to their interests, and frequently claim it as their own. English also has imperial and (post-) colonial legacies; hence, many localized forms of English have been developed and are used internationally, making English a …

Ipads And Paintbrushes: An Exploratory Case Study Of Integrating Digital Media As Placed Resources Into An Intergenerational Art Class, Rachel Heydon, Lori Mckee, Bridget Daly

Education Publications

This exploratory case study integrated digital media as placed resources into an intergenerational art class. Its goals were to generate knowledge of how to bring young children and elders together to expand their opportunities for meaning making and seeing themselves in affirming ways so as to generate transferable understanding of digitally-enhanced multimodal curricula across the lifespan. Participants included 15 elders and 9 pre-schoolers. Focusing on how the digital media were used and with what implications for participants’ literacy and identity options as well as relationship building, data were collected through ethnographic methods, and a qualitative thematic analysis with multimodal elements …

The Common European Framework Of Reference (Cefr) In Canada: A Research Agenda, Stephanie Arnott, Lace Marie Brogden, Farahnaz Faez, Muriel Péguret, Enrica Piccardo, Katherine Rehner, Shelley K. Taylor, Meike Wernicke

Education Publications

This article proposes a research agenda for future inquiry into the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in the plurilingual Canadian context. Drawing on data collected from a research forum hosted by the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers in 2014, as well as a detailed analysis of Canadian empirical studies and practice-based projects to date, the authors examine three areas of emphasis related to CEFR use: (a) K-12 education, including uses with learners; (b) initial teacher education, where additional language teacher candidates are situated as both learners and future teachers; and (c) postsecondary language learning contexts. …

Critical Language Awareness, Shelley K. Taylor, Collette Despagne, Farahnaz Faez

Education Publications

In the latter half of the 20th century, applied linguists, dissatisfied with the positioning of language teaching, called for a multidimensional curriculum to reframe teaching (about) languages, be they first or heritage languages (L1s or HLs); English as a second, foreign or international language (ESL, EFL and EIL); or other foreign languages (FLs). Their dissatisfaction stemmed from languages being viewed in isolation (like linguistic silos), an overemphasis on teaching the four skills in a discrete (unintegrated) manner, and decontextualized grammar and vocabulary teaching. Out of this discontent grew the notion of “language awareness,” with language awareness pedagogy implemented in the …

Two Years Of Relationship-Focused Mentoring For First Nations, Métis, And Inuit Adolescents: Promoting Positive Mental Health, Claire Crooks, Deinera Exner-Cortens, Sarah Burm, Alicia Lapointe, Deb Chiodo

Education Publications

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) youth are disproportionately affected by a range of negative health outcomes including poor emotional and psychosocial well-being. At the same time, there is increasing awareness of culturally-specific protective factors for these youth, such as cultural connectedness and identity. This article reports the findings of a mixed-methods, exploratory longitudinal study on the effects of a culturally-relevant school-based mentoring program for FNMI youth that focuses on promoting mental well-being and the development of cultural identity. Participants included a cohort of FNMI adolescents whom we tracked across the transition from elementary to secondary school. We utilized data …

Influential Factors In Lexical Richness Of Young Heritage Speakers’ Family Language, Khadijeh Gharibi, Frank Boers

Education Publications

Abstract

Aims and objectives: This study investigates the extent to which young heritage speakers’ oral narratives in L1 differ from monolinguals’ narratives with regard to lexical richness (lexical diversity and lexical sophistication). It also explores which demographic factors (age, age at emigration and length of emigration) and/or sociolinguistic factors (frequency of heritage language use and parental attitudes towards heritage language maintenance) account for the differences.

Data and analysis: The participants were a group of 25 young speakers of Persian as a heritage language, who were either born in or emigrated to New Zealand, and a group of 25 monolingual counterparts …

International Service-Learning: Rethinking The Role Of Emotions, Marianne A. Larsen

Education Publications

Existing research on international service-learning (ISL) only implicitly alludes to emotions or considers emotions as a limited vehicle through which the more important work of learning occurs. This study set out to shift this focus on emotions to show how emotions are an integral part of the overall ISL experience. The aim was to understand how an ISL internship was an emotional experience for the student participants through the lens of noncognitive process theory of emotions. This was a qualitative case study of the experiences of 10 university students who engaged in an ISL internship in East Africa. Data collection …

Singing Our Song: The Affordances Of Singing In An Intergenerational, Multimodal Literacy Program, Rachel Heydon, Lori Mckee, Susan O'Neill

Education Publications

This exploratory case study examined singing as a multimodal literacy practice within ensembles that featured art, singing and digital media produced in an intergenerational program that served a class of kindergarten children and community elders. The program that was set up by the study in collaboration with a rural school and home for seniors, saw participants meet one afternoon a week for most of a school year. Study questions concerned the meaning making and relationship-building opportunities afforded to the participants as they worked through chains of multimodal projects. Data were collected using ethnographic tools in the seniors’ home where the …

Curriculum As Social Practice: The Case Of Fukushima, Kathryn Hibbert, Penelope Engle-Hills, May Abdel-Wahab, Rethy Chhem, Ari Hasegawa, Atsushi Kumagai, Pisith Phluong

Education Publications

Despite the persistent threat from disasters to human health worldwide, meaningful lessons in preparedness are rarely integrated into the health professional curricula of those likely to be first responders. Although core competencies in disaster management have been identified, little is known about how to translate those competencies into multiple curricula across diverse groups who must function together in complex, emotionally charged conditions. In an unprecedented collective response, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (Chhem & Abdel-Wahab, Vienna, Austria) worked with the first medical responders (Hasegawa & Kumagai) at Japan’s Fukushima Medical University (FMU) on a project led by educational scholars …