How can we utilize technology as an adaptive and supportive strategy to assist elementary teachers in implementing physical activity in the classroom?

Posted on by bindygill

Bindy Gill Master’s Thesis/Project Video link:
https://viu.video.yuja.com/V/Video?v=659630&node=3177733&a=75371464

Throughout my personal life, I have seen the benefits of having physical activity and movement intertwined in my day to day living and teaching. There is more motivation and focus, a better positive mindset and attitude, a willingness to take on challenges, problem solving and prompt wholesome feelings of wellness.

In my journey as an educator, I have seen an increase in sedentary time for children. As a result, children today can face increased physical and emotional health concerns. A potential approach to address these concerns is an accessible content website created to encourage and support teachers to facilitate opportunities for regular physical activity into their curriculum. Another theme of this project thesis was to address the challenging teacher task of improving student attentiveness in sedentary learning environments. The primary literature for time-on-task research substantiates the importance of physical activity to enhance student focus and responsiveness across the curriculum.

To these complementary ends, I designed a website with the aim to raise awareness about the benefits of physical activity in the classroom, as well as mitigate some barriers or challenges faced in implementing daily physical activity. It is hoped that Fit Stops (fitstops.weebly.com) will act as a resource guide for teachers to implement physical activity in the classroom by offering easy to access web-based resources that will help overcome these barriers and time-on-task challenges.

What second language teaching methods are best suited to teach the BC Spanish curriculum? – Ask me anything

Posted on by mikecosford

My thesis has gone from being a research study looking into the effectiveness and enjoyment of the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) to now being a project creating a handbook suggesting an integrated approach to teaching the BC Spanish curriculum. I have completed the Research Ethics Board application despite now not requiring it. I can also speak to the differences in approach to conducting a research study and a project. I have conducted an extensive literature review for my project looking into second language teaching methods such as communicative approach, grammar-translation approach, task-based language teaching and tprs. I am happy to answer questions related directly to areas of second language teaching, the BC Spanish curriculum, or more generally about the process of conducting a research study or a project and the REB application process.

Techno-fying Reggio

Posted on by cherylnoon

Reggio-inspired teaching and learning is deeply rooted in environmental and hands-on learning, so what happens when a pandemic hits and all education has to shift online?

My research question comes out of this environment and the struggles to implement Reggio practice through technological means. I am exploring if technology education can be implemented in a Reggio-inspired intermediate elementary learning environment without corrupting the philosophy of Reggio Emilia education.

My project is designed to support the transition of Reggio-inspired practices into the digital world.

Cheryl Noon

What are the practices by some of the Fortune 500 companies when designing sales training programs, as reported by sales trainers and sales training leaders?

Posted on by

By: Mohd Ariff Hamid (Ariff)

Studies indicated that sales are one of the oldest professions in the world since human civilizations existed. In a business environment, the sales training department is responsible for designing, delivering, or outsourcing sales training programs for the salespeople. Greco et al.’s (2019) study revealed that the sales world now has shifted more focus on the importance of sales training as a new tool to keep ahead of the competition and to better manage sales complexity and changing job demands.

As a certified training professional and previously worked in one of the Fortune 500 companies sales training operations, I had witnessed that it is common for organizations facing financial pressures to target and ax their training budgets when looking for easy budget cuts. But was it the best choice?

Building on the idea to improve training professional’s role as evidence to complement my future job application, and relevant to my educational leadership program at VIU, I have chosen my thesis topic to explore what strategies were employed by some Fortune 500 companies when designing a sales training program. After getting the approval from REB in October 2020, using SurveyMonkey as a survey platform, I posted an invite in 3 of my LinkedIn groups that I have joined and actively participated in before I launched my survey. I also sent invitation emails to my friends and ex-colleagues who are in trainers’ roles or are leaders in sales training operations. Surprisingly, by the beginning of December 2020, I successfully collected 99 respondents from my online survey. Wow! I felt happy with myself!

Although I have not finished with my thesis yet, I learned and experienced so much while doing it. I am willing to share with anyone about my tricks and tips while doing this thesis. Please ask me anything.

Talk soon!

Middle School Money Matters

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By: Michael Golder

What do you remember learning about personal finance during your own K-12 schooling? My guess is not too much. How often do you hear students utter the phrase “Why are we learning this?” Likely more than once. Well here is a program that introduces the basics of personal finance to middle schoolers. Useful, relevant, real-life topics to start their journey toward understanding money and the role it plays in our lives.

I feel we have an opportunity while kids are in school to tackle these topics to hopefully increase the overall level of financial literacy of high school graduates. I have created an 18 lesson program aimed toward the middle school group (Grades 6, 7, 8) with the ultimate goal of expanding to include grades 9-12. The resource includes detailed instructions for each lesson, an accompanying video series and age appropriate activities for each topic as well as ideas for extensions to deepen student learning. The lesson outlines and videos are available on the Middle School Money Matters Google site and YouTube channel respectively (links below).

Check out the 3 Minute Thesis video below for a brief overview of the project.

3 Minute Thesis Video

GOOGLE SITE

https://sites.google.com/sd61learn.ca/middleschoolmoneymatters/home

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgFrXGxQ3PUW1KxcehXWOA

**Google Site and YouTube Channel are still works in progress.

Leadership and Wellbeing: The Most Interesting Woman in the World

Posted on by luanarbuckle

“I am not the most interesting woman in the world, but I do laugh at myself and I can be very serious about research…”

Researcher & Artist, Luan Arbuckle

The poster below, is an attempt at peer pedagogical humour, and not the reason for my study but one of the findings I have observed and experienced in research and my MEDL program.  Recognizing the importance of laughter in a class setting I have selected humour as the narrative of this creative work and lead with “Leadership and Wellbeing” in the title, and end with “The Most Interesting Woman in the World” as the joke. XX 😉

The use of humour as a narrative can reflect, challenge, and reveal tensions within a given society’s construct.  Humour manages ambivalence, reduces stress and enhances leadership. 

My research asks:

1. What was the experience of transitioning to alternative delivery in K -12 schools in BC during COVID-19?

2. What learnings can be surfaced, in order, to plan for future alternative delivery offerings in K-12?

3. How can learnings inform content and delivery in teacher education and education assistant post-secondary programs?


My research examines wellbeing and the relationship it clearly plays with students, educators, and families in their communities, local school districts and independent schools and is the goal behind this research. Aligned with the lifecycle framework identified in VIU’s Strategic Plan: Scholarship, Research and Creativity Activity (2017-20), specifically collaborating and co-creating knowledge that can be shared with the public realm, I aim to serve our communities and schools during this time of crisis.

In addition to the anticipated outcomes and knowledge sharing events I will be well positioned to seek external funding to expand the breadth and depth of the research through opportunities like Vancouver Foundation’s Participatory Action Research grants.

Creative Poster

Alternative Education: Administrators’ Perspectives on Effective Leadership Practices

Posted on by Lisa Spalding

As a future administrator and alternative educator for over 24 years, I wondered what successful alternative administrators do to best support their staff and students. This curiosity led me to begin a comprehensive search for inspirational alternative Southern Vancouver Island administrators. In May 2020, I received ethical approval from the REB to conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with six to twelve of the most extraordinary leaders I could find. Participants had to have been in their position in the last five years and be willing to share their personal stories, lessons learned, hopes for the future, and any other wisdom they thought new administrators like myself should know. My research study, therefore, qualitatively looks into what Vancouver Island alternative education administrators, from 2015-2020, learned, experienced, and consider to be effective leadership practice in alternative schools. In the end, I was fortunate to find eight remarkable alternative administrators, including past and present principals, vice-principals, and assistant superintendents, that agreed to meet with me over Zoom. Their professionalism, passion, excitement and sometimes tears, as we explored their leadership experiences and strategies with trauma and burnout, have been emotional and powerful.

Preliminary analysis indicates that themes and commonalities in their experiences and stories are emerging. I believe what is learned from these leaders will significantly contribute to the academic conversation around alternative school leadership in BC. The data could potentially provide powerful Southern Vancouver Island leadership strategies and practices, which may help to improve alternative education experiences for teachers and students both here and beyond.

Please ask me anything! Do you want to know why I picked semi-structured interviews, the qualitative method, how I received permission to do the research in the two districts that approved me, or how to get going on the Ethics Review Board process? How about how to get help with the library, access to old thesis, finding writing support for your papers, navigating Zoom, COVID issues, or what software to use for analysis? I’m here to help, so please do not hesitate to ask.

Important Conference Info

Posted on by Rachel Moll

To register to attend and/or present please fill in this survey.

This year’s conference is virtual, with synchronous sessions on Saturday March 6th, 2021 and asynchronous sessions from February 28-March 6th.

There are five ways to present your work at the conference:

  • Oral presentations (synchronous)
  • Roundtable presentation (synchronous)
  • Ask me anything mentor (synchronous and asynchronous)
  • Poster or creative work (asynchronous)
  • 3 min thesis (asynchronous)

Contact Rachel Moll, rachel.moll@viu.ca for conference information.