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Reducing Epilepsy-Related Stigma: Teachers' Implementation Of An Epilepsy Education Program, Gayle Michelle Gibson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis presents an investigation of teachers’ implementation of Brain Matters, an education program designed to reduce the stigma associated with epilepsy. Five local Grade 12 Biology teachers were interviewed to examine their implementation and consistent with previous research, a multilevel ecological framework was used to understand the factors affecting their implementation. The findings indicate that there were three factors that worked to either facilitate or limit teachers’ implementation of Brain Matters: pedagogical content knowledge and beliefs, characteristics of the resource, and professional development. The results of this study offer developers of stigma-reduction programs insight into the challenges …