University of Regina Open Journals
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Educational Relevance of the Arts in a Technocratic World
No full textToday, it is important to acknowledge our investment in the technologized visual culture world, but at the same time within that investment, allow for active participation in forms that press for engagement and reflection. Theorized through phenomenology, embodiment, and performative inquiry, Arts’ Educational Relevance in a Technocratic World presents an awakening of space moments of possibilities through active and interactive participation in installation art forms that press for participatory inquiry, engagement, and reflection with our close entanglement with the technologically driven visual culture world, the world in which we dwell, in relationship to our selves and others.Keywords: visual culture; installation art; phenomenology; enactivism; performative inquir
Four Winds, Colonialism, and Educative Practice: The Deconstructive Perspective of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
No full textThis essay draws upon the Four Directions of the Indigenous Medicine Wheel in an investigation of colonialism and its implications for educative and academic practice. The deconstructive perspective of Gayatri Spivak is highlighted through an examination of the educative practice of the academy in relationship with Indigenous peoples and communities.
A Small-Scale Adventure Learning Activity and its Implications for Higher Education Practice and Research
No full textIn this paper, I discuss the implementation of a small-scale Adventure Learning project in a higher education classroom. Data used to evaluate the Adventure Learning project indicates that the learner experience was engaging, meaningful, fun, and challenging. Suggestions for future practice and research include a call to rethink education in terms of pedagogy, social technologies, creative curricula, authentic learning, and narrative. Higher education learning experiences should foster participation and interaction and envision integrative approaches to learning that not only solve problems but also reconsider the kinds of experiences that we offer to learners.Keywords: adventure learning; pedagogy; social technologies; higher education; narrativ
Open for Learning: The CMS and the Open Learning Network
No full textThe course management system (CMS) reinforces the status quo and hinders substantial teaching and learning innovation in higher education. It does so by imposing artificial time limits on learner access to course content and other learners, privileging the role of the instructor at the expense of the learner, and limiting the power of the network effect in the learning process. The open learning network (OLN)—a hybrid of the CMS and the personal learning environment (PLE)—is proposed as an alternative learning technology environment with the potential to leverage the affordances of the Web to dramatically improve learning.Keywords: course management system; higher education; open learning network; personal learning environment; technology; interne
Investigating the Impact of Weekly Weblog Assignments on the Learning Environment of a Secondary Biology Course
No full textA weblog, or blog, presents an intriguing way to create a collaborative space within a traditional classroom structure. Well-constructed blog assignments may provide a safe environment and encourage a collaborative learning culture. This study explores the use of blog-based assignments on student participation in a high school biology course. Data collected from field notes, surveys, student interviews, and quiz scores provided evidence that the blog assignments had a positive impact on in-class participation rate, self-directed research, achievement, and classroom environment.Keywords: weblog; blog; blog-based assignment
Indigenous Principles Decolonizing Teacher Education: What We Have Learned
No full textAlthough teacher education programs across the country are currently under significant review and reform, little attention is paid to the importance of Indigenous principles that could inform or transform them. Attention to Indigenous principles such as those presented in this paper can, we believe, serve to decolonize teacher education, offering programs that enable greater success for a wider array of diverse students, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, and address their needs and interests. The intent of this paper is to draw attention to the ways Indigenous principles offered by Lil’wat scholar Lorna Williams have influenced one teacher education program, and to share some of the ways that these principles have been enacted within the program. We offer our perspectives as narrative accounts of what we have done in our courses and in our teacher education program that reflect the principles explained in the paper. We do not feel we can express this perspective any different other than to recount shifts made and our observations as educators. These could be expressed as case studies but this would only be paying lip service to claiming a methodology that was not really followed. We offer this paper more as a sharing of narratives drawn to the indigenous principles. Authenticity comes from our common perceptions from different perspectives in the program.Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge; Teacher Education; Decolonizatio
The State of Canadian Boyhood—Beyond Literacy to a Holistic Approach
No full textIn the new millennium, international interest has developed on the trouble of boys, both in and out of school, with a particular focus on boys’ deficiencies in literacy skills. This interest has prompted research and action plans in Australia, Great Britain, the United States, and to a more regionalized or provincial capacity within Canada, such as in the Toronto District School Board and the province of Ontario. However, in Canada, amidst a popular discourse that underscores the problems facing boys by focusing on literacy, many of the stark and sweeping trends regarding Canadian boys remain obscured. This paper has four major components that are purposely provocative in order to interrogate many widely held assumptions. Firstly, we provide the overall impetus for this paper, background caveats, and the concept of strategic essentialism. Secondly, we introduce a synopsis of several countries’ initiatives to address nationally boys’ problems, and then the prevalent literacy movement seen in the representative province of Ontario, Canada. Thirdly, we produce statistical indicators of school engagement and achievement for Canadian boys as compared to girls, and further patterns regarding their physical and mental health, as an overview of the state of Canadian boyhood. Lastly, we offer several paths for further consideration in Canada, (a) recommending more complex desegregation of the data to understand with more precision which boys are struggling, using an analysis that goes beyond gender to encompass race, class, sexual orientation, disability, and geographical location; (b) offering as an example, an empirical study of adult role models in Canada, and the effects on boys; (c) suggesting a broader social understanding of gender, that is complicit with the boy code; and (d) encouraging movement towards addressing Canadian boys’ issues using the aforementioned trends and recommendations, with not only regional and provincial approaches, but also a national and holistic lens, too. Keywords: strategic essentialism; boys and literacy; boys and mental health; boys and schoolin
An Analysis of Research on Constructivist Teacher Education
No full textThis review of research (1990 to 2009) on constructivist teacher education synthesizes a growing but fragmented body of research and links it to practice in teacher education; it provides a guide for future research, program development, and policy and practice development which is consistent with empirical evidence. It includes a selection of 27 studies on preservice efforts; efforts which include programs, courses, and field experiences. First, an analysis of the research suggests a variety of effects from both short- and long-term experiences. Effects are identified in two categories: (a) conceptual understandings (with three subcategories: understanding of content, pedagogy, and the self as learner) and (b) classroom practice. Then, based on the findings, six mediatory experiences are suggested that facilitate preservice teachers’ growth. Finally, the studies are assessed using a framework (Darling Hammond, 2006) to determine gaps in the research. Keywords: constructivism; Teacher Education; preservice teacher
Mathematics Teacher Educator Identity: A Conversation Between a Specialist and Generalist
No full textIn this paper we consider the ways the constructs of being a generalist and specialist in teaching have contributed to our stories to live by in mathematics teacher education. We employ narratives of experience to serve as frames for our discussion in this paper. We explore how our work in public schools contributed to our practice in teacher education and the ways this shapes our curriculum making with preservice teachers. Our stories to live by as mathematics educators highlight how curriculum is more than subject matter objectives and how we are shaped in our relationships with learners.Keywords: mathematics; generalist; specialist; curriculum; stories to live by; narrative inquir
Small Steps Across the Chasm: Ideas for Embedding a Culture of Open Education in the University Sector
No full textThe authors critique the commonly accepted notions of "digital native" students and the widening generation gap between them and "technophobic" faculty. Their case studies, from UK higher education, demonstrate that attempts to introduce new models of learning are inhibited by 1) prevailing structure and culture within universities and 2) expectations (or even a stated preference) for traditional delivery and assessment of knowledge by the students themselves. The authors recommend a strategy for more systemic integration of social technologies and new learning styles into the curriculum to help ensure that universities remain relevant and add value to learners and employers in the digital age.Keywords: digital native; technophobic; higher education; social technologies; learning style