This study involves the program evaluation of the "Conversations About Education" pilot, developed as a community collaboration to offer professional development involving participants from a Faculty of Education, local school partners, and community organizations offering programming to Newcomers to Canada. The program sought to provide…

This paper presents an overview and discussion of a course based remediation model developed to enhance student learning and increased retention based on literature. This model focuses on course structure and course delivery in a compressed semester format. A comparative analysis was applied to a pilot study of students enrolled in a course…

Several authors have suggested that educational institutions have a responsibility to foster creativity in their students. Yet, research has shown that creativity is a variable concept that can mean different things in different fields and contexts (Kaufman & Baer, 2005). As a result, generic pedagogical techniques for developing creativity…

Recent Ontario provincial and federal education policy developments propose to increase the academic success of an ever increasing number of First Nation children attending urban and First Nation schools. Key to achieving that goal is increasing the number of Aboriginal educators who are skilled in teaching that is grounded in culturally…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP), created in the field of international schools in the late 1960s, has made considerable in-roads into publicly-funded schooling in many educational jurisdictions of the Anglo-West. Although the IBDP did not enter into the Ontario public system until 1991, there are now forty-four (and growing)…

This paper explores how a small group of associate teachers (i.e., the classroom teachers who host, supervise, and mentor teacher candidates during practicum placements) accessed and interacted with the Associate Teacher Learning Tool (ATLT), a web-based learning tool created specifically for this new group of users. The ATLT is grounded in…

As an oral culture, Aboriginal ways of knowing and learning come through practice and practical application first, rather than through theory or text. For Aboriginal students, the Western methodological approach to learning theory first, poses a counterintuitive near insurmountable roadblock, particularly in science. This paper presents the…

Given the present pace of educational globalization, educators--especially in rural schools--will benefit from an awareness of traditional knowledge as a significant contributor to sustainability. Many countries operate through a system whereby major decision making, especially in such areas as education and health, emanate from state levels of…

Background: Canadian Aboriginal youth have poorer diet quality and higher rates of overweight and obesity than the general population. This research aimed to assess the impact of simple food provision programs on the intakes of milk and alternatives among youth in Kashechewan and Attawapiskat First Nations (FNs), Ontario, Canada. Methods: A pilot…

The new Québec curriculum is different from other curriculum reforms in that it is based on a competency approach, both cross-curricular and disciplinary. It thus means a move from knowledge-based to competency-based assessments which represents a real challenge to parents who may find it hard to understand learning assessments and their child's…

Several recent documents and presentations, most but not all from the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education, suggest that considerable changes are being floated as options for redesigning inclusive educational approaches in the BC K-12 public education system. The documents include: (1) "The BC Education Plan"; (2) "Global…

This paper describes the results of a pilot project designed to improve students' academic writing in a large (200-student) first-year Agriculture class at the University of Saskatchewan. In collaboration with the course's professor, the Writing Centre coordinator and a summer student designed curriculum for four two-hour Writing Group sessions…

Although earlier research has examined the potential of portfolios as assessment tools, research on the use of portfolios in the context of second-language education in Canada has been limited. The goal of this study was to explore the benefits and challenges of implementing a portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA) model in Language…

My action research investigation into place-conscious writing practices invited experienced Non-Aboriginal teachers from the Northwest Territories to think through writing practices that might engage Northern students, many of whom are Indigenous. In this paper, I will focus on what the teachers had to say about the influences of aspects of…

The aim was to develop a Challenge Module (CM) as a proposed adjunct to the Gross Motor Function Measure for children with cerebral palsy who have high-level motor function. Items were generated in a physiotherapist (PT) focus group. Item reduction was based on PTs' ratings of item importance and safety via online surveys. The proposed CM items…