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ICAP is a framework that classifies learning processes based on students' explicit behaviors. The framework is developed for testing the hypothesis that interactive exercises are better than constructive exercises, and active exercises are better than the passive exercises for higher cognitive engagement and better learning outcomes. The ICAP Framework is intended to assist researchers, instruction designers and instructors in determining the activities appropriate for the aimed research and teaching. This study aims to evaluate articles based on or supported by the ICAP Framework from various aspects. In the study, employing the descriptive survey method, data collection was conducted through document analysis, while content analysis was utilized to analyze the data. The 71 articles reviewed within the study's scope were examined through the "data collection form" developed by the authors. In this context, the articles' general and methodological characteristics and themes and the findings related to ICAP contexts are presented. As a result of the research, no study regarding the ICAP Framework was conducted in Turkey. It was revealed that most of the studies, which have increased in number since 2017 in various countries, utilize the ICAP framework at the analytical level or create models-modules and develop toolsscales based on the ICAP Framework. Additionally, it was observed that mostly undergraduate and K12 students were studied in face-to-face education, with social sciences as the leading disciplinary field and teaching-learning approaches and design-development-evaluation as the most frequently studied topics, while in studies in which mixed and qualitative methods were the leading methods, exploratory and experimental approaches were more preferred. In line with these results, recommendations are presented to contribute to the field.

School dropout is a significant issue in distance learning, and early detection is crucial for addressing the problem. Our study aims to create a binary classification model that anticipates students' activity levels based on their current achievements and engagement on a Canadian Distance learning Platform. Predicting student dropout, a common classification problem in educational data analysis, is addressed by utilizing a comprehensive dataset that includes 49 features ranging from socio-demographic to behavioral data. This dataset provides a unique opportunity to analyze student interactions and success factors in a distance learning environment. We have developed a student profiling system and implemented a predictive approach using XGBoost, selecting the most important features for the prediction process. In this work, our methodology was developed in Python, using the widely used sci-kit-learn package. Alongside XGBoost, logistic regression was also employed as part of our combination of strategies to enhance the models predictive capabilities. Our work can accurately predict student dropout, achieving an accuracy rate of approximately 82% on unseen data from the next academic year.

In recent decades, history and education scholars in the Western world have argued for a constructivist approach to disciplinary thinking in the teaching and learning of History, known as "historical thinking". Yet, there has been little classroom-based empirical research exploring how teachers engage with historical thinking theory, enact related practices in the classroom, and, in Canada, utilize historical thinking concepts. The multiple-case study outlined here addresses this gap, by offering descriptive details and insights regarding four Canadian secondary school teachers' attitudes, understandings, implementation, and applications of historical thinking in lessons and assessments. Differences among these teachers' perceptions and practices indicate that historical thinking is not a singular pedagogical approach. Yet, common elements revealed two broadly drawn typologies that may serve as inspiration and provide concrete examples for history teachers wishing to develop their own historical thinking practices. Rich descriptions also provide unique insights into how the teachers use their judgment and knowledge in the choices and decisions they make to move theory to practice. Finally, this study offers a methodology for the continued classroom-based study of historical thinking.

Colleges are important providers of vocational education and training and in some countries they are the major provider. Although the international literature on colleges has grown considerably in the past two decades, it still consists primarily of qualitative descriptions of college sectors in different countries. Quantitative studies of differences in the activity mix of colleges in different countries could improve knowledge of international variation in the roles of colleges and provide a stronger foundation for study of the sources and consequences of variation in college roles. After reviewing different methodological frameworks for comparative analysis of college activity, the research reported here employs one of these frameworks to analyse differences in the activity mix of colleges in five countries. In addition to finding some noteworthy differences among the five countries, the paper also identified several problems of comparability of college data from different countries. The paper concludes that the development of internationally comparable data on colleges would require leadership by international organisations and agencies and is an undertaking well worth pursuing both for the benefits that it could bring to those whom colleges serve and for its contribution to the advancement of comparative study of vocational education and training.

Universities are recognizing the need to prepare graduates to think conceptually and have the ability to take on complex, real-world problems. Strategies to assess conceptual knowledge are limited and often require more time and effort to complete than is accessible for most undergraduate courses. Card sorting is a very broad technique for understanding how people group concepts, but in higher education has typically been used to show a student's development towards expert-like thinking in a discipline as a whole. However, it typically does not give much insight into how we should change our teaching. In this paper, using the novel setting of two terms of a first-year, earth and ocean science lab that uses problem-based learning (PBL), we show how one can generate a card sort that is built using course learning goals and then use the analysis to make actionable improvements to course instruction. Using a card sort designed so that the expert sort corresponds to learning goals supported by the lab activities, we found that in both offerings of the course students generally moved towards expert-like sorting with a reduction in novice-like sorting. A striking feature stood out in both terms of the course, with one question scoring significantly lower than any other expert pairings, despite a change in the wording of that question between terms. This suggests that our course materials do not promote this specific conceptual connection that we had expected and gives us a clear place to look for issues in our course material. In a broader context, our results suggest that tailoring card sort questions to material at a course level, rather than at the discipline level, can provide a manageable, routine assessment of conceptual knowledge in students, while also providing feedback on the quality of course materials.

This paper reports a phenomenographic study exploring diverse understandings and experiences of teacher leadership among 12 members of the International Study of Teacher Leadership research team comprised of 20 academics located in 10 countries. Mind mapping and semi-structured, online interviews were used to explore the ways that the participants related with the phenomenon of interest: 'teacher leadership'. Phenomenographic analysis of interview artefacts revealed nine qualitatively different conceptions of teacher leadership in the study's outcome space across three broad domains: A: The school, school community and formal education system; B: The teacher leader's professional self; C: The broader historical, socio-political and global contexts of teacher leadership. In addition to providing a 'touchstone' for the team's ongoing research, these findings serve as an experiential framework for thinking about teacher leadership, potentially encouraging more inclusive, more complete and richer understandings of the phenomenon.

The aim of this study was to determine the examination of the researches about the use of technology by fine arts teachers. The study was conducted according to the content and citation analysis model. In this context, Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection indexes were included. In the document scanning in the WOS environment, the keywords 'Fine arts', 'Teachers' and 'Technology' were searched. In total, 169 documents were examined and analysed one by one. They were analysed according to year, document type, WOS content category, country, source title, organisation and citation, authors, publication language and categories. As a result of this research, the first study was conducted in 2004, while the most studies were conducted in 2016. It was concluded that the published studies had the most Proceedings papers as the document type. The area where the studies of fine arts teachers on the use of technology are mostly carried out is Education Educational Research, according to the Web of Science content category. The most researched title in the distribution according to the Source Title field is 'International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts.' The university with the most studies is Kazan Federal University. The 19 authors who conducted the studies have a large number of studies in this field. It was concluded that other authors had only one study in the field. Again, when we look at the distribution of the countries and documents according to the language of writing, the country with the most studies is China and the language of the documents is English. The area continues to evolve.

Human Rights Education exists as an implementing entity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Scholars such as Andre Keet and others have criticized the dissemination of universal rights through education because it covets Western ideology over local ethical and epistemological constructs. Using Tibbitts' revised typologies of Human Rights Education, this paper offers suggestions for critical pedagogy for the teaching of, for, and through Human Rights. These suggestions are drawn from examples of critical practice from throughout the world.

The doctoral defence is the oral examination of the doctoral thesis. While it is a major milestone for doctoral candidates, this event is often shrouded in mystery. In this article, I explore the doctoral defence from an international perspective. I have studied the format of the defence based on written testimonies as well as the literature on this topic. From this analysis, I distinguish four main elements of the defence format: (1) timing of the defence with respect to thesis publication, (2) number of steps in the defence, (3) public or private defence, and (4) the timeline of the defence itself. I then use these building blocks of the doctoral defence format to discuss differences and similarities between the formats, and finally to categorize defence formats used internationally by analysing the format of 26 countries, 24 of which use an oral defence format. The result is a deeper understanding of the defence format, which is valuable for candidates, committee members, supervisors, and administrators, and which can also serve the current discussions within the European Union on a standard format for the doctoral defence. Ultimately, understanding the defence format removes the mystery surrounding the defence.

Growing interest in online learning has instructors looking for new ways to engage learners in asynchronous discussions. Building on experiences with hashtag use to connect on social media platforms, the purpose of this study is to investigate the contexts of hashtag use and its associated impact on learner engagement in asynchronous online discussions. In more detail, this mixed-methods case study will answer the following questions: 1) How and in what context do students use hashtags in online discussions? and 2) In what ways, if any, does the use of hashtags promote engagement in an online community? Findings suggest that while classifying and organizing course information was a strong motivator for tagging posts, hashtags were also used to connect to others in the learning community, express opinions, and encourage knowledge building. The results from our study contribute to a better understanding of engagement with and through hashtag use.

Academic entitlement (AE), which includes some students' tendencies to express deservingness of academic outcomes, not based on achievement, may have serious implications, such as academic dishonesty and classroom incivility. Some researchers have suggested that there may be different types of students with regard to AE, implying that motives for entitled behaviour may not be uniform. The current study extends previous work in identifying subtypes of AE. A sample of 751 undergraduate students responded to measures of AE, narcissism, and performance avoidance learning orientation. Cluster analysis revealed five distinct clusters: Entitled Narcissist, Entitled Non-Narcissist, Unobtrusive Entitlement, Not Entitled, and Performance Avoidant. The Entitled Narcissist cluster is small in size and members generally have a higher sense of entitlement. The Entitled Non-Narcissist cluster is larger in size and members tend to have high performance avoidance scores. Understanding typologies of AE could lead to different strategies for addressing highly entitled students.

Research priority setting makes knowledge users integral to the development of research agendas. The purpose of this study was to explore educational leaders' perspectives on research priorities in special education. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with leaders from 60 public school districts in British Columbia, Canada. Seventy-one participants representing 43 districts completed the survey. The results of a pre-set list of questions indicated that the top three research priorities were grade-to-grade transitions, high school graduation, and time to designation. In terms of designation, or student categorization, participants were most interested in "Intensive Behaviour Interventions/Severe Mental Illness." When asked about other priorities, participants identified types of support and interventions. These results have implications for developing research agendas that can support informed decision-making around policy and programming.

Covariates have been used in mixture IRT models to help explain why examinees are classed into different latent classes. Previous research has considered manifest variables as covariates in a mixture Rasch analysis for prediction of group membership. Latent covariates, however, are more likely to have higher correlations with the latent class variable. This study investigated effects of including latent variables as covariates in a mixture Rasch model, in presence of and in absence of interactions between the covariates. Results indicated the latent and manifest covariates influenced latent class membership but did not have much influence on class ability means or class proportions. The influence was relatively higher for latent covariates compared to manifest covariates. The effects of the covariates on class membership and on item parameters were class specific. Substantial effects of covariates on item parameters yielded smaller standard errors for item parameter estimates. A significant interaction term also had an effect on the coefficients for predicting and explaining latent class membership.

Legal, privacy and ethical concerns impacted data sharing among post-secondary institutions in academic collaboration in Ontario. The legal/ethical environment was embodied by FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) legislation, Research Ethics Board protocols and Institutional Acts enacted by the provincial parliament. Collectively, they placed limitations on how and what data was shared; as well as the volume, types, frequency and use of the data exchanged. The 'Data Sharing in Academic Collaborations and Pathways' study categorized the data exchanged into two broad categories, namely: a) data sharing for administration; and b) data sharing for research and planning. The legal/ ethical environment also impacted the attitudes of staff within the six academic institutions who participated in the 'study.' And Communication Privacy Management theory offered some explanation for the behaviours and attitudes that were observed.

Background: The spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to young people. Yet, little is known about how concern for these is operationalised for youth in school curricula. Objectives: This rapid review examined if, and if so how, the spiritual dimensions of health were being conceptualised in school curricula and, in turn, how the curricula proposed that the spiritual health of young people is best supported. Method: Using National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) guidelines, we conducted a rapid review of all 10 provincial and 3 territorial physical education and health curricula in Canada. Data included all curriculum documents containing any reference(s) to spiritual/spirituality/religion that were extracted into a master table. Coding and thematic analysis were used to categorise and synthesise the data iteratively. Results: In total, 115 curricula documents were retrieved from the web, of which 67 were included for screening. Analyses revealed how the spiritual dimensions of health are used in curricula overall and provide evidence that while the spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to Canadian young people, they are often not included in health curricula in Canada, and when they are, they are not always rooted in theory or evidence. Conclusion: Details about how the spiritual dimensions of health are operationalised in the school curriculum remain underdeveloped and vague. Some curricula offer promising ideas about how the spiritual dimensions of health can be used to support child health and well-being. However, educational settings currently provide a missed opportunity to support the spiritual health of young Canadians.

Children with intellectual disability experience a higher prevalence of dental disease, obesity, challenging behaviours, and mental health disorders compared to children without intellectual disability. Children with intellectual disability concurrently face health and social service navigational barriers that are associated with unresolved health needs and hospital admissions, and parent burnout and employment interruptions. In this study, we explored the knowledge gap of how carers and governmental agencies, providing services, understand intellectual disability using discourse analysis, and a theoretical framework applying Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of the rhizome and stratification. We found that children with intellectual disability were stratified into eligible or ineligible service recipients through the diagnostic process that prioritized specified characteristics. Carers did not perceive that their children's unique characteristics and needs were accounted for within the diagnostic process and expressed feelings of being dismissed by clinicians and providers in decision-making about priority needs and services.

Bilingual children's dominance can predict a variety of language and cognitive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to test the validity of parents' classifications of 3- to 6-year-old bilingual children's dominance against relative receptive vocabulary scores. In Study 1, the parents' classifications of Mandarin-English bilingual children's dominance corresponded to relative vocabulary scores only for children reported to be very Mandarin dominant. Similar results were obtained in Study 2 with French-English bilinguals and very French dominant children. We argue these results reflect well-known estimation processes and that asking parents to judge each language separately might yield more valid results.

Authentic assessment is revered to support student learning, but it is typically described within the context of work-integrated learning and professional schools, leaving one to question whether a classroom-based curriculum can offer authentic assessments. This study documented the prevalence of authentic assessments throughout a complete health science undergraduate curriculum in accordance with the four core dimensions of authentic assessment: realism, cognitive challenge, evaluative judgement criteria and feedback. Using a literature-informed authentic assessment tool and institutionally standardized course syllabi, 455 assessments in 62 courses were classified as low, moderate or high on core authentic assessment dimensions. Results show that few assessments scored high across all core dimensions (<1% of all assessments), as there was considerable variability across dimensions. Feedback had the weakest dimensional authenticity score. Authentic assessments were more prevalent within upper-year, small capstone courses, although they were not precluded from early-year, large classrooms. Assignments were significantly more authentic than tests, though tests were more dominant in the curriculum (63% marks from tests versus 37% from assignments). This work serves as a model for others seeking to review assessments in their curriculum and provides evidence from a large, representative BSc program to make practical recommendations to promote authenticity of assessments.

Histories of statistics and quantification have demonstrated that systems of statistical knowledge participate in the construction of the objects that are measured. However, the pace, purpose, and scope of quantification in state bureaucracy have expanded greatly over the past decades, fuelled by (neoliberal) societal trends that have given the social phenomenon of quantification a central place in political discussions and in the public sphere. This is particularly the case in the field of education. In this article, we ask what is at stake in state bureaucracy, professional practice, and individual pupils as quantification increasingly permeates the education field. We call for a theoretical renewal in order to understand quantification as a social phenomenon in education. We propose a sociology-of-knowledge approach to the phenomenon, drawing on different theoretical traditions in the sociology of knowledge in France (Alain Desrosières and Laurent Thévenot), England (Barry Barnes and Donald MacKenzie), and Canada (Ian Hacking), and argue that the ongoing quantification practice at different levels of the education system can be understood as cultural processes of self-fulfilling prophecies.

We examine how the politics of knowledge production limit research on the relationship between immigration status and social inequality. We centre the practices of methodological nationalism in Canada, a traditional country of permanent immigration in which temporary migration has become a core feature of the immigration system. In this case, state classification and counting of populations, and the careful curation of data on nominally permanent and temporary migrants limits research on immigration status. We also document the research design process and survey instrument we developed to work towards methodological autonomy from the state categorization of people on the move. The research design included community consultations, democratization of the research process, and a commitment to experiential knowledge. The resulting survey offers a parsimonious instrument to study complex and indeterminate precarious legal status trajectories and their relationship to social inequality.

This paper examines the usage frequency of phonetically reduced modals (i.e. "gonna," "wanna," "gotta") in Present-day English. It is assumed that in distinct sociolinguistic and discourse contexts, the use of reduced modals is dynamic. To collect the data, there are five corpora used in this study, "Corpus of Contemporary American English" and "Global Web-Based English" as the representatives of Present-day English, Brown and LOB corpus as the representative of earlier years of Present-day English, and "A Representative Corpus of Historical English" to provide language data from Early Modern English to Present-day English. The analysis focuses on usage frequency of phonetically reduced modals over period of time, in different regions or countries, different medium of language use, and different text categories. The frequencies were further interpreted based on sociolinguistics and text category perspective to reveal the factors triggering the dynamic of use. The results of this study show the use of reduced modals is dramatically escalating in the last decades. According to regional observation, the use of reduced modals is more frequent in the United States than in other English-speaking countries. In relation to medium of language use, reduced modals are more commonly used in spoken language than in written language. As for text category, the usage frequency of reduced modal in fiction texts is the highest compared to academic texts and news texts. Academic texts seem to avoid these linguistic units since this sort of text must obey the use of standard language in which reduced forms are less standard and more colloquial. This phonetic reduction is plausible to occur since language system and language use apply economy principle. The use of phonetically reduced modals, however, varies in different context and is influenced by colloquialization: the more colloquial the context, the more frequent the use of reduced modals. In general, language use is phonetically simplified and sociolinguistically colloquialized.

Given the longstanding role of grades in education, and their increased use for high-stakes decisions including student mobility, admission, selection, and accountability, this paper presents a systematic review of grading policies across all 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories. In total, 23 policies were inductively analyzed for their articulation of (a) the purposes of grades, (b) the methods used for generating grades, and (c) the relationship between grading and formative assessment. Our analysis revealed significant areas of consistency across Canada while also highlighting important areas of variation. Implications of these findings on the value and use of grades within and across educational systems in Canada are discussed.

This study critically examines how the geopolitical configuration of identities, through the medium of the institutionalized label of "English language learners," can shape and constrain localized experiences for learners. An ethnographic video study was conducted in the context of a mathematics unit ("the transforming recess unit") wherein learners conducted surveys, summarized data, and voiced the changes they hoped to see in the elementary school playground. Findings demonstrate both empowering and disempowering ways of mobilizing data and graphs, which are intertwined with multi-layered identities. Interactions in the classroom were nested in macro-level geopolitical configuration of identities that influenced labeled learners' access to becoming "agents of change" who could voice their desired changes in school practices. Categorical and binary frameworks inscribed in mathematics curriculum served as a context for inheritance and reproduction of existing categories through student surveys and graphs. Implications are discussed toward disrupting and transforming taken-for-granted labeling and rigid institutionalized practices through which colonial representation of the Other can be co-constructed.

Awareness contexts are useful concepts in symbolic interactionist research, which focusses on how everyday realities are constructed. To provide a fresh perspective on governance in Canada's colleges, I sorted vignettes in interview data collected from administrators and faculty into four types of contexts originally derived from observation of interaction between physicians and patients around bad news. These theoretical categories were introduced by Glaser and Strauss in their 1965 book "Awareness of Dying." Applying this lens revealed a "closed awareness" context around college fund-raising and a "mutual suspicion" context in administrator-faculty interaction around student success policy. Examples of "mutual pretense" included feigned administrator-faculty cooperation around changing college missions and faculty workload formulas. "Open awareness" or dialogue, however, occurred where professional bodies or unions intervened. Sorting by awareness contexts reveals similarities between doctor-patient and administrator-faculty interactions. For example, just as doctors feared that delivering bad news to patients might precipitate "mayhem" in the hospital, college administrators may fear that openness around divisive topics might precipitate "mayhem" in college management.

Based on analyses of Maclean's ranking data pertaining to Canadian universities published over the last 24 years, we present a summary of statistical findings of annual ranking exercises, as well as discussion about their current status and the effects upon student welfare. Some illustrative tables are also presented. Using correlational and cluster analyses, for each year, we have found largely nonsignificant, inconsistent, and uninterpretable relations between rank standings of universities and Maclean's main measures, as well as between rank standings and the many specific indices used to generate these standings. In our opinion, when assessed in terms of their empirical characteristics, the annual data show generally that this system of ranking is highly limited in terms of its practical or academic value to students. Among other difficulties with the interpretation of ranks, we also discuss the possibility that ranking exercises have unintended, though potentially serious, negative consequences for the intellectual and personal welfare of students.

A core question in social categorization research focuses on how children organize social categories. We examined whether 4- and 5-year-olds: (a) identify the social category membership of a person based on relational interactions between that person and a known category member; and (b) use these social categories to guide inferences about certain shared properties. Preschoolers (n = 229) were introduced to 2 novel social categories (comprised of diverse individuals), each possessing a distinct property (e.g., dancing vs. singing). During test trials, children witnessed members from each category direct helpful, harmful, or neutral actions toward ambiguous characters. In Experiment 1, when a member of a category exhibited helpful actions toward an ambiguous character, children inferred that the ambiguous character belonged to the same category as the helper. In contrast, when a group member directed harmful actions toward the ambiguous character, children inferred that ambiguous character belonged to the alternate category. In neither case did children extend category properties to the new member. In Experiment 2, category properties were introduced as mutually exclusive social conventions. Here, children used helpful and harmful actions to identify the social category of an ambiguous character and generalize the property. In Experiment 3, when social categories were introduced using only shared physical location and shared activity as a marker of category membership, children did not use helpful or harmful behavior to predict category membership. Together findings indicate that children can identify social category membership based on observed social interactions when meaningful category information is available.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive value of a dynamic test of English and French lexical specificity on at-risk reading classification in 13 at-risk and 44 not at-risk emerging English (L1)-French (L2) bilingual Grade 1 children (M = 75.87 months, SD = 3.18) enrolled in an early French immersion program in Canada. Lexical specificity was assessed with a computerized word learning game in which children were taught new English (e.g., "foal" and "sole") and French (e.g., "bac" "bin" and "bague" "ring") word pairs contrasted by minimal phonological differences. The results indicated that the dynamic test of lexical specificity in English contributed significantly to the prediction of children's French at-risk reading status at the end of Grade 1 after controlling for French phonological awareness and nonverbal reasoning skills. However, French lexical specificity did not predict children's reading risk classification in French after controlling for French phonological awareness. Thus, it may be feasible to identify at-risk status in emerging bilinguals using dynamic measures in their stronger language.

With the perceived increase in plagiarism in post-secondary institutions, there has been a simultaneous increase in research and analysis on the issue emerging from multiple fields including education, humanities, social science, business and management, sciences, and the media. The focus of this research ranges from the frequency of cases, student and faculty perception, preventative and punitive measures, and critiques of definitions and policies. In regards to the latter, many researchers have argued that plagiarism is based on antiquated notions of self, originality, and authenticity that fail to capture the important distinction between students who intend to plagiarize and those who do not. To the point, current policies on plagiarism are always embedded in a moral discourse of honor, integrity, honesty, and student codes of conduct. The problem with this approach is that student's morality is the focus, rather than a matrix of psychological, educational, socio-economic, and cultural factors. Any attempt to respond to plagiarism as a complex and nuanced problem will require a rethinking of current policy. Using a Foucauldian framework, this article illustrates how current policy is embedded in a discourse of morality that casts students as either moral (honorable) or immoral (shameful).

This paper examines a cohort of Chinese preservice teachers' (PSTs') (n = 13) international teaching practicums (ITPs) experiences in Canada from the perspectives of complexity theory and boundary-crossing. Through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, we positioned PSTs' ITPs within multiple layers, including biographies, the Chinese and Canadian teacher education programmes, the Canadian university setting, K-12 schools, and the different socio-cultural milieus. Through the lens of boundary-crossing, we categorised PSTs' ITPs into four categories: identification, coordination, reflection, and transformation. This article enriches our sophisticated understanding of the non-linear and multi-level nature of the PSTs' professional learning during the ITPs.

Introduction: The article contributes to the conceptual studies of affective factors in information seeking by examining Kuhlthau's information search process model. Method: This random-digit dial telephone survey of 253 people (75% female) living in a rural, medically under-serviced area of Ontario, Canada, follows-up a previous interview study to examine with a larger sample issues related to searching for and using health information. Analysis: Concept analysis focusing on the ways in which the categories of feelings and mood are explicated in the information search process model. In addition, it was examined how the motivational elements of information seeking are conceptualised in the categories of feelings and mood. To this end, the present study drew on the ideas of the appraisal theories - a major approach to the study of the affective phenomena. Results: Kuhlthau's model provides a rich and credible picture of feelings experienced by information seekers at various stages of the information search process. However, the category of feelings is approached descriptively. Within this category, the motivational elements are incorporated in the factor of interest. In the information search process model, the category of mood is conceptualised more analytically by drawing on Kelly's ideas. The findings indicate that the picture of the motivational elements of mood can be elaborated by examining the invitational and indicative mood in terms of action readiness. Conclusions: The model provides a pioneering contribution to the conceptualisation of the affective factors in information seeking. The picture of these factors can be elaborated further by conducting comparative studies and making use of the ideas obtained from psychological and cognitive theories of emotion. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of ISIC: The Behaviour Conference" (Leeds, England, Sep 2-5, 2014), Part 2, Paper isic28.]

A qualitative research approach was chosen to analyse the conceptions of pupils attending elementary school from Canada (N = 135), France (N = 30) and Morocco (N = 92) between 10 and 12 years of age. Their conceptions were identified while being mobilised on energy transformations during the working of a simple electric circuit made of a battery, a bulb and electric wires: light, thermal, electrical and chemical. With paper and pencil, they completed a questionnaire made up of six questions during a forty-five minute period. The analysis of the data of the experimentation demonstrates that the majority of the conceptions identified are naïve compared to those constructed by the scientists. It also shows that their conceptions are similar in spite of the different cultures. The results confirm the findings of the international community of researchers in didactics of sciences regarding the universality of children's conceptions about the working of simple electrical circuits. These findings have implications on teacher training, science teaching and learning in a multiple cultural environment.

This paper provides a curricular critique of an environmental education policy framework called "Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow" (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009). Answers to the following two curricular questions: "What should be taught?" and "How it should be taught?" frame the critique. Scrutiny of the latter of the two questions through an examination of the conventional argument for integrated curriculum models and their relevance to K-12 environmental education comprises the first part of the critique. The second part of the critique examines utilization of a typology of integrated curriculum models to analyze an environmental education policy framework within the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada. In conclusion, Ontario's environmental education policy framework tends toward an integrated curriculum model referred to as "selective infusion" illustrating a disconnect between curriculum theorists and designers. The implications for integrated curricular practice are identified, limitations of the critique are highlighted, and recommendations for improving the policy framework from a pragmatic curricular perspective are summarized.

Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, asserts that education is one of the most effective instruments that society can employ in the effort to adopt sustainable development. This paper is a first effort to explore the degree to which Canadian institutions of higher education, including colleges and universities, have embraced this assertion. It includes the first census of the existing environment/sustainability policies and/or plans of Canadian postsecondary institutions (n = 220), and an examination of the relationships between the existence of an environment/sustainability policy/plan and the presence of other sustainability initiatives on campus. The focus on policies and plans is timely because in public institutions like colleges and universities, actions and practices are determined by policy. The results reveal a number of patterns and insights, including, for example, the influence of provincial legislation on the uptake of policies.

In this article, a large data set containing every course taken by every undergraduate student in a major university in Canada over 10 years is analysed. Modern machine learning algorithms can use large data sets to build useful tools for the data provider, in this case, the university. In this article, two classifiers are constructed using random forests. To begin, the first two semesters of courses completed by a student are used to predict if they will obtain an undergraduate degree. Secondly, for the students that completed a program, their major is predicted using once again the first few courses they have registered to. A classification tree is an intuitive and powerful classifier and building a random forest of trees improves this classifier. Random forests also allow for reliable variable importance measurements. These measures explain what variables are useful to the classifiers and can be used to better understand what is statistically related to the students' situation. The results are two accurate classifiers and a variable importance analysis that provides useful information to university administrations.

The first years of teaching are challenging. Knowledge of the kind of support new teachers require is essential. Existing typologies date back from the 1980s and the early 2000s. The aim of this article is twofold: 1) to validate a typology of novice teachers' support needs using confirmatory factor analysis and 2) to compare these needs in relation to different sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, employment status, teaching level, and field of study). The quantitative data were drawn from a survey (N = 156) of new teachers. The validated typology highlights five types of support needs. Some key differences emerge from the comparative analyses based on respondents' age, employment status, and field of study. The results presented could help serve as a framework for better targeting the support to be offered to beginning teachers.

This paper explores a countermovement that is emerging within an educational climate that highlights accountability, standardisation and performativity. This countermovement has become manifest in a rapid rise in the implementation and research of contemplative practices (e.g. mindfulness, yoga) across educational settings. The paper explores the unfolding of this curricular-pedagogical phenomenon, characterises its core elements and explains why and how it can be viewed as a 'contemplative turn in education'. Based on a conceptual review of academic publications in the field, the paper demonstrates a progression from a pre-contemplative era to the current contemplative turn. As part of the review three curricular domains within this turn are described: mindfulness-based interventions, contemplative pedagogies and contemplative inquiry. Each domain offers a different perspective on the contemplative turn and contributes to epistemological changes in curricular-pedagogical practice. The paper also presents a critical discourse that challenges the contemplative turn's ethics, implementations and curricular orientations.

We reject a trajectory approach to teaching that classifies "good" and "bad" teaching actions and seeks to move teachers' practices from one of these poles to the other. In this article we offer instead a conceptualisation of mathematics teaching actions as a "landscape of possibilities". We draw together terms commonly used in the literature to describe teaching strategies, and add our own, to offer an expanded view of teaching actions. We illustrate each with data extracts drawn from our various studies of mathematics teachers and classrooms, and explain how a range of teaching actions can be woven into a coherent teaching practice. Note that we are not talking about growth in teaching in this paper, nor about change in teachers' practice over time. We aim to simply talk about and conceptualise teaching in ways that can broaden our understanding of it.

Published accounts of pedagogical experience and pedagogical research are critical resources to post-secondary mathematics instructors, and yet the quantity and scope of this literature is rarely summarized or reviewed. In this contribution, we analyze recent peer-reviewed journal publications regarding post-secondary mathematics, published by Canadian scholars. We classified this scholarship by institution, publication year, type of pedagogical scholarship, and by topic. We highlight topics of continual interest, changing trends in time and newly emerging themes. This review therefore provides a benchmark of current scholarship in this important area, as well as a point of comparison for similar data from other countries, and other disciplines.