Education Commons^™

Leveraging Oer And Open Pedagogy To Promote Edi In The Classroom, Sam Cheng

Publications and Scholarship

In the context of promoting equity for students, the open educational resources (OER) movement has shifted from just cost savings to addressing the larger issue of decolonizing education and promoting social justice for marginalized students. Studies suggest a lack of inclusiveness and diverse perspectives in educational materials despite the diverse demographic of students in post-secondary institutions. Open education advocates have argued that students need “windows and mirrors” to fully engage in their learning – course content they can relate to and content that offers different perspectives from their own.

This research paper is the author’s capstone project for the 2022-2023 …

Contributing To A National Early Learning And Child Care System In Canada: An Environmental Scan Of Early Childhood Policy And Programs, Yalin Gorica, Yasaman Jalali-Kushki, Mei Wang, Jennifer Conforzi

Publications and Scholarship

As the federal government aims to establish a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system with all provinces and territories, the significance of having a trained and qualified early childhood education (ECE) workforce is paramount to ensuring the provision of high-quality child care services to children. The shortage of qualified early learning and child care staff across the country calls for more research and program development to understand the complex issues of recruiting, supporting, and retaining qualified ECE professionals in the field. This environmental scan presents an opportunity for researchers to conduct a comprehensive review of current research trends and …

Sdg Progress Report 2023, Marian Traynor

Publications and Scholarship

The SDGs provide a universal and ambitious framework for addressing the world’s most urgent challenges. The SDGs aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all global citizens by 2030 and they require significant traction in the next seven years to meet their targets. As institutions at the forefront of knowledge access, dissemination and mobilization, academic libraries are uniquely positioned to support and advance sustainable development through their collections, services, and programming, as well as through their operational practices at the heart of campus.

In 2021, Sheridan became Ontario’s first institution to sign the SDG …

Professional Learning On The Neuroscience Of Challenging Behavior: Effects On Early Childhood Educators’ Beliefs And Practices, Angie Rosati, Jacqueline Lynch

Publications and Scholarship

How early childhood educators understand and interpret the challenging behavior of children will affect how they respond and influence student-teacher relationships. While recent neuroscience explains how challenging behavior can be understood as an automatic response to neurophysiological stress, this research is seldom shared with early childhood educators who generally report lacking tools to manage child behavior and may interpret all challenging behavior as a willful act. This mixed method study examined the effects of a 2-day professional learning (PL) program regarding the neuroscience of child behavior on early educator beliefs and practices in regard to challenging behavior. Pre-post analysis of …

Artificial Intelligence In Libraries, Sandra Shoufani

Publications and Scholarship

This is the second of two reports written for Sheridan Library management that explore technologies in support of advanced computing within libraries. It provides an overview of artificial intelligence technology, presents current use-cases in post-secondary education and libraries, and explores opportunities for adoption, partnerships and library-adjacent uses of AI by academic libraries.

Best Practices For Conducting Virtual Focus Groups, Rosanne Brown

Publications and Scholarship

This paper briefly traces focus groups from its origins, through its development from in-person to virtual platforms, which are more commonplace today. The terms online and virtual are used interchangeably in the research literature. In this paper, the term virtual is used to describe focus groups that are face-to-face using technology that incorporate audiovisual features. This paper begins with a description of the origins and purpose of focus groups, the purpose, and how they have evolved to include synchronous, and asynchronous online text-based, and virtual face-to-face focus groups. Next, the paper outlines the role of the facilitator. Comparisons of best …

Learning Analytics: A Foundation, Patrick Molicard-Chartier, Kyle Mackie, Michael Carrigan

Publications and Scholarship

This Community of Practice presentation explores some of the foundational concepts related to learning analytics. We discuss how the analysis of learner data can be used to help instructors take a proactive approach to learner assessment, feedback, and guidance; an approach that aligns and inspires data-informed decision-making, informing future pedagogical action and intervention in the spirit of continuous enhancement. This scholarly presentation defines Learning Analytics; identifies the tools available in SLATE that produce actionable learner data; and discusses the ethical implications of measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners.

The Art And Science Of Self- Reflection, Kristina Arena, Paula Ogg, Ala’ Alhyari, Jason Dennison, Rabya Razi, Simran Kaur Johal, Seden Yesildag, Wafa Benmahmoud

Publications and Scholarship

Sheridan College students from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year of the Child and Youth Care (CYC) program participated in an innovative project to co-create a rubric for self-reflection assignments which is a significant skill in both academic and professional practice. Students co-designed this self-reflection rubric for use throughout the program for assessment in all self-reflection assignments rather than having a different rubric for every assignment. The students went through many steps to ensure the rubric had intra-rater and inter-rater reliability. We followed rubric best practices for criteria, levels, and descriptors. The extensive design thinking process of discussion and consultation resulted …

Review Of Academic Skill Programs At Post Secondary Institutions & Designing Impactful Academic Supports For International Students, Sheela Iyer, Joan Sweeney-Marsh

Publications and Scholarship

This paper presents a review of academic skills programs at post-secondary institutions and offers three options for designing impactful academic supports for international students, including Option A: Modules/Workshops; Option B: General Elective Course; Option C: Mixed Model Solution. This review was informed by the Academic Preparedness Plan prepared by Joan Sweeney Marsh, Marian Traynor and Danielle Palombi.

Athletes, Opioids And The Athletic Therapist, Jacqueline Vandertuin

Publications and Scholarship

Elite-level athletes often identify with the “athletic role” and embody personality characteristics associated with it. As such, athletes often have a “play at all costs” mentality which creates significant issues when injured. Frequently, athletes will play through pain and injury and rely on pain-relieving medication (PRM) to allow continuation of play. This reliance can pose significant risks to the athlete, including addictions to PRM and prevent the health care providers (HCP) from accurately assessing injuries. In 1995, pain was identified as the “fifth vital sign”, ensuring that physicians recognize the importance of pain management. This resulted in pharmaceutical companies expediting …

International Education Policymaking: A Case Study Of Ontario’S Trillium Scholarship Program, Amira El Masri

Publications and Scholarship

This paper explores Ontario’s international education policy landscape through illuminating the discursive struggles to define international student funding policies, in particular the international doctoral students’ Trillium Scholarship. Adopting Hajer’s (1993, 2006) Discourse Coalition Framework, the study engages with three research questions: What paved the way to this funding policy? Who were the actors engaged in this policy landscape? How has the argumentation over this policy influenced the international education policy context in Ontario? Argumentative discourse analysis was used to analyze three data sources: news articles, policy documents, and interviews. Two storylines were identified: international student funding is desirable and beneficial …

Examining Academic Integrity Using Course-Level Learning Outcomes, Angela Clark, Jamie Goodfellow, Sandra Shoufani

Publications and Scholarship

This paper describes a comprehensive review of academic integrity across course-level learning outcomes for all courses at one institution. The authors developed a taxonomy based on The International Center for Academic Integrity’s (ICAI) fundamental values of academic integrity to audit course-level learning outcomes for evidence of academic integrity instruction. Approximately 23% of the 3379 courses examined demonstrated a clear component of academic integrity and instruction varied across Faculties and levels of study. The study provides insights into academic integrity instruction and opportunities for academic institutions to better understand, utilize, and integrate academic integrity instruction into their courses and programs.

Dealing With Disruption, Rethinking Recovery: Policy Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic In Higher Education, Amira El Masri, Emma Sabzalieva

Publications and Scholarship

This paper examines policy responses in higher education in the months of March and April 2020 during the rapid unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose is to map responses and compare levels of coordination between three actors—the Canadian federal government, the Ontario provincial government, and Ontario’s publicly funded colleges and universities—and to consider the policy implications of these initial responses for higher education’s future recovery from the pandemic. Conceptualizing COVID-19 as both a wicked problem and, in the Canadian context, a complex intergovernmental problem, the paper draws on over 200 data points from public announcements made by these three …

6 Models For Blended Synchronous And Asynchronous Online Course Delivery, Heather M. Farmer

Publications and Scholarship

This article proposes six models of blended online course delivery, ranging from a highly supported faculty-guided model to an independent self-paced model.

Applying A Holistic Approach To Contract Cheating: A Canadian Response, Emma J. Thacker, Angela Clark, Andrea Ridgley

Publications and Scholarship

This paper traces the development of a contract cheating action plan, introduced by the Academic Integrity Council of Ontario (AICO), Canada. The action plan offers a holistic response to contract cheating, involving multiple and diverse stakeholders from postsecondary education. Created by an AICO subcommittee, three of its founding members detail the action plan and provide a perspective on its strengths, challenges, and ongoing implementation.

Developing A Practice Of African-Centered Solidarity In Child And Youth Care, Peter Amponsah, Juanita Stephen

Publications and Scholarship

What does it mean to be an ally? More specifically, what does it mean to do the work of allyship in support of Black young people and families? As educators, researchers, and practitioners in the child and youth care field, we seek to initiate a conversation pertaining to the epistemological make-up of child and youth care practice and the movement towards persistent and intentional solidarity work as a framework for cross-racial engagement. Through a series of critical questions, this paper seeks to deconstruct the taken-for-granted practices of White Eurocentric allyship in favour of a new vision for the future of …

Internationalizing Teachers’ Preparedness: The Missing Link In Ontario’S Strategy For K–12 International Education?, Roopa Trilokekar, Amira El Masri

Publications and Scholarship

While the need to internationalize teacher education is recognized by scholars and practitioners, little attention is paid to the role of policies and policy makers in supporting this endeavour. This study focuses on the enactment of Ontario’s K–12 international education strategy by examining four key policy actors—the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Ontario College of Teachers, school boards, and Faculties of Education—and their role in realizing (or not) the internationalization of teachers’ preparedness. A siloed approach, conflict in policy messaging, overlooked policy alignments, and weak policy framing result in weakening the relevance and importance of the internationalization of teachers’ preparedness …

Research Guidelines With Indigenous Peoples, Sheridan Research, Centre For Indigenous Learning And Support

Publications and Scholarship

“Research is important to reconciliation in the creation of a national memory” (Senator Murray Sinclair, National Dialogue, 2019).

This document is designed to provide Sheridan faculty, staff and students with suggested practices to guide their research when working with Indigenous Peoples and to establish a set of standards to ensure that all research activities are undertaken with care and respect.

When it comes to research, colonialism and cultural genocide have created a history of mistrust for Indigenous Peoples in relation to the intentions of non-Indigenous Peoples. These factors have led us to develop guidelines, applications and processes in order to …

Passionate About Early Childhood Educational Policy, Practice, And Pedagogy: Exploring Intersections Between Discourses, Experiences, And Feelings...Knitting New Terms Of Belonging, Pam Whitty, Monica Lysack, Patricia Lirette, Joanne Lehrer, Jane Hewes

Publications and Scholarship

We are five early childhood researchers, from across Canada, thrown together amongst a series of alarming discourses, where developmental, economic, and neuroscientific rationales for ECEC drown out alternative theoretical perspectives, as well as personal experience, values, subjective knowledges, and the fierce passion we feel for our work. In the midst of this “throwntogethness” (Massey, 2005), how do we bring our situated knowings and desires to these discursive material relational mashups? How do we engage with the throwntogetherness that is the Canadian ECEC field as we knit together alternative ways of being, doing, and acting, figuring out what resonates in localized …

Power, Politics, And Education: Canadian Universities And International Education In An Era Of New Geopolitics, Roopa Desai Trikokekar, Amira El Masri, Hani El Masry

Publications and Scholarship

This paper focuses on the recent political spars between Canada and Saudi Arabia as well as China and their impact on Canadian universities. It asks three questions: (1) What key issues did Canada’s political strains with Saudi Arabia and China raise for Canadian universities’ international education (IE) initiatives and what issues were absent? (2) What do these key issues suggest about Canada’s approaches to IE in an era of new geopolitics? and (3) What implications can be drawn from these cases about Canadian university-government relations in the context of new geopolitics? Given the powerful role media plays in education policy, …

International Education As Policy: A Discourse Coalition Framework Analysis Of The Construction, Context, And Empowerment Of Ontario's International Education Storylines, Amira El Masri

Publications and Scholarship

This study aims to examine the international education (IE) policy-making context in Ontario for the period from 2005 to mid-2017 while also taking into account the announcement of the new policy document Ontarios International Postsecondary Education Strategy 2018. It sets out to answer three research questions: (a) How is international education constructed as a policy discourse in the postsecondary sector in Ontario? (b) Who are the policy actors who are contributing to the postsecondary international education policy-making process in Ontario? and (c) What role do they play in influencing IE policy and empowering and silencing different discourses? To answer these …

Cultures Collide! Enhancing The Student Record Through The Lens Of Academic Integrity, Sylvia Kogut, Danielle Palombi, Angela Clark

Publications and Scholarship

Records Management in the Office of the Registrar and the Academic Integrity Office in Library and Learning Services worked together to centralize academic integrity data by creating a customized application in PeopleSoft that stores academic integrity remediation status, sends reminder emails to complete remediation, sends student and faculty status of incomplete remediation and stores breach record(s) and supporting documentation gathered from the investigation process. Records can be accessed by administration and program support staff and can assist in decision making as it pertains to sanctioning and appeals. Next steps include storing a reflective piece from students on what was learned …

Successful Models For Enhancing International Students’ Academic Success: Research And Recommendations, Joan Sweeney-Marsh, Kathleen Oakey

Publications and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tracing The Landscape: Re-Enchantment, Play, And Spirituality In Parkour, Brett D. Potter

Publications and Scholarship

Parkour, along with “free-running”, is a relatively new but increasingly ubiquitous sport with possibilities for new configurations of ecology and spirituality in global urban contexts. Parkour differs significantly from traditional sports in its use of existing urban topography including walls, fences, and rooftops as an obstacle course/playground to be creatively navigated. Both parkour and “free-running”, in their haptic, intuitive exploration of the environment retrieve an enchanted notion of place with analogues in the religious language of pilgrimage. The parkour practitioner or traceur/traceuse exemplifies what Michael Atkinson terms “human reclamation”—a reclaiming of the body in space, and of the urban environment …

Learning To Be Effective Allies To Indigenous Communities: Perspectives From The Sheridan College Community - Research Report, Bethany Osborne, Ferzana Chaze, Elijah Williams

Publications and Scholarship

In Our Voices: Sheridan’s Indigenous Community and Allies is an arts-based research project conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Indigenous Learning and Support at Sheridan College. The larger research project from which these findings emerged was focused on the dual purposes of understanding how the Sheridan community views the role of an effective ally to Indigenous communities and to highlight stories of strength, resilience and discovery of Sheridan’s Indigenous community members. The research was funded by a Sheridan College SRCA growth grant. This study received ethics approval from the Sheridan Research Ethics Board in May 2018. Data collection began …

Tutoring Through The Lens Of Translingualism, Stephanie Samboo, Danielle Palombi, Sarah Sinclair, Kathleen Oakey

Publications and Scholarship

This presentation explores how Sheridan College’s Tutoring Centre, in collaboration with ESL and Communications faculty, is building capacity for a meaningful culture shift in how our Tutoring Centre addresses multilingual learners.

Inspired by Translingualism research, faculty members collaborated with our tutors to deepen their understanding of Student needs and enrich the tutors’ practice through exposure to SoTL literature and Translingual approaches.

Translingual Theory argues for an approach that (1) honors the power of all language users to shape language to specific ends, (2) recognizes the linguistic heterogeneity of all users of language both in the United States and globally, and …

Tutoring Through The Lens Of Translingualism, Stephanie Samboo, Danielle Palombi, Sarah Sinclair, Kathleen Oakey

Publications and Scholarship

This presentation explores how Sheridan College’s Tutoring Centre, in collaboration with ESL and Communications faculty, is building capacity for a meaningful culture shift in how our Tutoring Centre addresses multilingual learners.

Inspired by Translingualism research, faculty members collaborated with our tutors to deepen their understanding of Student needs and enrich the tutors’ practice through exposure to SoTL literature and Translingual approaches.

Translingual Theory argues for an approach that (1) honors the power of all language users to shape language to specific ends, (2) recognizes the linguistic heterogeneity of all users of language both in the United States and globally, and …

Teacherless: The Futures Of Design Education, Andrew Hladkyj

Publications and Scholarship

With the ever-growing disruption of education by technology and the trend toward self-directed and autonomous learning, how might we reimagine legacy postsecondary design education in a “teacherless” society? Through a human-centred examination of today’s educational environment, this Major Research Project (MRP) derives 20 aspirational motivations at the heart of an independent

learning model. It reframes the disconnect between design academia and industry using an ’80s computer game and a Greek myth as fresh paradigms to uncover the value of strategic partnership, addictive learning, and platform-agnostic foundational training in preparing post-secondary design education for the future. This research offers four alternative …

The Student Experience: Engaging In Cultural And Economic Shifts In Higher Education, Danielle Palombi

Publications and Scholarship

This research essay explores culture and economics as dynamics of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and their relationship to the invigoration of the student experience in higher education. The way in which academic institutions critically engage in the student experience is arguably essential for thriving in a VUCA world because its function as a cultural differentiator in the competing higher education marketplace, the response it provides to changing student demographics, and the effort needed to retain and graduate students in higher education institutions.

Academic Preparedness (4p Model): A Framework For Delivering Student Academic Supports At Sheridan, Joan Sweeney-Marsh, Danielle Palombi, Marian Traynor, Kathleen Oakey

Publications and Scholarship

No abstract provided.