Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies (AACES)

On this page :

• Background
• A Brief History of AACES
• Guidelines for Grant Applications
• Obtaining an Application Form
• Contacting the AACES
• Recent Projects

Background

Since its inception in the 1950s, the Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies (AACES) has made an important contribution to educational research in Alberta. The main purpose of the AACES is to encourage and financially support educational studies. It may also support publications designed to disseminate the results of educational studies. AACES currently involves a partnership among the faculties of education at the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge and the Alberta Teachers' Association. Until recently Alberta Education (now Alberta Learning) was a contributing supporter.

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A Brief History of AACES

1952/53	Founded by the University of Alberta, the Department of Education, the Alberta Teachers' Association, the Alberta School Trustee's Association and the Home and School Association
1954	Founded the Alberta Journal of Educational Research
1970	The University of Lethbridge joins AACES
1980s	AACES supports two thriving journals: the Alberta Journal of Educational Research and the Journal of Educational Thought
1983	In its first 30 years, AACES funded some 240 research projects

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Guidelines for Grant Applications

Am I Eligible to Apply for an AACES Grant?

1. To apply for an AACES grant, an individual must be formally affiliated with one of the contributing organizations (the University of Lethbridge, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary or the Alberta Teachers' Association) in one of the following categories:
   • a certificated teacher who is a member of the ATA
   • Faculty of Education sessional instructor
   • Faculty of Education member
   • Faculty of Education professor emeritus
   • Faculty of Education adjunct

What Types of Projects does AACES Support?

2. Grants in excess of $6,000 are awarded rarely because of limited available resources.
3. AACES is particularly interested in projects designed to improve teacher preparation or to benefit elementary and secondary education. Preference will be given to projects that are investigating educational issues or questions.
4. Subject to the approval of the principal investigator, graduate students involved in the research funded by AACES may use part or all of the work as credit toward a university degree or course.
5. AACES will not support activities whose major purpose is to produce commercial products (such as books, texts, curriculum guides and audiovisual aids) or that are deemed to constitute professional development.

How Do I Apply for an AACES Grant?

6. Download and fill out each section of the grant application form.
7. Written submissions will be accepted in English or French.  Proposals submitted in French require a summary of the research project in English.
8. Apply to the Ethics Review Committee and include with your grant application a copy of your submission to the Ethics Review Committee or a copy of your approval report from the Ethics Review Committee.
9. Mail or deliver eight copies of the completed application form and each of the attachments to the AACES secretariat office by 4:30 pm on the published deadline
   or
   Assemble the application form and all attachments into one document, attach the document to an email and send it to  doreen.link@ata.ab.ca by 4:30 pm on the published deadline.
   Faxed copies will not be accepted.

How are Grant Recipients Chosen?

9. A committee of AACES meets twice a year, once after the spring deadline and once after the fall deadline, to review applications that meet the above criteria. In the case of each application, the committee will rule in one of three possible ways: (a) to accept it for funding, (b) to reject it or (c) to recommend that the applicant revise and resubmit it by the next application deadline. Resubmitted proposals will be considered as part of a regular subsequent competition. Decisions of the committee are final.

What Expenditures Qualify for an AACES Grant?

10. Among the expenses that AACES may reimburse, in whole or in part, for a project that has been accepted are these:
    • research assistants' salaries
    • telephone and postage charges
    • non-capital materials costs, such as paper, pencils, tapes and film
    • research-related travel expenses
    • transcription costs
    • consultants' fees
    • release time for school-based staff (provided that the school or school jurisdiction involved agrees to match the amount requested from AACES)
11. Among the expenses that AACES will not reimburse are these:
    
    • 15 per cent indirect costs. Researchers are encouraged to list this item as part of the universities contribution.
    • honoraria for the principal researcher or researchers
    • capital expenses exceeding $250
    • travel expenses associated with attending a conference in the researcher's community.

What Happens if I Qualify for a Grant?

12. Projects must be initiated within one year following the date on which the grant was approved.
13. Grants  intended to fund research will not be released until AACES has received an Ethics
    Review Committee Approval Report. This report must be received within one year following the date on which AACES approved the grant, or the grant will be forfeited.
14. Grants intended to fund research in a school or schools will not be released until AACES receives a school district and a school approval report. This report must be received within one year following the date on which AACES approved the grant, or the grant will be forfeited.
15. AACES grants will be disbursed only to an audited account on which the grant recipient may draw.
16. Grant recipients are expected to complete their project within two years, although they may apply in writing to the AACES secretariat for an extension of up to one year.
17. Grant recipients must submit a copy of the final report, along with an abstract of not more than 500 words, to the AACES secretariat within six months of the termination date of the project. If the final report is not received within the specified time, AACES will not consider further proposals from the principal investigator for a period of three years. AACES will also inform the dean of the relevant faculty of education and the superintendent of the relevant school jurisdiction in writing that the final report was not received by the deadline. Grant recipients who fail to meet all obligations within two years of the termination date of their grant will not be considered for future grants.
18. AACES reserves the right to circulate the final reports of projects to participating organizations and interested parties.
19. Grant recipients who publish articles resulting from AACES-funded research should submit a copy of their articles to the AACES secretariat.

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Obtaining an Application Form

Application forms are available in writable PDF format. Simply download the form, fill it out and e-mail it to doreen.link@ata.ab.ca or mail it to the following address:

Secretary, Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies
c/o The Alberta Teachers' Association
Suite 106, 3016 5 Avenue NE
Calgary, Alberta
T2A 6K4

The next deadline for applications is April 15, 2010 at 4:30pm. 

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Contacting AACES

To find out more about AACES, contact either of these individuals:

• Doreen Link at 265-2672 in Calgary (1-800-332-1280 from elsewhere in Alberta)
• Jean-Claude Couture at 447-9462 in Edmonton (1-800-232-7208 from elsewhere in Alberta)

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Recent Projects

Grants Approved in 2009

"Étude sur l’état de la santé mentale chez des élèves francophones âgés de 6 à 11 ans: une comparaison entre trois groupes issus de milieux socioculturels différents"
René Langevin, Professeur Adjoint, Faculté of Éducation, Campus Saint-Jean, Université of Alberta

Depuis 2004, le Conseil scolaire de Centre-Nord connaît une augmentation substantielle d’élèves migrants dans ses écoles, notamment des élèves provenant de l’Afrique subsaharienne, communément appelée l’Afrique Noire (Dalley, 2007). Bien que ce phénomène contribue à rehausser la vitalité des écoles francophones d’Edmonton, il serait à l’ origine de contraintes tant chez les enseignants que chez les parents des enfants noirs identifiés comme ayant des besoins particuliers. En effet, plusieurs parents de ces enfants prétendent que les enseignants surestiment les problèmes de santé mentale chez leurs enfants tandis qu’a contrario, les enseignants considèrent que ces mêmes parents sous-estiment ce type de problème chez leurs enfants. C’est du moins ce qui ressort de nos conversations qui ont été tenues durant l’année scolaire 007-2008 avec plusieurs enseignants et parents francophones africains. Afin d’évaluer rigoureusement ce phénomène qui pourrait avoir des conséquences négatives chez ces élèves (démotivation, réussite scolaire, etc), nous avons décidé d’entreprendre une recherche comparative sur le sujet. Ainsi, cent cinquante (N=150) élèves âgés de 6 à 11 ans seront recrutés pour cette recherche. Le premier groupe sera constitué de cinquante (n=50) élèves migrants issus de l’Afrique Noire. Le deuxième groupe sera formé de cinquante (n=50) élèves migrants non issus de l’Afrique Noire. Le troisième groupe sera constitué de cinquante (n=50) élèves nés au Canada. Tous les participants seront soumis au Dominique Interactif (DI) de Valla (2008). Quant aux parents et aux enseignants, ils devront répondre au questionnaire : Check Behavior Check List (CBCL) de Achenbach (1991). Les résultats de cette étude sont susceptibles d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur l’idée voulant que les élèves migrants issus de l’Afrique Noire et fréquentant des écoles francophones d’Edmonton soient souvent étiquetés à outrance comme ayant des problèmes de santé mentale. 

“Developing Vocabulary Profiles and Benchmarks for Student Writing K–12: A look at the Writing of ESL Students”
Hetty Roessingh, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Vocabulary knowledge is increasingly recognized as the key variable in the academic success of students in the K–12 school system and beyond. As a consequence of recent developments in computational linguistics and technology applications, vocabulary profiling is attracting increased research attention. Initial findings from a handful of studies, including my own, are promising. They involve the ability to profile text level discourse—oral or written—for “lexical stretch” or “richness,” and set benchmarks for profiles of lexical output for various populations of students. This proposal will deal with disaggregated writing samples of ESL learners and compare them to the writing samples of native English speaking students (NS). It is anticipated that the lexical gap will be identified (ie, how many and which kinds of words do ESL learners not use in their written output that their native English speaking counterparts commonly use in their academic writing?). Classroom level implications include providing teachers with tools for lexical profiling and tracking, thereby helping them target vocabulary instruction with much greater precision. At the jurisdiction level, school boards will have access to one more tool for assessing student writing—a tool that is based on empirical data.

“Health Promotion in Schools: A Pilot Study on the Professional Development of Preservice Teachers around Weight-Related Issues”
Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Assistant Professor, Division of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

The proposed pilot project focuses on health and well-being in schools utilizing existing Alberta Education approved health curriculum resources (ie, the Body Image Kits) in teacher preparation and development. Two major questions will be investigated: 1) Does offering preservice teachers a professional development in-service about healthy body image impact their teaching practice? 2) Does offering preservice teachers a professional development in-service on body image change the way they view their own body image? a) Will the professional development in-service have an impact on teaching practice differentially depending on whether or not preservice teacher’s own personal body image changed as a result of the in-service? Thus, in the proposed study we aim to examine preservice teachers’ body image (ie, eating attitudes and behaviours, weight change behaviours) before and following a professional development in-service. Then, we will collect written responses in the form of critical incidents once preservice teachers are placed in a school for practicum training. Finally, we will conduct two focus groups at the end of the semester to ask about body image and teaching practice. This project is situated in a research literature that indicates that many teachers do not have a working knowledge of body image (Piran, 2004). The few teachers who seem to have an understanding of body image express being concerned and confused with mixed messages (Russell-Mayhew, Arthur & Ewashen, 2008). Previous research also indicates that if teachers engage of self-awareness practice, meaning that they gain knowledge and personalize it, it has more potential to impact their teaching practice.

 
“Engaging Resourcefulness after Violence: An Empowering Group for Adolescent Girls”
Tom Strong, Professor, Applied Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

The experience of physical or sexual violence is unfortunately common for adolescent girls and can have harmful after-effects on their well-being and progress in school. Typically, service for people after violence is individualistic and focused on coping with after-effects. Our orientation to overcoming violence draws from three relatively recent developments in counselling: response-based counselling, narrative therapy/community work, and solution-focused therapy. These developments focus on identifying and enacting often taken-for-granted responses or competencies used and useful in addressing life problems of any kind. This avoids a psycho educational stance of “teaching victims” about their experience, symptoms and coping.

We propose to join adolescent girls in a collaborative inquiry of identifying, mobilizing and supporting understandings and actions they deem as useful in countering violence in their lives. Following the necessary ethical clearance, we would seek 10-12 volunteers (from Grades 11/12 at a yet-to-be-determined Calgary high school) who self-identify as having experienced violence while wanting to overcome it. They would meet together over 10 weeks with the co-investigator to learn from each other about resourcefulness they showed in the face of violence, and in mitigating its effects. The co-investigator, a graduate student in counselling psychology supervised by the principal investigator (a psychologist), would invite participant resourcefulness through particular questions and lines of inquiry drawn from narrative, solution-focused and response-based approaches to counselling. The results of this collaborative inquiry into resourcefully countering violence would be collectively documented then shared in the Alberta Counsellor and at the Canadian Counselling Association’s 2010 conference. 

“The Efficacy of Web-Based Resources for Canadian Instrumental Music Educators: A Pilot Study”
Edwin B Wasiak, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

Music education in Canada is experiencing a period of rapid change and considerable pressure due to changing and conflicting cultural and educational priorities, social and political changes, quickly evolving technology and financial pressures exacerbated by globalization. Furthermore, curricula and instructional methods employed widely in secondary school music programs are deeply entrenched in outmoded paradigms that do not meet the needs and interests of the vast majority of students. Consequently, approximately 90 per cent of today’s secondary students are unable or unwilling to enrol in school music programs. 

The proposed study is an exploratory project that will investigate the efficacy of newly created web-based video resources in Canadian instrumental music teacher education, in terms of both the content and modality of delivery. These resources will demonstrate some “best practices,” and innovative methods, strategies and materials and include interviews with Canadian music educators who have developed effective solutions to the many challenges that confront them.

For this preliminary study I will create a small sample bank of video resources and post them to a dedicated website online. Using the researcher-developed IMVRL online survey and a cross-sectional design, I will invite university faculty and preservice and in-service music educators from across Canada to assess the efficacy of these materials as instructional and professional development resources. If results are positive, these findings will inform the design of a more substantial Canada-wide study and more extensive resource. Ultimately, I hope to create an ongoing, “evergreen online resource library intended to encourage new directions in Canadian music education, thereby better meeting the needs and interests of 21st century learners.

“Career and Technology Studies (CTS): Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Education”
Bonnie Watt-Malcolm, Assistant Professor, Secondary Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

The research project consists of three key areas of study. These are to: a) examine CTS teacher recruitment, retention and education practices, b) distinguish the needs of Alberta’s CTS teachers (eg, education, training and resources), and c) explore what it is that attracts individuals to the CTS teaching area (eg, participants’ ideas and experiences can inform recruitment, retention and education). Furthermore, the CTS program of studies is designed to engage youth in activities that advance their knowledge, skills and technology. Therefore, this study provides an opportunity to investigate how the restructured CTS program of studies might advance young people’s engagement in various activities that inform their daily lives, future career and education options. Hence, a significant aspect of this research is to help put in place practices to develop qualified and informed CTS teachers, which will, in turn, advance youths’ exploration of future career, education and leisure options.

“Expert Teacher-Librarians: Best Practices and Contributions to Student Achievement”
Barbara Brydges, Director of Information Services, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Director of Information Services, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

The primary goal of this qualitative study is to provide a deeper understanding of local teacher–librarians’ role in the education of students and to examine, through observation and interviews, the best practices of local teacher-librarians.  It is hoped that an in-depth analysis of local teacher-librarians will aide in reconceptualizing and revitalizing school library learning commons within the Alberta context. The study aligns itself with the current Alberta perspective of inquiry-based learning. Alberta Education is currently reviewing and revising school library services, standards, and support through its School Library Initiative. The researchers believe that investigating “best practice” teacher-librarians in the province will help advance this initiative and provide models and benchmarks for new school library learning commons programs and services within the Alberta context. As the lead applicant is a member of the University of Calgary, Faculty of Education, the study results will also impact teacher education by furthering inservice teachers’ understanding of the roles of teacher-librarians in student success.

Study participants will be six teacher-librarians selected from schools in the Calgary Board of Education. Two interviews will be conducted with participants. The first will focus on the subject’s professional background, general library programs and services, opportunities to engage with students, and perceived report for teacher-librarians educational role in the school. The second interview will focus more specifically on instruction offered by the teacher-librarians. Researcher observation of the school library learning commons will also be part of the study. 

Grants Approved in 2008

“Preparing to Teach in a Digital Age”
Susan Gibson, Professor, Elementary Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

Educating our youth for the digital age requires teaching that is not only infused with the latest in technological tools but that also develops digital citizens who can locate, evaluate and ethically use information, think critically and creatively, problem solve and make decisions and collaborate with others from around the globe, using digital resources. Teachers need to have both awareness of and skill with new Web 2.0 technologies in order to use these tools in their teaching to promote the development of digital citizens. It is paramount that new teachers entering the field are familiar with these tools as well. In order to prepare our beginning teachers for this new reality, we must build educational experiences that model the use of emerging technologies in our teacher preparation programs. While a stand-alone technology course can assist with the development of technological skills, pre-service teachers also need deeper understandings about how a technology rich environment can help to develop subject-specific knowledge. The purpose of the proposed project is to examine the impact that immersion in technology-enriched, pre-service pedagogy course in the area of social studies education can have on both beginning teachers willingness to use these tools as well as the way they approach technology use in their teaching of social studies.

“The Ecology of Internet Use During Primary School: Toward an Internet Literacy Curriculum”
 Genevieve Marie Johnson, College Professor, Psychology, Grant MacEwan College

Primary school students commonly use the Internet, although such use is often restricted by adults. Some have argued that restriction limits the learning opportunities of young students. Parents and teachers are equally concerned about maximizing the learning benefits associated with Internet use during childhood while minimizing the corresponding risks. Prior to the development of Internet literacy curriculum for students in first through third grade, an ecological understanding of young users is required.

Primary school children complete a rating scale of Internet use with items such as “I use e-mail at school” and “I play games on the Internet at my friend’s house.” Parents complete a questionnaire including demographic items (eg, number of computers at home) and patterns of child’s home Internet use (eg, proportion of time child uses the Internet alone). Teachers complete a rating scale on each child’s school behaviour and learning, for example, achievement in language arts, creativity, and social skills. Teachers complete a rating scale on classroom media use, for example, “My students use the Internet to master curriculum skills” and “I would describe my classroom as media rich.”

Analysis of data provides ecological description of patterns of home, school and community Internet use during the primary school years. Comprehensive description of Internet use provides a framework for the development of home-school collaborative Internet literacy curriculum for young users. For example, teachers may be provided with online activities appropriate for individual or groups of children and parents may be directed to websites suited to parent-child co-use.

“Spatial Structures as a Starting Point for Mathematical Reasoning”
Lynn McGarvey, Associate Professor/Associate Chair, Elementary Education, University of Alberta

Although counting to ten is assumed to be a primary goal in kindergarten, Gattegno (1984) asserts that “something is mathematical only if it is shot through with infinity.” Mathematics is primarily concerned with attending to generalities such as sameness, difference, relationship, pattern, regularity and order. In the context of early learning, how might we help even young children attend to mathematical generalities? In my previous work investigating modes of mathematical reasoning of young children, preschool and kindergarten children frequently generated mathematical generalizations by drawing on spatial insights. This study will investigate the spatial imagery that children bring to kindergarten; instructional tasks that prompt children to attend to and use spatial structures; and the potential of spatial structures as a starting place for young children to reason mathematically across numerical and patterning problems.

The methodology for the study is based on design research involving theory-driven teaching experiments (Freudenthal, 1973; Gravemeijer, 1998, 1999, 2004). The goals of the study are to investigate the potential of explicitly encouraging children to attend to generalities across similar tasks and to gain insight into children’s ability to generalize using spatial structures in number and patterning tasks.

“Intertwining Aboriginal and Western Ways of Knowing Mathematics”
Gladys Sterenberg, Assistant Professor, Elementary Education, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

The purpose of this research is to investigate Aboriginal teachers’ images of mathematics. The following fundamental question will guide my inquiry: What are elementary teachers’ experiences of mathematics when creating a curriculum based on Aboriginal ways of knowing? This question will be investigated within the context of a First Nation community in Alberta. This research is grounded in a qualitative methodology that seems consistent with Aboriginal epistemology and pedagogy.

Aboriginal teachers of mathematics may experience mathematics quite differently than non-Aboriginal teachers, as the Western paradigm of mathematics does not coincide with how nature is experienced by the Aboriginal people (Cajete, 2000; Hayward, 1997). This lack of context emphasizes a possible difficulty with the Aboriginal experience of mathematics as taught from the Western perspective.

While research on Aboriginal ways of knowing mathematics is becoming readily available, there are very few studies that investigate either the value of this kind of information for teachers’ mathematical knowing or its impact on teachers’ views of the nature of mathematics. Moreover, little research exists on Aboriginal teachers’ experiences of creating a curriculum based on Aboriginal ways of knowing mathematics. My research will fill this gap.

An understanding of Aboriginal ways of knowing mathematics could offer new images of the nature of mathematics. The results of this study will inform future investigations into the impact of this curriculum on Aboriginal students and how it fosters their academic interests and abilities in mathematics. It will also inform post-secondary programs for prospective Aboriginal and non‑Aboriginal mathematics teachers.

Grants Approved in 2007

“Teaching Ideas Showcase Interactive Website/Curriculum Unit Stories in Stone, Travels in Time”
Bill Glaister, Curriculum Laboratory Coordinator, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

This project continues investigation into the ways that literature can be integrated into the curriculum. As well, the ways that interactivity and choice in a web-based unit improves learning will be explored. The final project will be: a web-based and interactive geology/literature unit that compares and contrasts the geology of Alberta with the geology found in the Grand Canyon, linked to children’s literature titles and the outcomes in the Alberta curriculum. Topic A, Grade 3 Science—Demonstrate knowledge of materials that compromise the Earth’s crust and demonstrate skill in classifying these materials. Extension activities: Explore erosion, fossils and analyze the historical clues found in rocks and soil around us.

An interactive website will be produced, in conjunction with the University of Lethbridge web team that provides:

• the objectives of the website, as well as preparation and lists of materials;
• potential curriculum connections;
• a bibliography of recommended books, with annotations;
• a number of teaching units and lessons to support the curriculum; and
• evaluation and review activities.

The website will also allow students to:

• interact with several options for each of the geological themes presented them (eg types of rocks, fossil types, erosion features, etc);
• explore the “story in stone” option related to each of the geological themes presented to them;
• explore the “time travel” option, where they can see what Alberta looked like when the geological feature presented them was formed; and
• explore the “Grand Canyon” option that allows them to visit similar geological themes in the Grand Canyon, one of the natural geological wonders of the world.

The final project will be posted as a non-commercial unit on the university website which will be accessible by preservice and practicing teachers. The materials will be field tested with student teachers, teachers, and students in the classroom, and presented at several teachers’ conventions. It will then be modified based on the feedback received. 

“Increasing Teacher Efficacy and Coping Responses: An Emotionally Intelligent Approach”
Donald H Saklofske, Professor, Associate Dean (Research), Division of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

 Teaching is a profession full of everyday challenges and stress. The problem of teacher burnout and attrition has been described in a number of studies. However, how someone copes with stressful situations can determine how much stress they report feeling, and in turn, its impact on their sense of well-being and general functioning.

Coping effectively with stress involves a number of different factors. The degree to which people feel they can affect change when faced with a difficult situation reflects their perception of self-efficacy. Emotional intelligence (EI) can also influence the way a stressful event makes us feel and how we will react to and manage the situation. People with higher self-efficacy and emotional intelligence should therefore be better a coping with stressful situations.

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the affects of an EI program for teachers, focusing particularly on assisting them to more effectively identify and manage their emotions and stress, and enhance their sense of well-being and self-efficacy. The Swinburne University “Managing Occupational Stress through the Development of Emotional Intelligence: Professional Development Program for Teachers” (Gardner, Stough, and Hansen, 2007), will be used to explore and enhance emotional intelligence, and in turn, to apply this to managing everyday stress in the school and classroom. Evaluations of program effectiveness will be carried out at the start, end, and one month follow-up phases.

Development of Reading in Bilingual Deaf Children
Lynn McQuarrie, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

Literacy acquisition remains the key educational issue facing deaf students today. More than half of deaf children still cannot read to learn at the age of seventeen, leaving high school with reading skills comparable to a typically achieving 8 to 9 year old hearing child (see review in Paul, 1998). Improving the teaching of reading could be a means of changing this. This project seeks to bring about this improvement by gaining insight into the relationship between bilingual deaf children’s language skills in American Sign Language (ASL) and reading skills development as part of a larger biliteracy research initiative. Our ongoing biliteracy research initiative aims to increase understanding of the dual language learning strategies that contribute to reading ability in children who use ASL and who are learning to read in English. Toward this end, we have been involved in two major activities: the development and validation of assessments in ASL and English to measure the literacy constructs of interest, and a large scale project examining the contributions of spoken language phonology and sign language phonology to reading ability in bilingual deaf children in kindergarten through twelfth grade in Alberta and British Columbia. Data on deaf children’s awareness of the phonological structure of ASL were collected but not examined in the principal investigator’s doctoral study. AACES funding was requested to support the analysis of the ASL language data and to support documentation and validation of the components of intervention necessary to improve English literacy trajectories of deaf children whose primary language is ASL.

Bridging Theory and Practice: Pre-service Physical Education Majors’ Beliefs and Perceptions about the Field of Physical Education
David Chorney, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

To become healthy and productive citizens, young people need to be active. Unfortunately, beginning physical education teachers do not always teach their students the fundamentals of an active lifestyle. At the start of their careers, teachers often focus more on their own professional growth than they do on the needs of their students. However, as they grow personally and professionally, teachers evolve from being concerned only with their own needs to caring about the needs of their students. This research will examine the beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate students enrolled as physical education majors in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge. Specifically, the study will track what, if any, changes occur as students progress from having only theoretical knowledge to developing a more practical knowledge base as they carry out their specialized practicum. A preliminary study involving the administration of pre- and post-course surveys and post-practicum surveys to all physical education majors registered in the Methods for Physical Education Majors course in the spring of 2007 suggests that many significant changes occur in the beliefs and perceptions of undergraduate physical education majors.

Grants Approved in 2006

The Story of Learning through Digital Imagery
Jennifer Lock, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

The purpose of this project is to examine how digital storytelling (including photography) affects not only how students learn but also how they represent what they have learned. More broadly, the study will examine how a multi-model learning environment can foster multi-literacy. Information and communication technologies (ICT) provide new opportunities for students to represent their knowledge. Teaching students how to use ITC in the course of learning the curriculum not only helps them to represent their knowledge in a new way but also enhances their multi-literacy skills and understandings.

Cyber Talk: An Exploration of Online Technology Usage Among Middle School Students and Its Impact on Social Interaction and New Literacies
Robin Bright, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

Today’s adolescents do not remember a time when the World Wide Web was not present both at home and in school. Being literate today is no longer confined to being able to read books and write using materials found in the home and classroom. Rather, being literate has now expanded to mean having the skills necessary to locate and read multiple texts simultaneously and to evaluate, synthesize and use this information effectively in multiple forms. New technologies have lead to new literacies (Watts-Taff et. al, 2003).

The prevalence of online technology has also affected social relationships and behaviours among adolescents. Research shows that online technology has both positive and negative effects on the ability of adolescents to develop social relationships. On the positive side, technology benefit the formation of adolescent relationships by providing them with another avenue for social interaction. On the negative side, online communication may inhibit valuable face-to-face interactions and play a role in aggression and antisocial behaviour.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how adolescents use online technologies. It will focus on how two junior high school populations—one urban and one rural—use online technology to communicate. A 68-item questionnaire (piloted in 2005/06) will be administered to approximately 550 adolescents in an urban school district during a single testing session in the fall of 2006 and to approximately 400 adolescents in a rural school district in January 2007. The data will then be used to shed light on how students access online technologies and how they use these technologies to interact. socially. The data will also be analyzed to reveal how students use the new literacies in social communication. Recommendations will then be developed to guide teachers in helping adolescents to participate effectively and safely in the online world.

Language Experience for ESL
Pamela Winsor, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

The changing demographics of the Canadian population means that more and more teachers are being challenged to offer effective English literacy instruction to children whose mother tongue is not English. This study will address that challenge by exploring the characteristics, benefits and effectiveness of a modified Language Experience Approach (LEA) with Grade 1 ESL children. The modified LEA will be based on the traditional LEA, an effective and popular form of instruction developed in the 1970s. However, it will also adopt the premises and practices of Concentrated Language Encounters (CLE), an approach that has recently been demonstrated to be effective in working with children in Australia, Thailand, and South Africa. The study will attempt to confirm the hypothesis that a modified LEA is effective and appropriate for ESL children in Canadian classrooms.

The Principal Investigator (PI) will deliver a minimum of 16 forty-minute lessons to a small group of ESL children. The primary learning activity will be collaborative chart story writing and reading, stimulated by pictures, experiences, books, and cultural events. Other instructional activities will include discussions, letter and word work, and artistic responses to text. Data sources will include pre- and post-measures of vocabulary, reading, and writing as well as the PI’s instruction plans and reflective observations. To the extent possible, instruction will be linked with the children’s classroom program.

Results, observations, and instructional recommendations will be published, incorporated into professional development workshops and presented at conferences. A teachers’ guide to employing a modified LEA with ESL children will also be published.

Grants Approved in 2005

Native Ways of Knowing Mathematics
Nola Aitken, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge

Much of the recent literature on Native students and mathematics in the Western world has focused on three topics: (1) their poor performance, (2) strategies for improving their achievement and (3) their under-representation in college and university mathematics courses. The research on why they perform poorly is inconclusive; the problem-solving ability of Native people is clearly excellent and has been for thousands of years. The purpose of this study is to examine the constructive and socio-cultural perspective of Native students with respect to solving mathematical problems and to determine if the western numeric perspective runs counter to Native ways of knowing. Using a case study approach, this project will examine the similarities and differences between how Native students in band/reserve schools and non-Native students in public schools in the Blackfoot Confederacy learn to solve mathematical problems. Participants will be Grade 3 Native students and their teachers in the Blackfoot Confederacy. Students and teachers will fill out questionnaires and participate in interviews to assess their attitude to mathematics. In addition, students will carry out six mathematical problem-solving activities that, according to Bishop (1991), are universal. Quantitative and comparative analyses will be carried out on the data. A unique aspect of this study is that Native education students will gather the data. The conclusions drawn from this study will, hopefully, be of value to teachers in helping Native students acquire western mathematical concepts.

Effective Teaching Practices in Inclusive Classrooms
Joan Jeary, Assistant Professor, Applied Psychology, University of Calgary

The first option for most school boards and parents in Alberta is to place students with special needs in inclusive classrooms where they can access the general education curriculum. In inclusive classrooms, students with special needs receive specially designed instruction and support. Following on the work of Andrews and Lupart (2000), this study will attempt to define the essential knowledge, skills and attributes that teachers require in order to teach successfully in an inclusive classroom. Forty teachers whom senior administrators have identified as engaging in effective practices with respect to inclusive education will participate in focus groups. In these groups, they will be asked to share the teaching practices that help them meet the needs of students with disabilities. Based on these discussions, the researchers will attempt to verify that these practices are effective; identify factors that both limit and facilitate these practices; and ascertain the knowledge, skills and attributes that teachers need to carry out these practices.

Grants Approved in 2004

Linking Theory to Practice: Student Teachers’ Perceptions of Experiences in Special Education
Margret Winzer, Professor, Special Education, University of Lethbridge

Research has shown that practical experiences in the classroom, because they combine theory and practice, help student teachers gain the knowledge, attitude and skills required to educate exceptional students. Incorporating grounded-theory methodology and triangulation, this descriptive study of student teachers at the University of Lethbridge will examine how the attitudes and perceptions of students enrolled in a special education practicum change as they gain practical experience in the classroom. The researchers believe that the information gained in this study will help teacher candidates, future educators and the teacher education research community.

Discourse that Facilitates Mathematical Thinking
Olive Chapman, Associate Professor, Graduate Division of Educational Research, University of Calgary

A central goal in mathematics education is to teach students to think mathematically. Thinking mathematically involves the ability to perceive and understand structure and structural relationships and to reason using extended chains of arguments. Although discourse is important in helping students to develop mathematical thinking, it has not been thoroughly studied. This case study of an exemplary Grade 3 teacher and her students will investigate discourse that facilitates mathematical thinking. Data will consist of pre-lesson and post-lesson discussions, classroom observations and teaching documents. The following questions will be studied: When, why and how should teachers use questioning and discussions in whole-class settings to facilitate discourse? What is the nature of students’ participation and learning in this discourse? Through analysis, researchers will identify the types of questions and prompts that elicited mathematical thinking in students and the kind of mathematical thinking that resulted; the verbal elements that students and teacher attended to in each others’ responses during the discussions; and the situations in which specific types of questions and discussions were used and when and how students’ responded. The researchers will then draw conclusions about discourse and develop some classroom scenarios to illustrate the effective use of discourse.

Grants Approved in 2003

Drawing as a Language in a Kindergarten Class
Dr Pat Tarr, Associate Professor, Division of Teacher Preparation, University of Calgary

The purpose of this project is to investigate the role that drawing can play in helping children create meaning, express ideas and learn English in a kindergarten with a high ESL population. The study has been inspired by the pre-primary schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where children are encouraged to express their understanding of the world through drawing and other forms of representation (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998). The researchers believe that this approach, being context and culturally specific, should be formally examined in a local context. The project has two components: First, the teaching team will work with a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary to plan and implement strategies for incorporating drawing into all areas of the kindergarten curriculum. Second, the team will document these classroom experiences based on the principles of the Reggio Emilia approach in which teachers serve to make visible what children have learned. The drawings, which are a form of communication among children, parents and the school community, also help teachers to understand how children think. The researchers anticipate that this process will not only shed light on the link between drawing and language acquisition in young children (especially ESL learners) but also demonstrate to parents and the larger educational community the value of multiple forms of expression for this population of children.

Preservice Teachers' Historical Understanding: From Theory to Practice
Dr Amy von Heyking, Assistant Professor, Department of Elementary Education, University of Alberta

Alberta Learning has recently developed a new social studies curriculum that will be implemented in stages beginning in the fall of 2005. The new curriculum specifically identifies historical thinking as one of four required dimensions of thinking that teachers must cultivate. This study will examine what teachers need to know about history in order to enact the new social studies curriculum in Alberta and the extent to which their understandings affect their teaching practice. Students enrolled in "Advanced Curriculum and Instruction in Social Studies" (EDEL 435) will be asked to complete a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the course to determine what effect, if any, the course and their prior experiences had on their ability to teach history. Five self-selected students will be interviewed at the midpoint of the course to expand on their responses to the questionnaire. In the fall of 2004 and the winter of 2005, five self-selected students will also be interviewed before and immediately after they have completed their nine-week practicum experience. They will be asked about how they planned for their teaching of the historical components of the social studies curriculum, how their preservice education courses had influenced their beliefs about children's understanding of history and whether they had used computer technology to support their teaching.

The Role of the Teacher in Facilitating a Collaborative Learning Community in a High School Mathematics Classroom
Cynthia Ballheim, Vice Principal, Father Lacombe High School

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role that a high school mathematics teacher plays in developing and maintaining a collaborative learning environment in the mathematics classroom. For the purposes of this study, a collaborative learning environment is one that uses collaborative student groups, engages students in worthwhile mathematical tasks, and involves a mathematical conversation that serves to pull mathematical information together and to move the classroom forward in terms of its shared mathematical understanding. Three participants were chosen because they experienced the last curriculum change, use collaborative learning groups in their classroom, actively participate in professional development activities, and are knowledgeable about recent trends in pedagogical processes. Classroom observations will take place when algebra is being taught. The project will begin with one semi-structured interview of approximately two hours to determine participants' understanding of a collaborative learning community, find out relevant details about their background, examine how they define what they do, and determine their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. Pre- and post-observation discussions will take place to discuss emerging themes. Participants will be asked to keep a journal detailing their thoughts and musings as the study progresses. They will also be asked to share their planning documents, assessment materials, class handouts and other documents that might shed light on the study.

The Implementation of Balanced Literacy with Deaf Children
Mary Ann Bibby, Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

Hearing loss has a profound effect on literacy development: deaf people, on average, have a Grade 4 reading level when they finish high school. In 1997, the Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) introduced a program entitled "Balanced Literacy" in its schools. The Alberta School for the Deaf began using this program with elementary students in September 2001. Although developed for hearing students, features of the Balanced Literacy program (time on task, teacher in-servicing, focused strategies and structure) might have a very positive impact on reading outcomes for deaf children. Little attention has been paid to either the challenges facing teachers of the deaf or the outcomes for deaf students involved in this program. This research addresses the following questions: What data have been or need to be gathered to reliably chart the progress of deaf students in the program? To what extent can assessments used by Alberta Learning also be used with deaf students? What assessments can provide better information, taking into account the fact that deaf student communicate using American Sign Language? What teaching strategies do teachers of the deaf actually use when implementing this program? How do those strategies differ from the ones used by teachers of hearing students who learn to read by using phonological codes? What challenges does the program present for teachers using the program for deaf students? What aspects of the program are effective for use with deaf students? By collecting quantitative and qualitative data, the study will shed light on the effectiveness of the program in developing student literacy and contribute to a better understanding of changes teachers make to meet the unique learning needs of deaf students.

Belonging and Becoming: A Narrative Inquiry into Continuity of Experience in Student Teacher Placements
Pam Steeves, Horowitz Scholar, Sessional Instructor, University of Alberta

This narrative inquiry examines the experiences of elementary-route student teachers who undertake both the introductory and the advanced professional-term phases of their field experiences placement in the same elementary school with the same cohort of student teachers. The inquiry will explore the significance of belonging to the same community of student teachers as they evolve from being students to beginning teachers over the course of their field experience placements. Data will consist of conversations, interviews, and the journal entries of the researcher. The inquiry will be guided by the following main research question: What stories do student teachers tell of how they connect their learning experiences in teacher education? Two sub-questions will also be explored: (1) What stories do student teachers tell of their learning experiences over a sustained period? and (2) What stories do student teachers tell about what helped them make the transition from student to beginning teacher? Teacher educators argue that, to teach children, student teachers must develop their own teaching identities by relating to themselves and to others (Hollingsworth 1993, Britzman 1991, Vinz 1996). What do these relationships look like for student teachers in their field placements? Currently, student teachers usually experience three professional knowledge landscapes (Clandinin & Connelly 1995) and three separate student cohorts. Some student teachers have reported that their field experience placements were fragmented (University of Alberta 1999, 2000). Knowing that moving from one professional knowledge landscape to another affects the quality of experience might enable faculties of education to create the conditions that would facilitate student teachers in developing a unique teaching identity (Steeves, 2000) .

Proving in High School Mathematics
Shannon Sookochoff, Teacher, Jasper Place High School

This action-research project will explore possibilities for more meaningful and engaging experiences for high school students with mathematical proof. Specifically, it will explore what happens when a teacher deliberately addresses a wider vision of proof and proving in mathematics as conceived by Reid (1995). The study will be conducted in a Mathematics 20 Pure course where the teacher will deliberately incorporate the outcomes for “Formal Reasoning” throughout each lesson and unit in Math 20, rather than simply follow the lessons recommended in the Reasoning and Geometry unit in the student textbook. In this way, the lessons taught throughout the year will focus on reasoning as a process outcome in addition to addressing the five specific outcomes noted in the program of studies. To this end, the instruction will focus on problem solving and investigation. This action-research study is a way to begin to situate the teacher’s instructional practices in the research literature and at the same time contribute classroom-based and teacher-directed research to the mathematics education community’s understanding of proof and proving.

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