Building Educator and Parent Capacity to Support Learning
Project 1: Program evaluation for the Provincial Outreach Program for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (POPFASD)
Funding: Kids Brain Health Network
Co-Investigator: Dr. James Reynolds
The overarching goal of this objectives-based program evaluation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Provincial Outreach Program for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (POPFASD) in preparing educators in British Columbia (BC) to support students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The program evaluation will be completed over the next three years, starting September 2019. Approximately 100 educators and affiliated staff will be recruited with support from our teacher consultant partner, from each of the 67 school districts in BC to participate in this program evaluation. The participants will include teachers, education assistants, youth care workers, early childhood educators, administrators, district support staff including speech pathologists, counselors, behaviour specialists, and occupational therapists. Data will be collected from annual outcome reports and pre- and post- questionnaires.
The mandate for POPFASD is to increase educators' capacity to meet the educational needs of students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) through FASD-informed practice that benefits all students. This objectives-based program evaluation will support us in understanding the extent to which POPFASD is meeting their specific objectives and the ways in which they can better prepare teachers to support students with FASD.
Project 2: Partnering to support and scale up assessment efforts of refugee-led early childhood education programs in emergencies
Funding: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
PI: Dr. Aurelia Di Santo | Co-Investigators: Dr. Kristy Timmons, Dr. Jason Nolan, Dr. Andrea Bellucci, and Sara-Christine Dallain
Education is a fundamental human right for all children worldwide. Many children who have fled war zones and are living in refugee camps are denied this right to education. In the early years, quality play-based programs are known to support learning and development (Bakken et al., 2017; OECD, 2016). Unfortunately, for children living in refugee camps, early learning programs are beyond the scope of legislation related to compulsory education (UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, 2019). Thus, it is not surprising, that early learning programs that do exist in refugee camps are often limited in scope and ability to document and assess learning. Furthermore, assessing early learning outcomes within emergency learning contexts requires a unique approach that shifts away from traditional Euro-Western standardized testing models.
iACT is an international organization that provides humanitarian action to support and empower those affected by mass atrocities and is currently experiencing the challenges cited above. iACT works in some of the most challenging places around the world. Currently they are working in refugee camps located in five countries that have accepted refugees fleeing war conflict zones. Despite being one of the few NGOs offering refugee-led early learning programs in refugee camps, they are currently facing challenges with documenting and assessing learning within their unique programs. This research will directly respond to the challenges iACT is currently facing through 3 research objectives: 1) to conduct a case study to critically examine iACT's current model for assessing their early childhood education and development (ECED) programs in refugee camps in Chad; 2) to complete a rapid review of assessment practices/tools being used in other ECED programs in emergency contexts; and 3) to draw from the case study and rapid review to provide recommendations for an assessment framework.
The development of an assessment framework will also assist iACT with the scaling-up of programs to reach more children and to fill the gap between the emergency phase of programs, funding, and the development aid that is essential in protracted situations. The findings will serve as a guide for future research, including piloting the assessment in a refugee camp in eastern Chad. More broadly, this research will benefit other NGOs, researchers, and faculty in Canada and internationally.
Project 3: Examining the implementation and impact of the COVID-19 remote teaching initiative in early primary education contexts
Funding: Rapid Response Queen’s SARS CoV-2/ COVID-19 Research Opportunity Grant.
Co-Investigator: Dr. Amanda Cooper
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic public schools across Ontario were closed in March 2020 and remained closed to in-person learning for the remainder of the school year. In response, the Ontario Government put forth a strategy entitled the “Learn at Home” initiative that shifted teaching and learning online from March-June 2020. The Ontario Government outlined the minimum expectations for student worktime in a given week based on learning materials and work assigned by educators. For early primary students, these expectations included five hours of work per student per week, with a focus on math and literacy (Ministry of Education, 2020). In the letter introducing the “Learn at Home” initiative to parents, Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote, “While these are unprecedented times, I encourage you to support and enable your children to fully commit to the strong learning program we have created for this period of school closure. Your support, inspiration, and motivation will continue to prepare your children to succeed in their learning journey” (Ministry of Education, 2020). In acknowledging that early primary students will likely not be able to access the resources without support of their families, parents in K-2 were required to take a leadership role in supporting the learning of their young children. Furthermore, given that learning in kindergarten and early primary grades is largely play- and inquiry- based and focuses primarily on social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of learning there was a need to investigate the impacts of this move for educators, parents, and children. As such, the purpose of this research was twofold: 1) to investigate how early primary educators (kindergarten- grade 2) planned, taught, and assessed learning during the Learn at Home initiative; and, 2) to examine the impact of the move to remote teaching and learning on early primary children and their parents.
Given the current context and the uncertainty regarding the safety of in-person learning and the increasing possibility that social distancing will need to be prolonged or possibly resumed in the future, it is important to understand how educators moved their instruction online and how best to support educators and parents with these efforts if remote learning continues in the future.