Teaching and learning mathematics with Math Fair, Lesson Study and Classroom Mentorship

For more than a decade, researchers, math educators and professional developers from the Galileo Educational Network (Galileo) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary, to which the two of us are associated, have worked to improve the teaching of mathematics. Our focus has always been twofold: to improve teacher knowledge of mathematics and the pedagogy of teaching mathematics. We report on the extensive work we have conducted with teachers with lesson study, classroom mentorships and math fairs

Optimum Learning for All Students: A Research Study of Teaching Quality Standard, Leadership Quality Standard, and Superintendent Leader Quality Standard Implementation and Enactment in Alberta

The research team would like to acknowledge the significant contributions of Dr. Jim Brandon, who was not able to see this project to its culmination. To Dr. Jim Brandon, In Memoriam: You were dearly missed, but we were inspired to carry on, keeping your commitment to improving schools as our guide and purpose. We dedicate this research to you, Jim, you were a true teacher, leader, and scholar, and upon reaching this milestone, we echo your famous words, “It’s a good day.”February 7, 2018, the Ministerial Order in Alberta of three Professional Practice Standards conceptualized the professional practice of Alberta teachers, school and system leaders, and superintendents using a nested design which provided consistency in the way K-12 educators practice in Alberta. The four-year longitudinal convergent mixed methods study began in March 2018, prior to the beginning of the required implementation of the three standards and concluded in June 2023. Four research questions guided this study. Survey and case study were gathered from a total of 5536 teachers, 1832 leaders, and 106 superintendent leaders over the four years. Fifteen findings were identified through a process of merging the quantitative and qualitative data over four years. The study concluded there was a strong interplay between the professional practice standards as policy and the implementation into practice, the implementation of the standards was successful in the face of the 2.5 years of COVID in the midst of their implementation, the participating 35 school authorities cultivated a culture of continuous professional learning and improvement, implementation enhanced educators' understanding of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Knowledge, participants used an evidence-informed approach to guide practice, and all participants acknowledged the role of external supports and collaboration to realize policy in action.OtherAlberta Educatio

Scenes from Calypso's Cave: On Globalization and the Pedagogical Prospects of the Gift

In this article we use a series of ordinary classroom events to explore how we might conceive of the classroom as a gift economy and what difference this would make for thinking through the potential globalizing effects of the Internet, especially given the intense current interest in introducing such technologies into the classroom.Dans cet article, les auteurs exploitent une série d'événements quotidiens en salle de classe dans le but d'explorer la possibilité de concevoir la salle de classe comme une économic du don d'une part, et I 'influence qu'exercent ces effets potentiellement mondialisants de I'lnternet d'autre part. Cetle question est d'autant plus pertinente que I'intérêt que Von porte actuellement à l'intégration de ce genre de technologie en salle de classe est énorme

High School Redesign: Carnegie Unit as a Catalyst for Change

Researchers examined seven schools in Alberta undergoing high school redesign and removing the Carnegie Unit, a time-based metric for awarding course credits. A mixed methods convergent parallel design was used to gather data from leadership teams in the schools and to examine evidence of impact on student learning. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed concurrently and then merged for the analysis. Findings illustrate that removing the Carnegie Unit was a catalyst for redesign and learning improvements.  Five constitutive factors enable high school redesign, including a collective disposition as a learning community, a focus on relationship building, obtaining student input, collaboration, and making changes to learning tasks and assessment practices.  The findings provide insight into the ways in which leadership teams formed complex adaptive systems to enable change and may serve to inform practitioners and school leaders, schools and systems, and those who study policy changes in schools

Examining the Efficacy of Inquiry-based Approaches to Education

Educational jurisdictions around the world have introduced curricular initiatives that emphasize the need for students to engage in inquiry-based education. This shift, has been met by significant public opposition, particularly in the Canadian context. Results from this study indicate that criticisms of inquiry-based approaches to education are largely directed at discovery learning, which has limited educational value. We note the significant affordances of guided forms of inquiry, such as problem-based learning, and approaches to inquiry aligned with the authentic education movement. Additionally, we highlight the specific instructional supports needed for processes of inquiry to promote elements, such as critical thinking skills and flexible problem solving abilities, necessary for success in a rapidly changing world

Emergence in School Systems: Lessons from Complexity and Pedagogical Leadership

The theoretical framework for this study draws on conceptual advances from two bodies of scholarship: 1) complexity thinking in education, which has recently focused on school system change and, 2) school leadership research, which has recently attended to the effects of leadership interventions to school improvement. Using a complexity-thinking framework, the purpose of this study was to understand how leadership practices contribute to shaping change in school systems and how change occurred across the system. Our study was conducted in an urban centre in Alberta within a public-school jurisdiction and in an area of the city that had a high population of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds from low-income households compared to other areas across the school jurisdiction. Students in this area typically scored in the lowest quartile on provincial standardized examinations. Our findings are significant because complexity thinking in the context of school leadership has not received sufficient empirical attention. In our study we identified and described pedagogical leadership practices that play a central role in redressing disparities currently found in schools

Adapting to a Design-Based Professional Learning Intervention

Designing a systematic inquiry-based, and knowledge-building experience through continuous professional learning for teachers is a key challenge for school authorities. A total of 26 teachers, five principals, three researchers, one graduate student, and two contract professionals from a university were involved in a research-practice partnership. The partners engaged in a yearlong design-based professional learning series. In this study, design-based research was used as the methodology to understand the participant responses to professional learning during the design, enactment, and refinement phases used to design the professional learning series. Open-ended survey responses, researcher field notes and documents from the professional learning sessions were analyzed throughout the study and during three phases of the learning design. The results indicated there were four key shifts and corresponding adaptations made by the participants as they responded to and engaged in a continuous model of professional learning

A Study of Teacher Growth, Supervision, and Evaluation in Alberta: Policy and Perception in a Collective Case Study

Teacher effectiveness has long been identified as critical to student success and, more recently, supporting students attaining the skills and dispositions required to be successful in the early 21st century. To do so requires that teachers engage in professional learning characterized as a shift away from conventional models of evaluation and judgment. Accordingly, school and system leaders must create “policies and environments designed to actively support teacher professional growth” (Bakkenes, Vermunt, & Webbels, 2010). This paper reports on the Alberta Teacher Growth, Supervision, and Evaluation (TGSE) Policy (Government of Alberta, 1998) through the eyes of teachers, school leaders, and superintendents. The study sought to answer the following two questions: (1) To what extent, and in what ways, do teachers, principals, and superintendents perceive that ongoing supervision by the principal provides teachers with the guidance and support they need to be successful? and, (2) To what degree, and in what ways, does the TGSE policy provide a foundation to inform future effective policy and implementation of teacher growth, supervision, and evaluation? Results affirm international findings that although a majority of principals consider themselves as instructional leaders, only about one third actually act accordingly (OECD, 2016)

Examining the effects of sport and exercise interventions on body image among adolescent girls: A systematic review

Body image dissatisfaction among females is suggested to be so widespread, that is has been described as normative discontent. Consequently, there is great interest in the development of interventions that may enhance body image perceptions. The aim of the present systematic review was to investigate the effects of sport and exercise interventions on body image among adolescent females. Following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines (Higgins & Green, 2009; Petticrew & Roberts, 2005), a search of six electronic databases produced 4,210 records of which six met the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of included articles was assessed using the Standard Quality Assessment (Kmet, Lee, & Cook, 2004). This yielded a mean score for quality of .90 (SD = 0.22), indicating poor quality of research. In two studies, significant and positive change was observed in body image following intervention (aerobics or self-selected sports activities) in comparison to a control condition. In four studies, no significant effect of intervention on body image was observed. We conclude that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that sport and exercise interventions can improve body image. Furthermore, due to the limitations of existing research highlighted within this review, findings suggesting positive influence should be interpreted with caution. Recommendations for improving the methodological quality of research examining the influence of sport and exercise interventions on body image are proposed. This includes considerations such as participant sampling, control conditions/groups, measurement of key variables, intervention features, and analysis of data