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Background: Like other professional training programs, social work pedagogy has long recognized the value of experiential learning for professional development. Despite social work's rich experiential learning literature involving field education, direct practice courses, and program evaluation, there is a dearth of literature examining how to make learning in the policy classroom experiential, particularly for large class sizes. Purpose: We asked, "How might electoral candidate debates provide experiential learning opportunities for large classes?" Approach: The authors organized municipal and federal election candidate debates attended in-person and online by over 300 undergraduate students in a social work policy class at a Canadian university. Integrating our experiences as instructors/organizers and a teaching assistant, within a social constructivist framework, we used Kolb's experiential learning theory, and critiques thereof, to analyze reflective assignments from 73 students. Results and Conclusions: Candidate debates, when facilitated appropriately, can encourage students in large courses to work through the stages of experiential learning and consider related concepts and possible links among social justice course content and social policy, social work practice, and political engagement. Implications: The paper contributes to a broader understanding of the opportunities and constraints associated with employing experiential learning in the large social work classroom and beyond.

This paper examines practices of teaching and learning in the era of digitalization. More specifically, it addresses practices of teaching and learning for students with professional experience who work alongside their studies. Based on the assumption that digitalization is a means of allowing more open and flexible pathways for teaching and learning in higher education, the paper focuses on the perspectives and perceptions of both students and teachers in digital supported teaching and learning environments as forms of blended learning. It brings together findings from two qualitative empirical studies: one focused on students' perspectives of their development over the course of their studies; the second addressed teachers' perspectives and their teaching strategies and activities. Based on the findings of these two research studies, the paper outlines future perspectives for teaching and learning and the role of digitalization, with a particular emphasis on programs of lifelong learning at universities.

Professionalism is not easily defined for newcomers to the workforce. While much of the work-ready research focuses on desired graduate attributes and skills, the larger issue is the ways in which students conceptualize professionalism from their observations and experiences of others, and how these conceptualizations affect their professional identity construction. Twelve Canadian and six Swedish students enrolled in WIL programs were asked how they think they learn to become a professional. Participants described similar experiences of continually renegotiating their sense of self in an effort to construct a hoped-for-possible professional self. Rich Pictures (RPs) were also used to explore how students visually conceptualized the process of becoming "the professional". Participants from both countries emphasized the importance of self-management and self-censorship in terms of knowing how to look and sound like a professional. Participants used the RPs to visually depict their hoped-for possible self in contrast to the feared for self. [Paper presented at the World Association for Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education, International Research Symposium on Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education, (2nd, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2016).]

As key components of self-regulated learning, metacognition and goal orientation have been tied to improvements in academic achievement. Some research supports a bidirectional relationship between metacognition and goal orientation in which they promote each other as well as learning outcomes. We created a learning philosophy assignment (LP) to encourage students' consideration of their learning strategies and goals resulting in a record of students' metacognition. Research suggests that low-achieving students may have different metacognitive capabilities and learning goals and as such may be differentially impacted by the assignment. This paper considers the content of the LPs. Students were split into achievement quartiles to explore any patterns in metacognition or learning goals distinct to achievement level. Our content analysis confirms that the LP was successful in documenting metacognition and learning goals in all students. There were some differences related to achievement level.

The focus in this paper is on the analysis of student-centered discourse through applying a discourse analysis tool that I developed to analyze data from an elementary mathematics classroom. The purpose of the analysis tool is to understand the impact of the complex learning system on the emerging classroom discourse. The minimum conditions for complexity created an invitational space for students that allowed interactions and meaningful exchanges to flourish through exploration of mathematical concepts and collective participation in classroom discourse. The analytic lens provides the teacher with a tool to understand more clearly the dynamics of meaningful exchanges identified as sharing, building, exploring and blocking.

With technology at the fingertips of most undergraduate students, it has been difficult for instructors to fully engage students in the classroom, which has resulted in the creation of several innovative online cognitive assessment tools. These tools often integrate several cognitive learning strategies within an assessment, with the goal of actually enhancing learning, as opposed to just measuring it. In the current study, students' level of engagement and test performance using a recently developed online application were compared to their final multiple-choice paper-and-pencil exam mark to determine the efficacy of the new online application in achieving improved learning outcomes. Results indicated that students had high test scores using the online tool despite their limited engagement in the cognitive learning features, calling into question the online cognitive assessment tool's facilitation of long-term learning. Implications and recommendations for future online cognitive assessment application implementation in educational environments are discussed.

Research in the fields of second-language acquisition and education has supported the value of written reflection, but scant research has explored how other types of reflection may come into play when learners employ strategies and produce oral language. This paper reports findings from an action research study that focused on integrating individual oral reflection using digital recorders to facilitate 18 graduate-level English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) students' learning of academic speaking skills. The qualitative and quantitative results provide important empirical information about what strategies graduate students used, the relationships between the learners' strategic behaviours and oral performance, and differences in the quality of reflection between advanced and nonadvanced proficiency learners. The study's findings indicate that weekly spoken reflection functions as a mediational tool that learners can use to deal with their language-learning-related thoughts and emotions, which have important implications because of the online nature of speaking. In addition to generating empirical knowledge about a modality of reflection that has direct pedagogical implications, the paper includes a personal reflection on the challenges involved in conducting action research, for the purpose of inviting further dialogue and reflection among action researchers.

A geographical education offers more than skills, subject knowledge and generic attributes. It also develops a set of discipline-specific capabilities that contribute to a graduate's future learning and experience, granting them special ways of thinking for lifelong development and for contributing to the welfare of themselves, their community and their world. This paper considers the broader purposes and values of disciplinary teaching in contributing to individual human development. Set in the context of recent debates concerning the role of the university and the neo-liberalisation of higher education this paper explores approaches to developing the geography curriculum in ways that re-assert the educational value of geographical thinking for students. Using international examples of teaching and learning practice in geography, we recognise five geocapabilities: use of the geographical imagination; ethical subject-hood with respect to the impacts of geographical processes; integrative thinking about society-environment relationships; spatial thinking; and the structured exploration of places. A capabilities approach offers a productive and resilient response to the threats of pedagogic frailty and increasingly generic learning in higher education. Finally, a framework to stimulate dialogue about curriculum development and the role of geocapabilities in the higher education curriculum is suggested.

Emergent multilingual English as an additional language literacy learners (EALLs) have unique learning needs as they are learning to read and write for the first time in any language while they are also beginning to develop formal learning strategies that support successful school-based learning. Consequently, EALLs require specialized instruction in how to regulate the metacognitive, cognitive, behavioural, motivational, and emotional aspects of learning in formal classroom environments. Theories of self-regulated learning can inform English as an additional language (EAL) literacy programming and guide instructors in the development of EALLs' formal learning strategies. The effective use of formal self-regulated learning strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning is essential for successful school-based learning. In this paper, we review three models of self-regulation (Dörnyei, 2005; Oxford, 2017; Zimmerman, 2013) that inform an instructional sequence designed to support EALLs' self-regulated learning in the classroom. We describe our research-informed instructional sequence and provide examples of how instructors can encourage EALLs' use of self-regulatory strategies including commitment, metacognitive, satiation, emotional, and environment control strategies, as well as the development of metastrategies that support self-regulated learning. In summary, we demonstrate how research on self-regulated learning can inform instructional practices for EALLs in EAL literacy classes.

300,000 immigrants move to Canada each year in search of better economic opportunities, and many have limited English language skills. Improving written literacy of newcomers can enhance education, employment, or social integration opportunities. However, frequent, timely, and personalized feedback is not always possible for immigrants. Online writing support tools can scaffold writing development by providing this feedback, but existing systems provide inadequate support when instructors are inaccessible. In this paper, we show how feedback system design can leverage peer and automated feedback to support mature English Language Learners' (ELL) needs and practices. We identify strong associations between epistemic beliefs and learning strategies, highlighting the importance of tasks that activate productive epistemic beliefs. We find learners accurately assessed high-level issues in a peer's writing and are accepting of automated feedback, demonstrating that a platform combining peer-review and machine feedback could promote meaningful discussions. We present the results of our mixed-methods investigation that integrates three sources of information: analysis of learners' psychometric constructs, writing samples to identify error patterns, and participatory design group sessions incorporating human-centred design methods. We synthesize our results into four guidelines derived from seven findings resulting from the investigation of a system that scaffolds writing development for mature immigrant ELLs in the absence of formal instructional support. First, we find that ELLs require a platform to collaboratively iterate through the writing process. Next, we suggest how peer feedback can be enhanced through automated support. We then demonstrate how rubric design can guide both linear and holistic peer-review. Finally, we illustrate why open learner models and learning dashboards should contextualize real world progress.

From a design perspective, the intentionality of students to engage in surface or deep learning is often experienced through prescribed activities and learning tasks. Educators understand that meaningful learning can be furthered through the structural and organizational design of the online environment that motivates the student towards task completion. However, learning engagement is unique for each student. It is dependent on both how students learn and their intentions for learning. Based on this challenge, the design of online discussions becomes a pedagogical means in developing students' intentionality for the adoption of strategies leading to deep learning. Through a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach, iterative design of online learning components for undergraduate field experience courses were studied. For this paper, the focus of the research is on examining factors that influenced deep and surface levels of learning in online discussion forums. The results indicate that design factors (i.e., student engagement, group structures, and organization) influence the nature and degree of deep learning. From the findings, two implications for practice are shared to inform the design and scaffolding of online discussion forums to foster deep approaches to student learning.

Student Services support, including learning skills assistance, can be integral in empowering learners. First-year students are expected to be self-directed in their learning, yet may have neither been challenged nor experienced negative consequences for a lack of perseverance. Academic skills professionals can be partners with teaching faculty in student success by helping to build transferable learning skills, especially for high-fail introductory courses. In this paper, I report on supplementary workshops developed to target fundamental skills with course-specific examples. This partnership included incentivizing academic support with both carrots and sticks; instructors in introductory biology strongly urged students receiving D grades or below on the first test to approach Student Services for support, while sociology faculty incorporated workshop attendance into the introductory course with participation grades. Following such incentivizing of learning skills, workshop attendance increased by 45%. In both courses, first test scores and high school averages for students attending workshops did not differ from students not attending workshops. However, students who attended learning skills workshops had significantly higher course grades, persistence, sessional grade point averages (GPAs), and cumulative GPAs than students not attending workshops. Controlling for high school average, each learning skills workshop attended was associated with a 0.11 to 0.27 increase in sessional GPA on a 4.3 point scale.

This paper addresses a niche in studies on immersion programmes for English as second language learners. While studies on the impact of the experience of studying abroad are replete with reports about the enhancement of participants' language proficiency or intercultural skills, the present study investigates the types of language and culture strategies used by a group of student teachers on an overseas immersion programme by coding their interview responses and documenting the types of strategies reported. It also traces changes in the participants' perceptions of their strategy use before, during and after studying abroad. The findings show that while participants reported using speaking strategies and listening strategies much more than other language strategies, only a narrow range of both strategy groups are reported. Similar findings are found in their use of culture strategies. Different changes in strategy use before, during and after the immersion are reported. The paper interprets the findings. Both short-term and long-term pedagogic implications for strategy development on study-abroad programmes are proposed.

Some authors have stated that university students born after 1982 have been profoundly influenced by digital technologies, showing different characteristics when compared to previous generations. However, it is worth asking if that is a current observable phenomenon. Are those students born after the 80s really more familiar with ICT tools than those born in previous generations? Do they show different study habits and learning paths? Different research lines (Kennedy, et al., 2010; Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2008; Gros, Garcia, & Escofet, 2012) highlight that scientific data is rarely used when discussing this generation's characteristics; however, none of them have proved in statistical terms that college students do not fit in the Net Generation characteristics and that their habits of ICT use in social and professional activities do not differ from older generations. The international research project, Digital Learners in Higher Education, seeks to develop a sophisticated and evidence-based understanding of university learners in different institutional contexts and the perception of cultures in their use of technology in a social and educational context. Data has been collected from four institutions in Canada and Spain: the British Columbia Institute of Technology, the University of Regina, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and the University Rovira i Virgili. In order to develop this project, we used a multi-case study embedded design (Yin, 2009). The UOC's case is deeply analysed in this paper to affirm that the Net Generation is more speculative than real and that includes students' perception about this phenomenon, and guidelines are proposed in an eLearning context.

The study of workplace learning and informal learning are not new to adult education and pedagogy. However, the use of mobile devices as learning tools for informal learning in the workplace is an understudied area. Using theories on informal learning and constructivism as a framework, this paper explores informal learning of registered nurses using mobile devices to meet their learning needs for continuing professional education, professional development, and continuing competence within the challenging healthcare workplace. In this mixed methods study, participants used their devices for self-directed informal learning with non-collaborative strategies/processes for evidence-based support, new procedures/treatments, professional development, patient/client teaching, and maintaining competency. Positive perceptions were articulated. Minimal differences were associated to the nurses' age. However, workplace-related influences were relevant to the informal learning experiences with the mobile devices.

Self-regulated learners manage their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and their social and contextual environments to reach their learning goals. Research shows that student teachers can learn to teach in ways that promote students' development of SRL. It has also been shown that there is a relationship between teachers' own SRL and their ability to develop self-regulation in students. This study examined student teachers' developing concepts of SRL as they learned about this complex set of skills, behaviours, and beliefs through both coursework and field observations. This paper investigates the relationship between self-reported SRL of these teachers and their understanding of SRL behaviours and SRL-supportive teaching practices. Participants' self-reported learning strategy scores predicted their performance on an SRL classroom observation assignment while motivation scores were unrelated. These results contribute to our growing knowledge of how to support student teachers in their learning of teaching strategies that support the development of SRL.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to document the ways pharmaceutical representatives learn for work and report attributes of (in)formality and other characteristics of ways of learning perceived as effective and frequently used. Design/methodology/approach: A total of agents 20 from 11 pharmaceutical manufacturers across Canada participated in a Delphi collaboration creating a comprehensive list of ways in which they learn for work. In-depth individual interviews with four agents explored the ways of learning they perceived as most frequent and effective. The Colley et al. framework was interpreted, extended, and applied to identify attributes of (in)formality and other elemental characteristics of these ways of learning. Findings: Agents in this rapidly changing, competitive industry worked alone in geographically distributed territories. Learning had a special role in this industry: agents developed themselves broadly as resources to gain customer-access required to promote products. Delphi participants identified 64 ways of learning (five categories). Most ways were self-initiated, self-directed, minimally structured, and may involve intentional incidental learning. Reported frequent and effective ways differed by agent, but all reported frequent and effective learning through self-directed means with mixed (in)formal attributes. Customer facilitated and peer-facilitated learning were common, despite isolation from co-workers. Originality/value: This paper reports on learning in a distinct and under-researched industry. It demonstrates the importance of peer-facilitated and on-the-job learning even in a distributed workforce and documents intentional incidental learning. It discovers an indirect way in which learning supports business objectives and it provides a framing tool for guiding reporting of characteristics of ways of learning. (Contains 3 tables.)

Inquiry-based learning is one approach to improving the quality of undergraduate education by moving toward more student-directed, interactive methods of learning while focusing on learning how to learn. This paper deals with a missing component in the inquiry-related literature--the extra-pedagogical challenges of introducing and maintaining inquiry-based learning in the curriculum. Based in the collective experience of McMaster University, a mid-size Canadian university that has been a pioneer in inquiry pedagogy, the paper describes the challenges administrators faced in supporting the introduction of inquiry-based learning as components of traditional courses, as inquiry-based courses, and as inquiry-based degree programs. Derived from interviews, the paper presents a series of strategies and lessons for introducing and maintaining inquiry pedagogy in the curriculum. These lessons will be broadly useful to administrators, curriculum designers and faculty developers and should be widely applicable to institutes of higher education.

Purpose: This paper seeks to examine workplace learning strategies, learning facilitators and learning barriers of public accountants in Canada across three professional levels--trainees, managers, and partners. Design/methodology/approach: Volunteer participants from public accounting firms in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick completed a demographic survey, a learning activities survey, a learning barriers survey, and a learning facilitators survey. Quantitative analysis provided total scores for key variables and compared these across the three levels. Findings: The paper finds that accountants across different levels use a variety of formal and informal learning strategies, although informal strategies predominate. Accountants encounter numerous facilitators and barriers. There are variations in strategies, barriers and facilitators based on professional level; for example, trainees make more use of e-learning than do either managers or partners. Research limitations/implications: Future research could focus on the efficacy of accountants' formal and informal learning strategies as well as how e-learning can be appropriately managed and utilized. Practical implications: Allocation of work and relationships with people are important to the learning process and should be considered in work assignments. One implication is to encourage informal learning and provide appropriate learning activities and feedback so that informal learning is maximized. There could also be more emphasis placed on assisting partners and managers in developing their roles as coaches and mentors. Originality/value: The paper provides information on workplace learning for an understudied group of professionals in a Canadian context. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper reports on a study that uses cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to make sense of e-teachers' activity in a context of high-school distance education. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with 13 e-teachers as well as seven management and support personnel in an organization responsible for the design and delivery of high-school distance education in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. As well, the authors conducted a second round of interviews with 12 of the 13 teachers. Findings revealed that the traditional metaphor of teacher as "sage on the stage" ceased to have a reference point in the distributed online classroom. The e-teachers were widening the object of their activity to include less teacher-centered forms of learning that involved more student independence. (Contains 2 figures.)

In 1994, the National Arts Education Association created a research agenda to address major research issues in the field of visual arts education for the purpose of examining, negotiating, and modifying commonly held beliefs in the field of art education. Research by arts educators has done much to inform visual arts education theory and practice, but largely through studies by individuals with few collaborative efforts. In 1991, Neil Owen Houser proposed a collaborative processing model for arts education, which reflects the experiential or constructivist nature of instruction. In this paper, we present our reflections on our shared work where we explored the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration, the role of play in the process of problem solving, and how experiential learning strategies and techniques could be applied to the teaching of various subjects through visually-mediated arts projects.

This paper introduces the concept of leadership communities of practice (COP) as a strategy to enhance succession planning and leadership development within the Canadian healthcare context. Drawing upon Prosci's ADKAR methodology as a foundational change management framework, this paper explores the adaptation of COP, originally developed by Lave and Wenger in 1991, to foster collaborative learning. While COP have a long history in business and education sectors, their formal integration into healthcare, specifically leadership development is relatively recent. This paper highlights the necessity of a robust change management approach to effectively introduce COP as a mechanism to enhance leadership development in healthcare settings, highlighting their potential to facilitate knowledge exchange and support social learning among healthcare leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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