This study explores the effect of implementing expert-developed concept maps and cooperative learning, as compared to direct instruction and cooperative learning, on student learning, experiences and perceptions. Using a mixed-methods research design, data was collected to determine the impact of these combined instructional strategies on students learning as measured by examination scores. Surveys were used to gather data on students' thoughts and feelings towards group work and concept mapping. Finally, a pre- and post-survey was used to determine if instructional strategies impacted students' perceptions of accounting. The results of the study show a significant difference in students learning as measured by examination scores between the treatment and control group. The majority of students reported a preference for group work as well as expert-developed concept maps. Overall students' perceptions of accounting declined in both the treatment and control group.

This study explores the conceptions and practices of parent involvement in education that exist among Latin American families with students in Toronto Schools. The individual and collective life histories of 3 immigrant families from Latin America were collected in order to understand how parents and students conceive of parents’ role the education of their children. The findings of this research demonstrate that families’ conceptions are much broader and expansive than what is currently defined as parent involvement within policy and practice in Ontario and are informed by their educational trajectory in their home country and throughout the migration process and their ideas on education. This research serves to shed light on the experiences of Latin American families in their interactions with educational institutions and gives voice to their experiences, ideas and aspirations in their new home.

This study explores the conceptions and practices of parent involvement in education that exist among Latin American families with students in Toronto Schools. The individual and collective life histories of 3 immigrant families from Latin America were collected in order to understand how parents and students conceive of parents’ role the education of their children. The findings of this research demonstrate that families’ conceptions are much broader and expansive than what is currently defined as parent involvement within policy and practice in Ontario and are informed by their educational trajectory in their home country and throughout the migration process and their ideas on education. This research serves to shed light on the experiences of Latin American families in their interactions with educational institutions and gives voice to their experiences, ideas and aspirations in their new home.

This study explores the effect of implementing expert-developed concept maps and cooperative learning, as compared to direct instruction and cooperative learning, on student learning, experiences and perceptions. Using a mixed-methods research design, data was collected to determine the impact of these combined instructional strategies on students learning as measured by examination scores. Surveys were used to gather data on students' thoughts and feelings towards group work and concept mapping. Finally, a pre- and post-survey was used to determine if instructional strategies impacted students' perceptions of accounting. The results of the study show a significant difference in students learning as measured by examination scores between the treatment and control group. The majority of students reported a preference for group work as well as expert-developed concept maps. Overall students' perceptions of accounting declined in both the treatment and control group.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of various forms of pressure and support experienced by teachers in an intentionally designed learning community on teacher learning and teacher sense of efficacy. Eleven Grade 6 teachers in a middle school in Southern Ontario were interviewed and a complex systems approach was adopted to analyze their experiences. The results suggested three key implications: (1) teachers’ experiences of pressures and supports are variable and influenced by teacher sense of efficacy and administrative decisions about the implementation of those pressure and support mechanisms; (2) a coherent, cohesive and balanced system of formal and informal structures of pressure and support is important to support teacher learning; and (3) structures, mechanisms and culture must facilitate transfer of learning in meaningful ways between the subsystems operating in a school in order to support teacher learning and teacher sense of efficacy.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of various forms of pressure and support experienced by teachers in an intentionally designed learning community on teacher learning and teacher sense of efficacy. Eleven Grade 6 teachers in a middle school in Southern Ontario were interviewed and a complex systems approach was adopted to analyze their experiences. The results suggested three key implications: (1) teachers’ experiences of pressures and supports are variable and influenced by teacher sense of efficacy and administrative decisions about the implementation of those pressure and support mechanisms; (2) a coherent, cohesive and balanced system of formal and informal structures of pressure and support is important to support teacher learning; and (3) structures, mechanisms and culture must facilitate transfer of learning in meaningful ways between the subsystems operating in a school in order to support teacher learning and teacher sense of efficacy.

Situated in the holistic education field, this research explores the mind/body experiences of six youth who remained in a drama group from the time they were children to their late adolescence. In the first phase of this research these participants reflected on their experiences of the imagination, thought and felt sensation as they engaged in meditation and mind/body warm-up exercises during the drama years. The participants applied their understanding of mind/body awareness to a question posed by Vivian Darroch-Lozwoski; what happens when we attend to nature feelingly? Over the course of one year, the youth explored the above question, individually and collectively through dreaming, reveries, the imagination, experiences of energy and as they wandered in nature. The inquiry directly addresses the existential, ontological and epistemological implications of holistic mind/body development and outlines approaches for gentling the mind and body to nature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate a college computer course delivered in both online and face-to-face classes. As more online courses and programs emerge, concerns about the quality and comparability of online instruction with face-to-face instruction have arisen. Questions about the relative effectiveness of each mode of instruction are important both at the stage of course development and at the stage of course delivery. Earlier comparative studies have shown that online courses were equal to face-to-face courses. These studies evaluated student services and technological infrastructure, student satisfaction, and learning outcomes. However, few studies have been conducted on computer applications at the community college level. This study seeks to fill in this gap by providing students’ perceptions of computer education for a business program at the three-year diploma level. This study has examined the learning environment and informed practice by presenting differentiation and diversity mainly due to different mode of delivery in a college computer course. This study aims to provide a detailed understanding of the similarities and differences of college students attending online class versus face-to-face class taught by the same professor. It examines students’ perceptions of course design and delivery, their attitudes and beliefs about acquisition of computer applications, and their academic achievement as measured by the test scores. Mixed methods are employed to investigate the research questions both in depth and in breadth. In the Fall of 2009, 60 out of 89 eligible participants filled out the online questionnaire resulting in the response rate of 67% and six students participated one-on-one in-person interviews. Results from both quantitative and qualitative studies show that there is no significant difference between the face-to-face and online students with respect to their perceptions, attitudes, motivation, and learning outcomes. The findings demonstrate that there was no evidence showing difference between online learning and face-to-face learning. The different learning modes provide students with positive learning experiences. This study provides stakeholders such as students, college administrators, and professors with a detailed and meaningful understanding of the important learning environments for the online and face-to-face classes. The implications from the findings will help to enhance, advance, and expand face-to-face and online education at both the theoretical and practical level.

Abstract In 2007 the Ministry of Education in Ontario identified Aboriginal education as one of its key priorities with the release of the First Nation, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework (FNMI). Improving educational outcomes and closing the achievement gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students is the focus of this policy. This study examines the policy implementation process in one school board in Ontario by focusing on how teachers in two elementary schools made sense of the policy expectations and how this sense-making impacted their professional practice. In order to examine how implementation was understood and acted upon by these teachers, the sense-making/co-construction model developed by Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan (2002) provides the starting point for analysis. This study seeks to make visible the sense-making cues that teachers used to notice and select new information and to examine how these cues impacted teacher enactment of the FNMI policy. Sense-making theory supports the examination of change at the micro level of local policy actors; while the co-construction model with its meditational system of individual agency, organizational structure/culture, and environmental messaging contextualizes the individual sense-making of teachers within a larger social environment. The research methodology included teacher interviews designed to collect evidence of teacher sense-making during the policy implementation process, and school visits to observe evidence of school culture and structure. Interview responses of 15 elementary teachers and 2 principals were analyzed for sense-making cues. The findings revealed clusters of sense-making cues connected to three main sense-making frameworks or discourses. These discourses included the teacher as professional, equity and inclusion, and leadership and change. These findings support previous research on sense-making and policy implementation and contribute further insight into the micro processes of policy implementation, which could be leveraged to improve policy implementation. Key Words: policy implementation, teacher sense-making, leadership, co-construction model

Scholars suggest that when students use information and communication technology to complete and present identity texts about their own cultural background, such as self-authored literature, artwork, and multi-media texts, they learn about themselves and others and they can improve literacy skills and proficiency with technology (Chow & Cummins, 2003; Cummins, 2006). In this exploratory case study five middle-school students attending a diverse inner city school, and each representing a different demographic, were asked to complete an identity text project. In question was whether they would consume or critically deconstruct the negative hegemonic discourses they might encounter in the process. Results indicated that student response to these discourses was inconsistent, that students minoritized as black were especially vulnerable to them, and that student-led constructivist projects like this should be preceded by effective inclusive schooling and media literacy pedagogy to help ensure student engagement with multi-literacies is enhanced as intended.