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Some university students face barriers to learning in physical classrooms, while others are reluctant to return to in-person learning environments because of COVID-19. Hybrid-flexible (HyFlex) learning environments give students the option to participate in-person or virtually, but there are concerns about student engagement and success. In this pre-pandemic study, we conducted a program-wide survey to explore student perceptions of and experiences with a HyFlex teaching and learning platform (n=238). Our survey data revealed that 86.17% of students find features of this platform helpful when accessing, engaging with, and learning course content. This was particularly true among students who reported having a flexible learning need. We also compared engagement with the HyFlex teaching and learning platform (calculated as a score out of 100 based on attendance and participation in interactive slides) and final grades between students who chose to participate predominantly in-person or online in two HyFlex offerings during the 2019/20 academic year. We found no significant difference in engagement or final grade between in-person dominant and online dominant learners in either course. We found a moderate correlation between engagement and final grade in both courses, such that highly engaged students achieved high grades regardless of their preferred mode of attendance. Our findings suggest that giving students the option to learn in-person or virtually from class to class does not negatively affect engagement or success and may in fact support success among students with flexible learning needs. As Canadian universities emerge from the pandemic, our findings remind us to retain the flexibility that virtual teaching and learning affords to support our diverse student bodies.

A wide range of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs provide important support for international students enrolled in Canadian post-secondary contexts. While there has been a recent uptick in academic interest and research surrounding EAP programs in Canada, there has been relatively little work focused on understanding the practitioners working therein. In this article, we present and discuss data from the second phase of a sequential mixed-methods investigation of Canadian EAP programs and practitioners. Some 481 EAP practitioners from across Canadian universities, colleges, and English language institutes participated in the survey, leading to semi-structured interviews with 18 representative EAP directors and instructors. Building on quantitative results from the Phase I survey that revealed practitioners' differentially perceived professional satisfaction and agency, systematic analysis of Phase II interview data supported and expanded upon the Phase I results. Drawing on a critical conceptual lens, we interpret mixed-methods findings that highlight employment precarity as the most salient differentiator of professional satisfaction, concluding with analytically driven suggestions for post-secondary policy makers, language teacher educators, and EAP instructors, including a call for further research elevating voices of professionals working in this burgeoning field.

Burnout, often linked to increased stress, can impact student mental health, academic success, and overall well-being. To investigate animal-assisted interventions' (specifically a canine-assisted intervention; CAI) impact on student stress and burnout, a free CAI event was held on campus prior to final exams (n = 41). Self-selecting participants completed the School Burnout Inventory (SBI; Salmela-Aro et al. 2009) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarch, and Mermelstein 1983) before and after the event. Results showed a reduction in self-reported levels of stress and burnout from before to after the CAI. The impact of self-determined duration of attendance showed that those who attended the CAI for longer had a greater reduction in stress than did those who spent less time at the event. The findings suggest that CAI events can reduce perceived student burnout, alongside stress, strengthening arguments for CAIs utilisation in academic settings, and considers how the duration of CAI engagement may benefit different students.

Internal and external drivers have seen institutions of higher education place increasing emphasis on the links between teaching and research in their curricula. Despite the apparent positive trend towards research-oriented undergraduate programs, there are a number of documented challenges or "risks" to incorporating research into teaching and learning. This paper presents an adapted four-quadrant framework that maps student progression throughout a program of study from research-briefed learning to carrying out independent research themselves. The model is illustrated by two case studies of its implementation throughout entire degree programs (Natural Sciences at the University of Leicester and Integrated Science at McMaster University).

This article examines how recent policy reforms in Nova Scotia, Canada, encouraged and constrained distributed leadership in the provincial public education system. The study found the language of newly enacted legislation and policies encouraged distributed leadership by endorsing collaborative team processes for school improvement and special education/inclusive education. However, distributed leadership was constrained by the elimination of elected school boards, the reduced authority of school advisory councils, the altered duties of educational leaders, and the failure to enact essential supports for distributed leadership. Overall, this analysis found that recent policy reforms strengthened the control of the provincial ministry of education at the expense of local, democratic participation in education. The need for new organizational structures and processes for citizen participation in twenty-first century education was identified.

Teacher burnout is often positioned as a common result of the complex demands of the teaching profession (García-Carmona et al., 2019). While there is no denying the demanding nature of teaching, in this article we present an alternative perspective on the widespread burnout discussion that distinguishes between burnout and the complexities of teacher attrition, and offer a more hopeful and strengths-based approach to the teaching profession. In a qualitative study that analyzed the anticipatory beliefs that pre-service teachers expressed in a reflective assignment for a course focused on Comprehensive School Health (CSH), we found evidence to suggest that the burnout narrative may threaten teacher candidates' self-efficacy before entering the teaching profession. We call for a disruption to the overemphasis of burnout narratives in teacher education programs as they may undermine the profession.

In the context of academic research, a diversity of ethical issues, conditioned by the different roles of members within these institutions, arise. Previous studies on this topic addressed mainly the perceptions of researchers. However, to our knowledge, no studies have explored the transversal ethical issues from a wider spectrum, including other members of academic institutions as the research ethics board (REB) members, and the research ethics experts. The present study used a descriptive phenomenological approach to document the ethical issues experienced by a heterogeneous group of Canadian researchers, REB members, and research ethics experts. Data collection involved socio-demographic questionnaires and individual semi-structured interviews. Following the triangulation of different perspectives (researchers, REB members and ethics experts), emerging ethical issues were synthesized in ten units of meaning: (1) research integrity, (2) conflicts of interest, (3) respect for research participants, (4) lack of supervision and power imbalances, (5) individualism and performance, (6) inadequate ethical guidance, (7) social injustices, (8) distributive injustices, (9) epistemic injustices, and (10) ethical distress. This study highlighted several problematic elements that can support the identification of future solutions to resolve transversal ethical issues in research that affect the heterogeneous members of the academic community.

Competency in fundamental movement skills (FMS) lays the foundation for developing more complex motor skills and supporting a physically active future. Preschool-aged children are at a crucial window of development, so intervening with motor skill programmes increases the likelihood of future physical activity (PA) participation. Parents/carers are principal gatekeepers for children's PA during the early years and influence their motor competence. Interventions that involve parents have shown to be effective in mediating improvements in FMS, yet to date, no studies have reviewed types of parental engagement within interventions in relation to motor competence outcomes. This review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of motor skill interventions for preschoolers with the inclusion of a parental/home component. Literature searches were completed in PubMed, Sports Discuss and the Cochrane Library. Studies that implemented an intervention with direct or indirect parental engagement and evaluated FMS as an outcome measure were included. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria and a narrative synthesis of results suggested type of parent engagement may be associated with improvements in preschoolers' motor skills. It can be recommended that early years' motor skill interventions should include parents, ideally encouraging their active participation which may be the most influential form of parent engagement.

This exploratory study assessed links among children's moral concern and their ideas about the rights and protection of companion, farm, wild animals and ecosystems. Sixty-one children responded to three interview questions that were coded as either anthropocentric or biocentric in orientation. Results revealed unique links among children's moral concern and their ideas about the rights and protection of different types of animals and ecosystems. Biocentric moral concern was associated with two protection strategies: 1) advocacy to protect companion animals and ecosystems, and 2) the need for peer support to help protect wild animals. Overall, results revealed the nuanced diversity of children's moral concern and ideas about the rights and protection of all types of animals and ecosystems. Implications for moral education programs include a balanced approach to foster compassion, environmental awareness, and social justice among youth.

Students' high school decisions will always impact efforts to achieve gender parity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) at the university level and beyond. Without a comprehensive understanding of gendered disparities in high school course selection, it will be impossible to close completely the gender gap in many STEM disciplines. This study examines 11 years of detailed administrative data to determine gendered enrolment trends in university-stream secondary school STEM courses. Male and female enrolments for all publicly funded secondary schools across the province of Ontario (N = 844) were tracked from the 2007/2008 academic year to 2017/2018. The data reveal a clear trend of growing enrolment in STEM disciplines, with the increase in female students continuing their STEM education significantly outpacing males in almost all courses. However, these results also demonstrate the significant disparities that persist across STEM disciplines. The existing gender gap in physics remains large--in 2018, the median grade 12 Physics class was only 36.5[plus or minus]0.05% female--with virtually no progress having been made to close this gap. By tracking individual student cohorts, we also demonstrate a newly discovered result showing the continuation rate of male students in biology stream courses has experienced a precipitous drop-off. The proportion of male students continuing from grade 10 Science to grade 12 Biology 2 years later has seen an average yearly decline of -0.44[plus or minus]0.08 percentage points, potentially foreshadowing the emergence of another significant gender gap in STEM. We suggest that researchers and educators cease treating STEM as a monolith when addressing gender disparities, as doing so obscures significant differences between disciplines. Future efforts, particularly those aimed to support women in STEM, must instead adopt a more targeted approach to ensure that they solve existing problems without creating new ones.

In recent years significant emphasis has been placed on staff and students as partners in higher education in order to address issues of engagement and transferable skills. However, the concept covers a wide range of meanings. On the one hand it can refer to module feedback questionnaires. At the other extreme it can include student input in curricular design, particularly constructing course materials. These very different experiences require different levels of academic preparation and student engagement. For the purpose of clarity in discussion it would seem useful to have a framework for the different levels of student-instructor partnerships, which emphasizes this range of experience rather than the activity content. This paper presents a framework based on the levels of student initiation of the partnership and of student involvement in the outcomes (referred to as ownership and autonomy respectively). The scheme was arrived at following study of the collaborative activities in two cognate programmes, the Natural Sciences degree programme at the University of Leicester and the Honours Integrated Science program at McMaster University. These programmes adopt pedagogical models which encourage the formation of strong, cohesive learning communities, thereby providing a rich variety of examples and an international perspective.

Although many disciplines saw increases in manuscript submissions coinciding with lockdown measures, numerous studies have documented widening gender gaps in academic productivity. Chi-squared analyses of gendered trends in first author manuscript submission in three school psychology journals during the initial phase of COVID-19 compared to the same time frame in the preceding 3 years did not reveal any significant associations. There was a significant increase over time in the gender gap, with a trend of more female authors than male authors. Women school psychology researchers may not have experienced similar detriments to productivity as in other disciplines, or such detriments were not reflected in submission patterns during this time frame. Limitations of the study and implications for school psychology are provided.

This article measures gender pay gaps in Ontario's public post-secondary education sector from 1996 to 2016 using the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Data. We find gaps widening among all faculty ranks. Men were paid on average 2.06%, 2.14%, and 5.26% more than their women colleagues for all employees, university teaching staff, and deans, respectively. We also conduct a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to measure the source of gendered salary differentials. Pay gaps persist during this time period despite controlling for the literature's most common explanations, including the "pipeline effect." Our results additionally imply that women's years of experience in academia do not mitigate the observed pay gaps. Suggestions for future research include increasing the scope of our study to factor in finer details such as labour productivity.

Outdoor education and sport sociology researchers have associated participation in outdoor recreation with physical and mental health wellbeing, reduced anxiety, increased social participation, and increased cultural exchange. The outdoor environment can benefit both the recruitment and wellbeing of students, yet international student expectations and experiences of Canadian outdoor recreation remain largely unexplored in research. An understanding of international student expectations and experiences is important, as unmet expectations and negative initial experiences can lead to poor student integration and attrition. This paper draws on interdisciplinary fields to investigate the unique benefits of outdoor recreation in facilitating international student transitions to new study environments. Drawing on their findings, the researchers offer recommendations to universities to promote, adapt, and enhance the use of outdoor recreation to support international students on their campuses.

The growing trend of internationalization at Canadian institutions of higher education has led to increased need to support plurilingual students using English as an additional language (EAL). This support, often embedded in English for academic purposes (EAP) programs, is offered in a wide range of contexts across Canadian institutions of higher education. However, relatively little is known about this sector or those who work within it. In this article, we seek to delineate the Canadian EAP landscape by providing findings from the first phase of a mixed methods investigation into EAP programs and practitioners across Canada. We surveyed EAP programs and practitioners across three types of Canadian institutions involved in the provision of EAP support (n = 481). Findings point to a diversity of program models and practitioner profiles across Canadian regions and institutions, as well as significant differences in practitioners' professional satisfaction based on role and institution type. Further findings point to substantial concern among EAP practitioners regarding job security, collaboration with other institutional stakeholders, and professional development opportunities. Adopting a critical pragmatic lens, we discuss findings, raising questions for consideration for EAP administrators, instructors, and post-secondary institutional policy makers, and conclude with a call for greater research into Canadian EAP programs and practitioners.

Interdisciplinary (i.e., university-wide programming) and disciplinary (i.e., programming open to participants from one college or department) teaching development programs for graduate students have been used for many years in higher education. Currently, research on the benefits of these teaching models remains scant in terms of a contextualized understanding, and empirical studies are needed. The purpose of this study was to determine graduate students' perspectives related to interdisciplinary and disciplinary teaching and learning experiences. Two online surveys were used: a quantitative survey and a qualitative follow-up survey. Three participatory focus groups were also conducted to allow for further in-depth exploration in both an interdisciplinary and disciplinary group setting that represented seven distinct colleges. Statistical and thematic analyses were conducted with survey responses, and thematic analyses were conducted on focus group data. Similar themes emerged from the survey and focus group data identifying perceived benefits of participation in either interdisciplinary or disciplinary teaching development. Respondents' perceived benefits were related to: (a) becoming a better teacher; (b) social learning; and (c) that while the perceived benefits of the models vary, the outcomes of both experiences are shared. The lived experiences of these graduate students expand the characterization of interdisciplinary and disciplinary programming. This study points to the need for graduate student programs--specifically teaching development offered by educational development units--to provide both interdisciplinary and disciplinary teaching development opportunities that achieve a blend of benefits for learners.

Students have been multiply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: threats to their own and their family's health, the closure of schools, and pivoting to online learning in March 2020, a long summer of physical distancing, and then the challenge of returning to school in fall 2020. As damaging as the physical health effects of a global pandemic are, much has been speculated about the "second wave" of mental health crises, particularly for school-aged children and adolescents. Yet, few studies have asked students about their experiences during the pandemic. The present study engaged with over two thousand (N = 2,310; 1,288 female; M[subscript age] = 14.5) 12- to 18-year-old Alberta students during their first few weeks of return-to-school in fall 2020. Students completed an online survey that asked about their perceptions of COVID-19, their fall return-to-school experiences (84.9% returned in-person), their self-reported pandemic-related stress, and their behavior, affect, and cognitive functioning in the first few weeks of September. The majority of students (84.9%) returned to school in person. Students reported moderate and equal concern for their health, family confinement, and maintaining social contact. Student stress levels were also above critical thresholds for 25% of the sample, and females and older adolescents (age 15-18 years) generally reported higher stress indicators as compared to males and younger (age 12-14 years) adolescents. Multivariate analysis showed that stress indicators were positively and significantly correlated with self-reported behavioral concerns (i.e., conduct problems, negative affect, and cognitive/inattention), and that stress arousal (e.g., sleep problems, hypervigilance) accounted for significant variance in behavioral concerns. Results are discussed in the context of how schools can provide both universal responses to students during COVID-19 knowing that most students are coping well, while some may require more targeted strategies to address stress arousal and heightened negative affect.

Based on the success of the Welcome to Kindergarten™ initiative, The Learning Partnership (TLP), a national advocacy organization for public education, initiated a pilot project called Family and Community Engagement Strategy (FACES), in the three Ontario communities of Cornwall, Durham and Sudbury. The overall goal of the FACES Project, funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, was to develop a coordinated community-based model and extend and enrich the Welcome to Kindergarten™, a program to help prepare children for school success. As part of the agreement, TLP was to provide evidence of progress made toward the objective of the grant: to increase and expand opportunities for all children to be ready for school. An evaluation component was included in the project to measure the results and impact on each community. The FACES Project is an example of a community network, as it involves a process of building partnerships among schools and agencies for the benefit of children and their families. A qualitative case-study design was used for the research. Themes that emanated from an analysis of the data across the three sites were: the nature of FACES as a community network, champions as leaders, establishing and sustaining FACES networks, challenging conditions, assessment of the impact, and innovative features of FACES networks.

In the face of declining human-ecological systems, as well as intercultural and interspecies trauma, we are currently witnessing a renaissance of activist-orientated environmental education. In Canada, this work is increasingly viewed as part of a broader healing response of "DEEP" reconciliation work between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples, and ultimately humankind and the planet. This article locates these themes of healing human-ecological trauma and Indigenous-non-Indigenous relationships, within the work of the International Resilience Network (IRN)--a community of practice which aims to collectively impact social-ecological resilience, in part through transformative pedagogical practices which simultaneously support Indigenous resurgence and develop epistemological and relational solidarity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. Through our story of the IRN's inaugural summit, we share our learnings of such pedagogical practices amidst the tensions and paradoxes inherent within a decolonizing agenda.

Classroom Audio Distribution Systems (CADS) consist of amplification technology that enhances the teacher's, or sometimes the student's, vocal signal above the background noise in a classroom. Much research has supported the benefits of CADS for student learning, but most of it has focused on elementary school classrooms. This study investigated the effects of CADS in the postsecondary setting. Surveys and focus groups were used to elicit the perspectives of both students and professors toward CADS in university classrooms, revealing many themes and multidimensional attitudes. Teachers' and students' perspectives are considered within the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which encourages a flexible approach toward teaching in order to include as many different types of students as possible in the learning process. CADS is seen as one way to support UDL in higher education settings.

Academic institutions and research funders have in the last decade devoted considerable effort to developing policies to support academic integrity and prevent misconduct. In this study, we consider the extent to which various initiatives of Canadian federal and provincial (Québec) funders have affected the development of institutional research integrity/misconduct (RIM) policies. Examining the creation and modification dates of 32 institutional RIM policies, we find that federal but not provincial initiatives appear to have the greatest impact on the development of RIM policies. Idiosyncrasies in the creation dates, as well as lack of evidence of a systematic pattern in modification dates, suggest a complex system that is often insulated from certain government initiatives. These results lead us to conclude that there should be greater consistency in the development or updating of RIM policies to ensure the appropriate treatment of misconduct and to encourage behaviour that meets the highest standards of research integrity.

This study examined a collaborative inquiry process, facilitated by university faculty in an elementary school, intended to develop a research community, foster knowledge mobilization, and enhance student engagement. The Collaborative Inquiry Team in Education (CITE) initiative consisted of five school-based sessions that included videos, discussions, and the completion of a research action plan. Data collection and analysis involved sessions' transcripts, feedback from participants, documents such as brainstorming charts, and student artifacts. Findings indicate that the collaborative inquiry process with enablers of time, flexibility, and support from university faculty increased educators' research acumen and student engagement in classrooms. The CITE initiative is an effective example of applied education research and knowledge mobilization with the inclusion of faculty and technological support, innovative resources, and the co-construction of new understandings.

This paper explores student perceptions of the effects of pairing discipline-specific language instruction with the traditional method of course delivery in economics. Our research involved teaching content-based English as an additional language (EAL) tutorials to a small group of ten international students taking first-year introductory economics courses. These voluntary participants completed pre- and post-treatment assessments with exit interviews at the end of the project. Assessment results and interviews suggest that students perceive that discipline-specific language instruction such as our EAL tutorials assists in the development of increased content and language proficiency. They also believe that vocabulary development is one of the most critical activities to support these goals; reading skills are also important but require more time and commitment than students can afford to give. Despite the students' interest in the project, their heavy class schedules prevented many from participating; our group was limited to ten students which precludes any assurance of statistical significance. In spite of the limitations, we believe that the project can still contribute valuable qualitative lessons to the literature of content-based language instruction in which the discipline of economics has not been well represented.

In 2002, a widely publicized report projected an anatomy educator shortage based on department chairpersons' perceptions. Now, 17 years later, the question lingers: "Does an anatomy educator shortage persist and, if so, how severe is the shortage?" Trends in the number, type, and fill rate of anatomy educator job openings were explored by analyzing job posting in the United States over the past two years. A survey was distributed to leaders of anatomy-related departments in the United States, Canada, and European Union. Most departmental leaders who responded (65% or more) from the United States/Canada (n = 81) and the European Union (n = 52) anticipate they will have "moderate" to "great" difficulty hiring anatomy educators in gross anatomy, histology, and embryology over the next five years. Within the United States, the number of anatomy educator job postings at medical schools more than doubled from at least 21 postings in 2017 to 52 postings in 2018. Twenty-one percent of postings between 2017 and 2018 were never filled. While the number of anatomy educator openings within the United States/Canada is perceived to remain in a steady state for the next five years, the European Union estimates a five-fold increase in the number of openings. Departmental leaders prioritize anatomy educator applicants who have teaching experience (mean ± SD = 4.64 ± 0.84 on five-point Likert scale), versatility in teaching multiple anatomy disciplines (3.93 ± 1.07), and flexibility in implementing various teaching pedagogies (3.69 ± 1.17). Collectively, these data suggest the shortage of anatomy educators continues in the United States/Canada and the European Union.

Applied Research (AR) in Canadian community colleges is driven by a mandate, via the collective voice of Colleges and Institutes Canada--a national voluntary membership association of publicly supported colleges and related institutions--to address issues of interest to industry, government, and/or community. AR is supported through significant federal and provincial level funding mechanisms as well as funding from the private sector. Performance measurement tools have largely been developed by government agencies such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), which are external to the colleges that engage in AR. This paper presents an overview of AR in Canadian community colleges and institutes and provides recommendations for the development of sustainable performance measurement frameworks for AR in Canadian community colleges and institutes.

One day, over four centuries ago, Daniele Barbaro, a Venetian nobleman, tried an interesting experiment (Upton & Upton, 1980). He decided to use a convex lens from a farsighted man's spectacles to expand the viewing power of his camera obscura. To his delight, "the lens projected images much superior to those previously supplied by the simple pinhole camera" (p. 52). Much more recently, a high school art teacher encouraged her second period second year art students, to use the human eye like a camera, to expand their own visual fields by reading poetry with the suspended pigments of watercolour lights--a trompe l'oeil for the mind. Presented in this paper is a specific poetic illustration of one graduate student's visual investigations, prompted by an assignment from the course.

The outdated manner in which we operate schools is tied to a reality that no longer exists. The society for which we prepare our students has shifted from a factory to a learning organization model. If we hope to prepare our graduates for successful participation in learning organizations we must transform both the structure and culture of our schools. This article summarizes data from 50 New Brunswick schools that are attempting to implement a professional learning community approach. In it we analyze both the strengths and barriers that impact this effort. The findings focus on the culture, leadership, teaching, and the professional growth in these schools. While identifying essential changes they contain promise that the task is achievable. (Contains 9 tables.)

In the field of second language acquisition, discipline-specific language instruction is becoming widely known as Content and Language Integrated Learning. This method includes any activity that involves teaching a subject in a second language for the purpose of teaching both the subject content and the language. Research has shown that this two for one approach increases students' content knowledge and language proficiency in both the short and long terms (Baik & Greig, 2009; Kasper, 1997; Song, 2006). These studies have been conducted using a variety of subjects in combination with several second languages, but the combination of economics and English has not been explored in the literature. Our research involved teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) to international students taking an introductory economics course. Ten voluntary participants completed pre- and post-treatment assessments as well as exit interviews. Assessment results indicate that vocabulary instruction is correlated to success in economics although reading strategy instruction did not have the same impact.

This paper describes a faculty development model called the highly relevant mentoring (HRM) model; the model includes a framework as well as some practical strategies for meeting the professional development needs of faculty who teach web-based courses. The paper further emphasizes the need for faculty and administrative buy-in for HRM and examines relevant theories that may be used to guide HRM in web-based teaching environments. Of note is that HRM was conceived by the instructional design staff who contributed to this paper before the concept of high impact mentoring appeared in the recent literature (2009). While the model is appropriate in various disciplines and professions, the examples and scenarios provided are drawn from a Canadian university's experience of using HRM, in conjunction with a pedagogical approach called ICARE, in a variety of nursing courses and programs. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

In a context of increasing attention to issues of scientific integrity in university research, it is important to reflect on the governance mechanisms that universities use to shape the behaviour of students, researchers, and faculty. This paper presents the results of a study of 47 Canadian university research integrity/misconduct (RIM) policies: 41 institutions (87%) had distinct policies dealing with research misconduct, 37 (90%) of which took the form of research integrity/misconduct policies. For each of these 41 documents, we assessed the stated policy objectives and the existence (or not) of procedures for managing allegations of misconduct, definitions of misconduct, and sanctions. Our analysis revealed that, like their American counterparts, most Canadian universities had policies that contained the key elements relevant to protecting research integrity and managing misconduct. Yet, there was significant variability in the structure and content of these policies, particularly with regard to practical guidance for university personnel and review bodies. (Contains 6 notes and 3 tables.)

This chapter describes the development and impact assessments of an online, co-curricular intercultural communication course that weaves together material addressing reconciliation with Indigenous communities in Canada with material about cultural difference and communication across cultures. Considerations for inclusive online course design and for the sequencing of core intercultural communication concepts are described.

Despite widely acknowledged benefits of integrating writing into economics courses, instructors' costs are often prohibitive. To reduce costs and make writing assignments more feasible, the authors describe multi-part, scaffolded writing assignments developed by an economist and a WAC (Writing Across the Curriculum) specialist, integrated into an 800-student introductory economics course with multilingual students and TAs. Students draft and revise an abstract and later draft and write an op-ed with a convincing economic argument for a general audience. The authors use writing centers and peer review software to provide feedback while reducing grading time, and train inexperienced TAs to evaluate student writing through detailed rubrics and moderated marking sessions. They provide detailed assignment descriptions and an accounting of resources and time needed to grade each assignment.

Professional learning communities have become a focus of educational reform in New Brunswick. The implementation and sustainability of this reform is dependent on shifting many of the organizational and operational characteristics of the traditional bureaucratic model into those that support a learning community approach in schools. The study examined the process for developing a school-based instrument that identifies systemic barriers that may prevent schools from becoming professional learning communities. The instrument examines culture, leadership, teaching and professional growth & development factors in an attempt to determine the readiness of a school to become a PLC.

Economic growth in New Brunswick is increasingly dependent on the improvement of our educational system. Current initiatives to reform education and improve student performance are based on transforming the province's schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). A key factor that will determine this reform's success is the capacity of principals to adopt a collaborative leadership style. This paper examines a study of principal decision-making and the forces both for and against the adoption of the collaborative leadership style required to implement the current school reform. While the majority of principals studied, exhibit the capacity to lead using a collaborative decision-making style, the bureaucratic system in which they work may be preventing them from doing so. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Virtual Reality (VR) is primarily a visual technology. Elements such as haptics (touch feedback) and sound can augment an experience, but the visual cues are the prime driver of what an audience will experience from a VR presentation. At its inception in 2001 the Centre for Advanced Visualization (CFAV) at Niagara College of Arts and Technology was equipped with state-of-the-art VR technology. The computer, screen and sound system were all arranged into a "Reality Centre" (RC). The reality centre was an SGI concept that saw VR being used in order to bring disparate groups of engineers together on a project so that they could talk together while they explored their data using VR technology. CFAV's first big project involved the Peace Bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo. The target was to build a model of Fort Erie and Buffalo with sufficient detail that lay-people would be able to evaluate any new bridges, or proposed changes to the old bridge. CFAV's engagement in the Peace Bridge project introduced the facility to a new kind of partner, the land use planner. A land use planner is an engineer or architect, etc. who must explain their intent or changes to a public site or piece of infrastructure to the public. CFAV's technology has now changed to the extent that it uses conventional modeling tools and off-the-shelf technology to produce its presentations.

In a multidisciplinary Faculty Learning Community focussed on exploring threshold concepts and bottlenecks in learning, care emerged as an unanticipated dimension to our work, transforming the ways we view teaching, learning, our disciplines, and educational development. In this piece, we reflect on the types of care that emerged and consider implications for educational development.

This paper aims to critique and develop neo-Vygotskian work in mathematics education from (i) within the Vygotskian and activity theoretic tradition, and where necessary from (ii) a Bourdieusian perspective. First, I critique Roth and Radford's (2011) version of Cultural-historical Activity Theory, suggesting that a classroom episode presented as developmental might be seen as a process of alienation. I trace this to the institutional structure of schooling, in which curriculum and pedagogy are alienated from the learner's everyday sense. Next, I examine and critique the Vygotskian "Funds of Knowledge" approach to critical mathematics education, which seeks to overcome alienation by subjecting the curriculum to the needs of the poor communities the school serves. Here, the critical point on alienation in the Vygotskian approach is better argued in Bourdieu's perspective on educational institutions as reproductive of class domination. Finally, the paper discusses the extent to which these critiques pertain to Vygotskian activity theory in general or only to these versions in particular and draws implications for the development of a critical mathematics education perspective in a synthesis of perspectives from Vygotsky and Bourdieu.

This collaborative self-study details the experiences of an Australian teacher educator and a Canadian teacher educator, who led teacher candidates on international practicum placements to the Cook Islands and Kenya respectively. Focusing on critical incidents, they collaboratively analyzed dilemmas that occurred when providing professional development sessions for local teachers during these placements. These dilemmas required the teacher educators to think deeply about their beliefs and practices in these contexts. Findings from the study included the teacher educator's tendency to make assumptions about good teaching and learning practices that were reflective of their personal pedagogical values and beliefs; their discomfort with their perceptions of some neo-colonial practices within these international practicum sites and uncertainty about how to navigate the resultant tensions; and, the need to view the work of teacher educators though a new cultural lens when working in transnational contexts. Implications for teacher educators working with local hosting teachers during international placements include the need to understand and acknowledge the complexity of this dimension of teacher educators' work, and for teacher educators to engage in parallel learning journeys with the teacher candidates they accompany. This involves critically reflecting on the experiences, assumptions, and beliefs that they bring to their new contexts, as well as adopting a global perspective and a deep consciousness of how one is perceived by others who are culturally, racially, or linguistically different.

Background: People seeking abortion in early pregnancy have the choice between medication and procedural options for care. The choice is preference-sensitive—there is no clinically superior option and the choice depends on what matters most to the individual patient. Patient decision aids (PtDAs) are shared decision-making tools that support people in making informed, values-aligned health care choices. Objective: We aimed to develop and evaluate the usability of a web-based PtDA for the Canadian context, where abortion care is publicly funded and available without legal restriction. Methods: We used a systematic, user-centered design approach guided by principles of integrated knowledge translation. We first developed a prototype using available evidence for abortion seekers' decisional needs and the risks, benefits, and consequences of each option. We then refined the prototype through think-aloud interviews with participants at risk of unintended pregnancy ("patient" participants). Interviews were audio-recorded and documented through field notes. Finally, we conducted a web-based survey of patients and health care professionals involved with abortion care, which included the System Usability Scale. We used content analysis to identify usability issues described in the field notes and open-ended survey questions, and descriptive statistics to summarize participant characteristics and close-ended survey responses. Results: A total of 61 individuals participated in this study. Further, 11 patients participated in think-aloud interviews. Overall, the response to the PtDA was positive; however, the content analysis identified issues related to the design, language, and information about the process and experience of obtaining abortion care. In response, we adapted the PtDA into an interactive website and revised it to include consistent and plain language, additional information (eg, pain experience narratives), and links to additional resources on how to find an abortion health care professional. In total, 25 patients and 25 health care professionals completed the survey. The mean System Usability Scale score met the threshold for good usability among both patient and health care professional participants. Most participants felt that the PtDA was user-friendly (patients: n=25, 100%; health care professionals: n=22, 88%), was not missing information (patients: n=21, 84%; health care professionals: n=18, 72%), and that it was appropriate for patients to complete the PtDA before a consultation (patients: n=23, 92%; health care professionals: n=23, 92%). Open-ended responses focused on improving usability by reducing the length of the PtDA and making the website more mobile-friendly. Conclusions: We systematically designed the PtDA to address an unmet need to support informed, values-aligned decision-making about the method of abortion. The design process responded to a need identified by potential users and addressed unique sensitivities related to reproductive health decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For individuals with strong work identities, the decision to retire can be particularly challenging. For academic physicians, retirement is an important personal decision that also has far-reaching implications for the healthcare system. This is because academic physicians are responsible for producing the research from which key medical decisions are made, for training future healthcare providers, and for providing specialized care for patients. For this study, we conducted focus groups with academic physicians from a large research university in Canada and then performed inductive thematic analyses to examine perceptions and concerns about later life career transitions. This study highlights tensions between professional experiences for the next generation of physicians and individual struggles with personal identity. Findings suggest improvements to institutional programs that support flexible, agentive, and respectful retirement transitions will not only be beneficial but necessary as medical and university systems continue to grapple with issues of balanced recruitment and succession.