The City of Kitchener is the largest city in Waterloo Region in the province of Ontario, the third fasting growing region in Canada, yet it has only one air quality monitoring station. Our research group launched a pilot project in September 2020 to install a network of AQMesh multisensor mini air quality monitoring stations (pods) near elementary…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been called an educational catastrophe. It caused massive disruptions in education, learning loss for students, and massive increases in teacher workloads, stress, and health-related issues. There were significant issues of student disengagement and rampant cheating on assessments. This paper looks not at the huge…

In this article, the relatively new phenomenon of integrating coding and computer science (CS) related concepts and skills into the K-8 grades is analysed through a comparative analysis of related provincial curriculum initiatives in Canada. First, provincial K-8 curricula that include coding and CS related concepts and skills are identified, as…

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components…

This comparative study examines the extent to which the 21st-century skills are integrated into the 4th and 8th-grade public school science curriculum in Canada in relation to that of the United States of America (USA) by analyzing the 4th and 8th grade Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes of Canada and the 4th and 8th grade Next…

Canadian schools have implemented initiatives in response to the Calls to Action that accompanied the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report. This paper aims to address two questions that speak directly to these calls. How have these initiatives been implemented in Canadian classrooms and affected educational practices? How do…

A risk-averse philosophy and practice towards children playing and learning in natural surroundings predominates many parts of the educational world. In schooling, the concepts of risk and risk management have created the false impression that there's something inherently dangerous about learning in natural surroundings. The purpose of the current…

This paper reflects my journey, as a racialized settler and K-12 practitioner in British Columbia, Canada, towards developing a pedagogical understanding of how to transform the experience of inherited colonial shame among settler children in my classroom. Canada has a shameful history of colonialism, the progressive revelations of which provoke…

Purpose: This paper aimed to examine moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels in physical education. Method: A review of reviews was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The screening process, data extraction, assessment of the risk of bias, and analysis of the…

In this article, we explore how children of late elementary to middle school age, from low-income communities in an East-Central metropolitan area of Canada, described their interests in and attitudes toward science in an out-of-school science club program. We used the children's descriptions of emotional engagement to gain insights into the…

In social groups, such as school-based peer networks, youth often vie for power and dominance over others. Different strategies may be used to gain power (i.e., coercive and/or cooperative strategies), and with varying levels of success. Using a social networks approach, we examined whether and how social network centrality and social network…

Autonomy -- acting volitionally with a sense of choice -- is a crucial right for children. Given parents' pivotal position in their child's autonomy development, we examined how parental autonomy support and children's need for autonomy were negotiated and manifested in the context of children's independent mobility -- children's ability to play,…

Whereas developing meaningful connections with students has long been documented as critical for promoting classroom engagement, teachers' differing motives for building relationships with students remain underexplored. This study examined teachers' social achievement goals from a multidimensional perspective in relation to teachers'…

Motivation is a crucial aspect of learning, particularly in the field of music. For decades, motivation for learning music has been a much-discussed subject, and yet its influence still remains a convoluted issue. This study systematically analyses peer-reviewed English language studies, according to PRISMA guidelines, in order to understand how…

In this study, we enacted critical participatory action research (CPAR) within an online community of practice (CoP). The CoP was designed to build a community of outdoor play and learning (OPAL) practitioners. This paper describes how a cohort (n=18) of experienced Kindergarten to grade eight (K-8) teachers from across British Columbia shared…