Faculty in the Media

Alan Leschied was interviewed by Free Press reporter, Kathy Rumleski on March 9 on the subject of violence and girls.

Katina Pollock was featured in a Western News article on March 9: “Teaching students through experiential learning.”

 Alan Edmunds participated in a series of interviews with the Kansas City Star newspaper, March 2 – 4, on the topics of highly precocious students and the schooling of profoundly gifted children and adolescents. The State of Kansas is revisiting all educational policies regarding students who are gifted and talented with a view toward allowing for more curriculum/student acceleration options.

Wayne Martino named Faculty Scholar

Faculty of Education Professor Wayne Martino has been recognized as one of Western’s Faculty Scholars. The award was established “to honour and celebrate outstanding scholarly achievements at a critical point in the career of a faculty member at Western.” Criteria for the award include: excellence in research, teaching and service.

Congratulations!

More on the award at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/stories/martino.html

Our Researchers – Talks and Papers in November

Peter Jaffe and Ray Hughes published an article in the Fall issue of the OSSTF Forum, Preventing Violence Against Girls, Vol. 34, Issue 3, Fall 2008.  

Peter Jaffe was widely quoted on the issue of Ontario Government’s proposed reforms to protect women affected by domestic abuse. Peter was interviewed and quoted in the London Free Press, the Globe & Mail and on CBC Radio on November 25.

Shelley Taylor presented a paper: Learning to crack the code: Strategies developed by minority language children for second and third language learning in a school setting, at the TESL Ontario Conference “Strategies for Language Learning and Teaching” in Toronto on November 14.  

Maureen Smith is quoted in the December, 2008 edition of Professionally Speaking. The article, The Core of the Matter, by Michael Salvatori is Part 1 of “Change is the constant for French as a Second Language in Ontario.”

Allan Pitman travelled to Singapore to attend the final planning session of the World Education Research Association (WERA) on November 24 and 25. The newly formed WERA will link to education associations around the world and will support the establishment of a group of education researchers where infrastructure does not exist. From Singapore, Allan flew off to South Korea on the 26th to deliver the keynote speech at the Asia Pacific Research Association Conference. His topic was Capacity Building in South East Asian Universities: International Challenges. 

Ron Hansen attended the 5th Biennial International Conference on Technology Education Research in Queensland, Australia from November 26-29 presenting his paper entitled Technical Innovation Research Project.

Rebecca Coulter gave an invited presentation, Where the Boys Are: Learning from Young Men, to the Canadian Safe Schools Network conference on November 25 in Toronto.

Centre Assists in Production of Film

The Centre for Research and Education on Violence against Women and Children helped to produce a film, tentatively titled Respect: Western, on the treatment of minority groups on campus. (See page 3 of Western News, September 4, 2008)

“The film includes selections from interviews conducted with 25 faculty, students, administrators and support services staff at Western, as well as focus group sessions.”

Adult Learning in Aboriginal Community-based Inner-city Organizations

Dr. Jason Brown of the Faculty of Education, UWO, is the lead author of a report featured on the Canadian Council on Learning web site.

“The study was a participatory research project on the nature and experience of informal adult learning within community-based inner-city human service organizations from the perspectives of Aboriginal volunteers and staff members who are residents of the local community.”

Western Innovation Fund Announces Grant Recipients

The Western Innovation Fund grant recipients were announced today on Western’s Home Page. Congratulations to Immaculate Namukasa and George Gadanidis, both from the Faculty of Education on receiving funding for their work on Rich Online Mathematics Tasks: An Interactive Database.  

Other recent grant recipients from the Faculty are featured on the Faculty of Education research web pages.

Kehler’s Research Featured in London Free Press and UWO Homepage

Research currently underway by Dr. Michael Kehler, Faculty of Education, was featured in today’s London Free Press and on yesterday’s UWO Home Page. Co-investigators for the study are Dr. Kevin Wamsley, Faculty of Health Sciences and Dr. Michael Atkinson, University of Loughborough, U. K.

Excerpt from London Free Press story:

“Some young men are reluctant and anxious to participate in phys-ed. A young man told me the other day how awkward he felt when it came to phys-ed and that he didn’t feel physically adept,” Kehler said.

Male adolescents who show little interest in phys-ed don’t often talk about their experiences in the gymnasium or on the playing field because they’re afraid of getting labelled “feminine” or “gay,” Kehler said.

The results can be harmful — particularly in an era when obesity rates among adolescents are rising fast — because teens will feel discouraged about keeping active, he said.

Kehler said little research has been done on the role of gender in physical education, especially in boys.

He was awarded $111,000 yesterday by the Social Sciences Health Research Council to turn his pilot project at area Thames Valley schools into a national three-year study.

Other coverage: CanWest, Medical News Today

Edmund’s Book Featured in Annual Review of New Books by Western Faculty

Alan Edmund’s book, Special Education in Canada, co-authored by Gail Edmunds, is featured in this week’s edition of the Western News (on page 11).

…[Edmunds] and wife Gail use the power of storytelling in “Special Education in Canada” to tell the real-life stories of six children with exceptionalities. The stories outline the challenges of students with learning disabilities, behaviour disorders, intellectual disabilities, autism, multiple disabilities and those who are gifted and talented.

Alan is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education.