The nature and effects of PBLA were investigated. I examined LINC program evaluations, government-solicited assessment reports, PBLA research, and other PBLA-related documents. I discuss the features of PBLA and its reported effects on language outcomes and teacher and student attitudes. I found that the government did not provide a rationale for…

Grading practices at Dalhousie University have changed considerably over the past 120 years. From 1901 until the early 1970s, Dalhousie used a variant of the British system. Initially, a grade of 65% or higher was required for distinction. In 1937, Dalhousie moved to a 2-category system (Distinction vs. Ordinary Pass) and in 1942 the distinction…

For learners to be individuals equipped with the 21st-century skills when they start business life after graduation, they must be able to gain these skills during their education. However, due to their nature, it's not possible for students to acquire these skills under a specific course. For these skills to be achieved, they must be integrated…

Plagiarism continues to be an issue in postsecondary contexts. This paper discusses how educators can take a proactive stance to prevent plagiarism and cultivate students' sense of honour and academic integrity, rather than focusing on punitive consequences after plagiarism has already occurred. Strategies include assessment design, formative…

Using a focus group format, 20 teachers working in elementary and secondary schools were interviewed from 2 school districts in southern Ontario, Canada about their understanding and use of formative assessment. Analysis of the interviews followed a constant comparison method and revealed a variety of emerging themes. Results suggested an…

Stories contain the wisdom of the world, teaching cultural values. Story builds community, celebrates cultural diversity, and preserves cultural identity. Where truth has been suppressed, story is an instrument of epiphany; story builds literacy skills and develops metaphorical understanding. A storytelling center in Ontario, Canada, had been a…

The aim of the study is to examine family-school collaboration in terms of parents' appreciation of the school report card and their knowledge and understanding of teachers' role and assessment practices. Exactly 125 parents of elementary level students, all members of the Provincial Parents Committee completed the questionnaire and answered a…

Twenty-five years ago, American sociologist Robert Neelly Bellah (Bellah, et al., 1986: 303) critiqued the growing isolation of intellectuals within universities and called for a return to "social science as public philosophy." Little seems to have changed. My thirty-seven year experience at the University of Alberta suggests that…

This project proposal designs an empirical based study to assess student and faculty satisfaction in graduate distance education counselling programs. The proposed study includes two satisfaction surveys and associated administrative protocols. The surveys were developed based on the Sloan Consortium definition of satisfaction (Moore, 2002; 2005)…

Today education is internationalization. Both China and Canada have their own strong merits of higher education. This paper approaches comparative studies on differences of Sino-Canadian higher education from new points, so as to achieve an inspiration to the development of Chinese higher education: preserve relative independence between higher…

Background: iCCAN (Innovative Communities Connecting and Networking) is a not-for-profit provincial network of videoconferencing sites creating unprecedented learning opportunities and greater access to training and professional development for all Albertans, regardless of where they live. Led by a partnership of Community Learning Network,…

In this paper, the author described how a model of teaching critical thinking couples with the development of learning objects may help respond to broader calls for critical thinking both as a central goal in education and as a key aspect in the ecology of 21st century e-learning environment. The model developed by the Canadian Critical Thinking…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2013, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 to 3 of June. Education, in a global sense, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and acts. One of the…

This project provides a comprehensive overview of the research literature on problem gambling in adults and includes a detailed mindfulness-based psychoeducational group manual for problem gambling, complete with an extensive group counselling consent form, assessment and screening protocols, 10 user-friendly lesson plans, templates for a…

This paper is a self-study in which a university teacher educator studies her practice. She creates a space for alternate ways of representing forms of knowledge from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Indigenous, and for their accreditation in the Academy. As she develops a way of thinking that is appropriate for getting closer to…