UNews - education professor

U of L study shows middle school literacy program improves reading skills and motivation

caroline.zentner — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 17:15:31 +0000

A three-year study by Dr. Robin Bright (BASc ‘79, BEd ‘82, MEd ‘88), a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge education professor, shows middle school students who sometimes struggle with reading can become engaged and motivated readers with the right resource materials and a focused approach.

Typically, literacy is a focus of elementary education as children learn the basics of reading.

“We lose that focus somewhat in middle and high school or else it just falls to the English teachers. What makes this study groundbreaking is that teachers from all subject areas committed to wanting to learn how literacy will make the work they do as teachers better,” says Bright.

The study came about after Bright was contacted by Dean Hawkins, principal at Wilson Middle School in Lethbridge. Teachers at the school told Hawkins they wanted to focus on literacy because their students didn’t seem interested in reading, and achievement scores showed some were reading at a primary school level.

“Not everybody is a great reader by the time they get to middle school or even likes reading,” Bright says. “The teachers at Wilson were most interested in increasing students’ motivation for reading and engagement and felt reading achievement would naturally follow.”

Hawkins adjusted the school’s timetable to allow for a six-week long literacy program with 50 minutes of instruction each day. Bright offered professional development to the teachers to help them teach reading. However, finding the right resources for middle school students proved to be a challenge.

“They need resources that are going to be fun and applicable to their lives and they also needed activities that would be interesting and worthwhile,” she says.

Such literacy resources are expensive so teachers either borrowed them or created their own. Each year the school applied for a grant from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation to help them buy the needed resources. Their application paid off this year when the school was awarded $125,000 over three years.

In each year of the study, Bright measured the effect of the literacy option by administering a questionnaire to a random sampling of students in each grade level and surveying teachers about their students’ motivation.

“The results show that, through the literacy option, children got the message from their teachers that they can learn to succeed in literacy. Even if they’re struggling readers, they still believe they can learn to read and learn to love reading,” says Bright.

The teachers also observed that their students seemed very excited about the literacy option and were more interested in reading.

The study was published last fall and Bright has since been contacted by a number of teachers and schools asking for her assistance in setting up a literacy program. This summer, she will present the results of her research in Vienna at the European Literacy Conference.

Bright will continue working with the school for the next three years, continuing to provide professional development, to act as a resource person for purchasing materials, and to measure the impact of the grant by surveying students, parents and teachers yearly.

An apple and a brain

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:19:40 +0000

At the central Alberta school where Melissa Pasolli (BEd '91) works as a special-education coordinator, there's a little girl with Down syndrome who studies with kids just a year younger. For the most part, she follows along when the group learns simple math or works on art projects. If a lesson goes beyond her capabilities, she does a special project with a teaching assistant.

Pasolli is a firm believer in including kids with learning disabilities, however mild or pronounced, in a regular classroom.

"As long as I see that there's an increase in knowledge or skills, I feel the classroom is the proper place," says the U of L alumna. "Kids with different learning abilities can both learn with each other and from each other, especially where social skills are concerned."

But Pasolli knows it can be tough for teachers, who don't often receive formal education about learning disabilities but are increasingly required to work with kids who have them. That's why she's glad to hear of a new U of L program designed to fill in the knowledge gaps for teachers encountering students with learning and behavioural issues.

Drs. Bryan Kolb and Nancy Grigg.

"Just accepting the idea that not every student learns the same is huge and can only make you a better teacher," says Pasolli.

The U of L's new Inclusive Education and Neuroscience Master of Education program is the first of its kind in Western Canada. When the program launches in 2011, it will bring educators and neuroscientists together, and put brain-based neuroscience research directly into the classroom.

Dr. Nancy Grigg, education professor and program co-ordinator, explains that it's only in the last five years that efforts have begun to bridge the gap between neuroscience and education. "There's a deeper understanding of how the development of parts of the brain relates to how kids learn, and how specific regions relate to certain deficits in areas such as comprehension, concentration and memory," she says.

With this awareness, teachers can use more effective methods of intervention to help children with learning disabilities develop strategies that compensate for their weaknesses by relying on other, and better-developed, cognitive processes.

But just as the development of the brain affects how kids learn, the way they learn can influence how the brain develops, explains Dr. Bryan Kolb, a world-renowned researcher at the U of L's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience.

"Using the right interventions can make a tremendous difference," he says. "Children are like sponges. They soak things up as they go along and this changes their brains. Different experiences put kids on different trajectories."

Kolb stresses that the U of L's new master's degree will focus on neuroscience principles and how they relate to teaching, rather than hard science.

"There's no reason for teachers to know all of the details of molecular neurobiology. It's about knowing what it means and how to translate it to the classroom," says Kolb.

For Alberta teachers, the creation of the new program couldn't come at a better time as the challenges teachers face continue to grow. "We're serving more children, and children from more diverse backgrounds with different needs," says Grigg.

The program will also come into being around the time Alberta Education's new Setting the Direction Framework comes into place, which requires schools to take all children, regardless of any special needs, and place them in regular classrooms.

"All teachers will be dealing with learning and behavioural needs," Grigg says. "Our goal is to have a direct impact on improving how teachers can help their students."

For a look at the full issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Rethinking history

trevor.kenney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:50:23 +0000

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a long-awaited formal apology to the Canadian Aboriginal community for the abuse suffered in the government-funded church-run residential schools that were phased out in the 1970s after more than a century of operation.

It also proved to be a day of personal significance for U of L education professor Dr. Brian Titley, who has spent the last three decades researching and writing about Aboriginal history.

"I was very moved when I watched the national apology on residential schools because I realized that 30 years ago a government apology could not have happened because nobody had written a thing about it. History needed to be rewritten and reinterpreted," says Titley.

His book, A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada (1986), was among the first to be written in Canada about Indian policy.

"Up until the 1970s, our history in Canada had been very much about nation building, great men, railways and Vimy Ridge," says Titley. "Historians then began writing about the history of women, the working class, minority groups and Aboriginal people. These writings played an important role in educating the public."

A critical historian, Titley has devoted his career to challenging conventional wisdom. His list of published books and articles reads like an epic story that journeys through time, exploring the cultural fabric, political climate and religious circumstances of numerous countries at different points in history.

In addition to the administration of Indian Affairs in Canada, he has covered many controversial topics, including the role of the Catholic Church in the Irish education system and that of France in its former African colonies.

As a newly appointed ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar, Titley has chosen the history of Magdalen asylums in North America as the subject for his next line of research.

First and foremost, however, Titley considers himself an educator – a teacher of teachers who aims to inspire his students so that one day they'll inspire their own.

"I've always tried to explain to my students that as historians we must go back and understand origins to realize why the present is the way it is."

Flexibility keys success

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:12:36 +0000

When it comes to choosing graduate students, education professor Dr. Thelma Gunn looks for smart, enthusiastic people willing to take the lead on their learning experiences.

Gunn's expectations are high, but she understands work and family demands on students. Sometimes life happens, and that's why flexibility in both the program and the supervisor is essential.

"In education, many people taking master's degrees are teachers. They need to work and they want to work – that's what they do: they're teachers," Gunn says.

A number of students in the program hold down jobs throughout the province and Canada. For example, Gunn's student, Krysta Wosnack, is completing the second year of her master's degree while working in St. Albert. Wosnack is the epitome of an independent learner, and one of four graduate students in the Faculty to earn the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Co-supervised by Gunn and Calgary-based resiliency expert Dr. Wayne Hammond, the Master of Education in Counselling student will spend the next year interviewing adolescents in foster care and residential treatment programs. Her thesis will explore better ways of fostering resiliency in these at-risk young people. Wosnack will ask the kids, as well as their caregivers, what they need to be happy.

"I think a lot of the time we only look at care workers and we don't get the youth perspective," says Wosnack.

The U of L's Master of Education program is offered both online and in an on-site stream, but even on-site students are allowed to complete their thesis year elsewhere. Fortunately, technology – like e-mail and video-conferencing – makes this possible.

"We have to be more flexible, but flexibility is inherent in all the technologies
we currently use," Gunn says.

Japan Study Tour holds special significance

trevor.kenney — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:04:34 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has been sending students on Japanese study tours for more than 20 years, but you would be hard-pressed to find two students more appreciative of the opportunity to visit Japan than cousins Aaron and Taryn Tamayose.

The duo will accompany education professor Dr. Lance Grigg as part of the 15-student group selected to participate in the Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ exchange program. Fourth-generation Japanese, or Yonsei, the two will finally realize a lifelong dream of visiting their ancestral homeland.

"This trip is an opportunity of a lifetime, and there's no words to explain how excited I am to be a part of this with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and my cousin," says Aaron, a psychology major.

"I feel very strongly about my heritage, I like to express it, and what better way to learn a little bit more about the culture?"

Their grandfather's family moved to Canada shortly before the Second World War and was born and raised in Hardieville, just north of Lethbridge. Their grandmother, who had visited Canada as a small child but returned to her native Okinawa, was eventually forced out of Japan after the Battle of Okinawa. Her family eventually wound up in Hardieville and the Tamayose legacy was born.

Over the years, both Aaron and Taryn have experienced the Japanese culture through their grandparents and are eager to see it firsthand.

"We have a really strong family relationship. Growing up, we kept a lot of traditions but I know a lot of them have been westernized as well," says Aaron.

"One advantage we have is our Japanese background but at the same time, that background is a more westernized or assimilated view. A lot of our traditions are related to traditions in Japan, but I expect they are nothing like what it is there."

Taryn, a new media major, says her grandmother would often relate stories of the war years and how her family was forced to live in caves during the 82-day long Battle of Okinawa. She won't get to visit Okinawa on this trip but feels it will lay a foundation for future visits.

"This is a life experience for me and an opportunity to really get immersed in the Japanese culture," she says. "It's already a part of me and this has been a lifelong dream to go there, so I expect to take a lot away from it."

The Tamayose's say they were aware that travel opportunities existed for students at the U of L but never expected to participate. Once the Japan trip became a possibility, they made it a priority.

"I felt that this was worth the sacrifice to delay my convocation because the rewards would be greater to go to Japan and experience something I might never get the chance to do again," says Aaron, who will now convocate in the fall.

"I understood there were a lot of applied opportunities for U of L, students but I never really thought I'd be a part of it. In the last few years, I've really engaged myself with the applied learning process. It's one of those things that enriches the educational experience the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ offers."

That they will live this dream and get to share it with one another only enhances the experience.

"I've never been away for a month so it's comforting to go with someone who's grown up in the same family and has learned many of the same things about our culture," says Taryn.

Japan Study Tour holds special significance

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:50:29 +0000

The duo will accompany education professor Dr. Lance Grigg as part of the 15-student group selected to participate in the Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ exchange program later this month. Fourth-generation Japanese, or Yonsei, the two will finally realize a lifelong dream of visiting their ancestral homeland.

"I feel very strongly about my heritage, I like to express it, and what better way to learn a little bit more about the culture?"

Over the years, both Aaron and Taryn have experienced the Japanese culture through their grandparents and are eager to see it firsthand.

"We have a really strong family relationship. Growing up, we kept a lot of traditions but I know a lot of them have been westernized as well," says Aaron.

The Tamayose's say they were aware that travel opportunities existed for students at the
U of L but never expected to participate. Once the Japan trip became a possibility, they made it a priority.

"I understood there were a lot of applied opportunities for U of L, students but I never really thought I'd be a part of it. In the last few years, I've really engaged myself with the applied learning process. It's one of those things that enriches the
educational experience the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ offers."

That they will live this dream and get to share it with one another only enhances the experience.

"I've never been away for a month so it's comforting to go with someone who's grown up in the same family and has learned many of the same things about our culture," says Taryn.

Rethinking history

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:28:30 +0000

It also proved to be a day of personal significance for U of L education professor Dr. Brian Titley, who has spent the last three decades researching and writing about Aboriginal history.

His book, A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada (1986), was among the first to be written in Canada about Indian policy.

As a newly appointed ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar, Titley has chosen the history of Magdalen asylums in North America as the subject for his next line of research.

First and foremost, however, Titley considers himself an educator – a teacher of teachers who aims to inspire his students so that one day they'll inspire their own.

"I've always tried to explain to my students that as historians we must go back and understand origins to realize why the present is the way it is."

Japan Study Tour offers students a cultural opportunity

trevor.kenney — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:49:31 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge education professor Dr. Lance Grigg doesn't mind admitting he had a number of lost in translation moments when he first visited Japan. It was out of these instances his appreciation for diversity really took root.

Grigg will lead a contingent of 15 students to Japan in the 2009 spring session as the latest chapter in the Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ exchange program. The Japanese study tour is currently seeking applications, having held an information session earlier this month through the International Centre for Students. A respect for diversity and a willingness to listen and learn are hallmarks Grigg will be looking for when he interviews candidates.

"I think the major quality I'm looking for in someone going on this exchange is a respectful person," he says. "We want people who respect diversity and who have the maturity to engage that in action."

Grigg knows of what he speaks, having done a four-month tour as part of a professorial exchange in 2002. He says going to Japan with an open mind and a willingness to challenge his own ideals on learning allowed him to gain a deep appreciation for Japanese culture.

"That's one thing students can take away from an experience abroad, about any culture. To unlearn how you learn, in order to learn in a different culture," he says. "Be attentive to how that culture operates, what the values are underpinning that culture and how a culture goes about doing things."

Students seeking to be involved in the program must
remember the core value of the tour is that it is an exchange. Dr. Grigg says there is no room for arrogance, or an attitude that students are going abroad to spread the Canadian way.

"You don't go to another culture thinking that you are going to enlighten them, or bring knowledge to them that is not there," he says. "That's not the kind of attitude we want in a student going on the exchange. We're looking for students who are attentive to every part of another culture."

Grigg found Japanese society to be fascinating and quickly understood he could get the most out of his tour by abandoning preconceived notions and opening himself to a different way of teaching. By first accepting new approaches and then assessing them in the context of his experience, it gave Grigg a much broader perspective in his own teaching.

"Students going over there first have to be attentive to everything around them; culture, laws, practices," he says. "Then try and understand what they mean and reasonably accommodate those beliefs within one's own cultural framework. Within such an ambassadorial perspective, a conversation can ensue which respects the similarities and differences among cultures."

Students willing to work hard within the program are promised to reap immeasurable rewards. Those interested can contact Grigg at 403-329-2449 or Laura Ferguson in the International Centre for Students at 403-329-2053.

The future of Canadian history

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:08:56 +0000

Are we becoming a historically illiterate nation or are we already there? What teaching strategies would pique the interest of today's techno-generation?

These are a few of the types of questions U of L education professor Dr. Amy von Heyking and her colleagues from The History Education Network/Histoire et Education en Reseau (THEN/HiER) are investigating.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) recently awarded the collaborative network $2.1 million to study ways in which teaching Canadian history in the K-12 setting can be made more relevant.

"Children are not being given the opportunity to think http://www.uleth.ca/newsstand/fiat/sites/all/themes/zen/fiat/images/spac... says von Heyking. "Clarifying the skills that historians use – collecting data, interpreting primary documents, assessing evidence, exploring the perspectives of people in the past – all are valuable in helping us improve the curriculum in the K-12 education system."

Through research, von Heyking and THEN/HiER intend to promote historical consciousness, heighten understanding of collective heritage and improve communication between teachers and historians.

Their collaboration extends to various public institutions and the education system – they dialogue with historians, educators, graduate students, heritage agencies and others from across the diverse field of Canadian history.

THEN/HiER works on an international level with history networks based in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. In this region, von Heyking will partner with teachers in classroom settings and work directly with education programmers at local museums and heritage sites, such as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

"The goal of THEN/HiER is to encourage history education research that is informed by practice, and practice that is informed by research. We will continue to try and find ways to help teachers and public institutions to work together to build links," says von Heyking.

UNews - education professor

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