The purpose of this research study was to explore why some Aboriginal students participate in senior secondary Biology, Chemistry, or Physics and achieve a high level of academic success (67% or higher) in these courses. The following key questions were addressed: 1. What are the experiences and perceptions of Aboriginal students with regard to senior secondary science? 2.What role, if any, does culture play for Aboriginal students who are successful in the senior secondary sciences? 3. What are the factors that either contribute to or hinder success by Aboriginal students in science-related courses? Ten Aboriginal participants were interviewed from the Greater Victoria School District. Metaphor Interviews, Literal Interviews and a Focus Group were used to collect data. The results indicated that Aboriginal ancestry was important to the identity of many of the participants, but it was not a significant contributing factor in their academic success in senior secondary science.

The literature suggests that many teachers are burning out and are stressed and unwell. Health promotion in the school setting with a focus on students is becoming more and more prevalent. However, research has not adequately investigated the effects of health promotion in the school setting focused on the teachers. This study explores the experiences of the teachers who took part in the “Step It Up” program which is a pedometer program including goal setting and teams. This is a mixed methodology as the data was collected using semi structured interviews, open ended questionnaires and a document review of the step logging records. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed according the Colaizzi procedures seeking the barriers and the benefits of the program as experienced by the teachers. Through data analysis, the benefit main themes were; motivation, awareness and social support. The barrier themes found were; step logging, time management and goal setting. In conclusion with the recommendations and modifications suggested in this study, the “Step it Up” program is feasible in the school- setting.

This qualitative exploratory study investigated the implementation of team-building activities into an elementary Physical Education Program. The participating teacher was from an affluent school district and her class consisted of twelve grade four students and seventeen fifth graders. It was proposed that a team-building (TB) initiative, with a teacher facilitator being supported and coached by a knowledgeable instructor, would help identify specific enablers and barriers that existed and provide insights into how to promote team building implementation by classroom teachers. It was also proposed that the study would enable the teacher to reflect on her actions and decisions made as a team-building facilitator to scaffold teacher awareness, growth, and future change. The “researcher,” also referred to as teacher coach, and participating teacher met initially to decide how they wanted the study to proceed and it was explained that the participating teacher had the liberty of guiding and directing the study in ways she deemed suitable and believed fit. Decisions were made that the teacher coach would visit on-site every second week to facilitate team-building activities with the fourth and fifth graders to aid in the facilitation of activities by the participating teacher. The on-site visits were digitally photographed and video-recorded to help build upon the study and work to uncover underlying data and themes. The teacher coach and participating teacher met pre-study, mid-study, and post-study to reflect at length upon the experience and to explore concepts and ideas that arose from the teacher’s reflective journal entries. Data was analyzed using NVivo and CMap, which formulated the following emergent themes: teacher and student development, fostering and enriching classroom and school community, “Ahah!” moments, the TB experience, and insights into a teacher-friendly TB manual. Recommendations for research and practice were considered and presented for researchers and educators.

Research into the phenomenon of youth suicide is typically guided by quantitative methodologies focused on young people who have attempted or died by suicide. Questions related to epidemiology, etiology, and the development of actuarial measures of risk are often the drivers of these particular kinds of research. Similarly, research into school-based youth suicide prevention curricula is predominantly focused on quantitative measures of the degree to which young people acquire knowledge or change attitudes about suicide, after exposure to a delivered program. Grounded in post-structural ideas, the purpose of this thesis is to expand upon these mainstream inquiries into youth suicide prevention education through close exploration and analysis of how “suicide” is discursively produced within the context of a classroom delivered curriculum. This study will pay particular attention to the discursive productions of suicide in the curriculum, as well as how these productions result in the constitution of particular objects, concepts, and subjectivities. Transcripts of “naturally occurring classroom talk” will serve as the site of analysis. Troubling contemporary “truth regimes” about suicide and its prevention through close analysis of the discursive frames by which they are produced offers up the potential of re-imagining new possibilities for thinking about and delivering youth suicide prevention education.

Marine aquariums are excellent venues for accomplishing the purposes of marine education, and school field trips conducted at non-formal settings continue to be an important part of K-12 education. The purpose of this study was to provide not only quantitative data regarding the extent and quality of marine aquarium field trips conducted by elementary schoolteachers in Seoul, South Korea, but also to provide a qualitative description of marine aquarium education conducted in the USA and Canada. A Web survey designed to examine Korean teachers' experiences and perspectives on aquarium field trips identified several concerns regarding Korean marine aquarium education, and a case study conducted at three aquariums in the USA and Canada described the characteristics and qualities of marine aquarium education at those aquaria. Recommendations for both Korean aquaria's educational roles and Korean elementary schools' successful field trips to aquaria are presented with the goal of improving the quality of Korean marine aquarium education.

This study examines science teachers' beliefs and ideas about science prior to and following a one and a half day workshop on Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Witsuwit'en knowledge of science. It is part of a wider study initiated by the Aboriginal Enhancements Branch of the BC Ministry of Education to determine why Aboriginal students are not enrolling in the sciences. A broad range of qualitative methodologies were applied, including pre and post instructional questionnaires, an experiential field trip to traditional Witsuwit'en territories as well as an instructional workshop and a dialogue process. Aspects of Indigenous methodology were included that were central to the lived experience of the Witsuwit'en people whose territories we were on and with whom the research was being conducted. Post-workshop questionnaire responses indicated that teachers' developed a broader understanding of Witsuwit'en Traditional Knowledge systems and a deeper respect for the contributions of the local First Nations to the sciences.

Service learning literature focusing on participants and programs in an academic setting is extensive. However, there is a lack of research looking at the experiences of employees in a corporate setting. The purpose of this inquiry was to understand how employees experience corporate service learning and to explore how well existing literatures on service learning and volunteerism serve the corporate service learning experience. Using interpretive phenomenology and the Four Frame Organizational Model (Bolman & Deal, 1997) to frame the inquiry, the experiences of employees in a retail store (N= 9) participating in service learning were examined. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with program participants. Seven themes were evident in the findings of the inquiry: skill development, health (sub-themes of self-esteem and empowerment), job satisfaction, improved workplace relationships, bridging into the community, social responsibility and challenges. The findings of this inquiry suggest that employee involvement in a service learning experience can stimulate a sense of social responsibility. Another important finding of the inquiry was that pairing service activities with health activities was a positive combination that contributed to personal and community health. Finally, there was evidence that service learning can help build social capital in the workplace. This inquiry supports research in the area of service learning in the corporate setting to more fully understand the potential of this pedagogical strategy. The development of educational resources for companies wanting to build service learning programs is also important if these initiatives are to be effective in the workplace.

In this study, the effects of student and school level variables on the mathematics achievement of 15 year old students in Canada and Japan were investigated. Participants included 27,953 students from Canada and 4,707 students from Japan. The student level variables used in this analysis included student sex, perceived teacher support, and socioeconomic status, and the school level variables included principals' perceptions of both. student and teacher morale and commitment, and student and teacher related factors affecting school climate. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003. The proportion of variance in mathematics scores attributable to schools was 20%, in Canada and 54% in Japan. In both countries, higher ratings by principals on both student commitment and morale, and student-related factors affecting school climate were linked to higher mathematics achievement. Implications for educators and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Young women are influenced by a variety of different messages as they are transitioning from being viewed as little girls to being viewed as young women. While women of all ages can experience dissatisfaction with their bodies and appearance, this is especially common during the time when girls are entering into adolescence, adjusting to their changing bodies, and trying to develop a sense of who they are as an individual. Our society today has placed a significant importance on thinness and young women are bombarded with messages presenting them with an unattainable level of thinness as society‘s ideal. This paper describes adolescent development, looks at the sociocultural influences (family, peers, and media) that impact young women‘s body image, presents prevention and intervention programs that have been used with young women, and provides recommendations for family life educators on how to educate parents on the messages their daughters are being sent and provides them with suggestions on how to talk with their daughters about these messages.

Motivated primarily by a cognitive approach, with consideration of interactional processes from a sociocultural perspective, the present study examined the use of linguistic assistance and peer interaction to facilitate second language (L2) writing of young ESL learners. A total of 257 Year 5 children (age 10) from twelve intact classes (from six different schools) took part in this eight-week intervention-based study. Using a quasi-experimental design, the classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups or the control group. Pretests, interim tests, immediate posttests and delayed posttests were administered. As the study concerned both the processes and products of L2 development, peer interaction and children's written production were taken as the two primary sources of data for this study. For the written production, four criteria were used to rate learners’ writings: Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure, Vocabulary and spelling and Implicit grammar. Partial correlation was employed to examine if there were any statistical relationships between treatment and learners’ written performance while controlling for prior attainment. Results show that the provision of enhanced and basic linguistic assistance may have a positive influence on only certain aspects of L2 writing, while opportunities for peer interaction does not appear to have an impact on learners’ L2 performance. For peer interaction, a subset of 60 learners were selected from the two treatment groups which received basic and enhanced linguistic assistance, to compare their dialogic performance. Based on quantitative analyses of their recorded interactions, the findings suggest that the provision of varying degrees of linguistic assistance may affect, not the content of peer discussions, but how peer assistance is given during task. The results also show that through the provision of linguistic assistance, peer interaction mediates the participants’ performance on Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure and Implicit grammar in their subsequent individual writing.