According to national labor market information study, access to talent is the greatest business challenge Canadian biotech companies are facing. We, therefore, developed, implemented, and assessed a pharma industry-inspired, medicinal research laboratory module in an experiential capstone biotechnology laboratory course. This involves developing a…

Peer researchers (PRs) are research team members who share traits (e.g. gender, age, sexual orientation, diagnosis, income, housing situation, etc.) with study participants. Participatory methods and some fields (e.g. HIV/AIDS) expect PRs to be equitably involved in a project. Moreover, in Canada, there is a current impetus to include 'the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the program design of a sustainability leadership certificate to participants' perceptions of their in-program learnings and competencies development. The authors present the results from the analysis of one program evaluation component, a survey, which was delivered before the program start and at…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel undergraduate course on serious game design and development that integrates both game and instructional design, thus providing an effective approach to teaching serious game design and development. Very little effort has been dedicated to the teaching of proper serious game design and…

This study explicated the theory underpinning the Human Ecology Practicum Program offered in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta. The program has operated for 40 years but never been formally evaluated. Using a document analysis, focus group and individual interviews, and a stakeholder working group, we explored…

An organization's action learning program was based on five principles: real work, questioning and critical thinking, self-managed learning, embedding of learning in the organization, and group dynamics. Most participants were satisfied; more than 50% would seek formal certification based on their learning. More confidence and different approaches…

A 1983 survey of 22 male and 134 females enrolled in the University of Calgary teacher education exploratory field experience half-courses assessed the significance of course objectives and activities and the impact of off-campus locations on learning. Results indicated students did benefit from early exploratory field experiences. (NEC)

The authors synthesize preliminary findings from an interdisciplinary study of the practicum/clinical phase of undergraduate pre-service education in the professions. Early data analysis identified similarities and differences across disciplines in terms of: (a) the terminology describing each practicum program, (b) the programs' key…

The Early Primary Project, initiated in Queen's University, Ontario, Canada in 1985, differed from the regular teacher education program in five ways: (1) all practice teaching in the first half of the year was assigned at the early primary level and was supervised by project faculty; (2) the first practice teaching was an extended round of 7…

School-based outdoor and experiential programs face an increasing demand from outside interests for research-based accountability. This paper suggests that both research and practice are strengthened by researcher-practitioner partnerships and by practitioners conducting their own research. Three modest qualitative research designs are explored as…

This paper focuses on the activities of colleges and universities providing options for the assessment of prior learning for adult students. The paper emphasizes programs with associate and baccalaureate degree-granting institutions in the United States and Canada. It is aimed at faculty members, practitioners, administrators, and policy-makers,…

A Faculty of Education dramatically restructured its preservice teacher education program by putting experience first through introducing an extended fall-term practicum of 14 weeks. Focus group interviews were conducted with elementary and secondary teachers and administrators over a 3-year period, prior to and twice during the controversial…

A socio-constructivist and experiential process for climate change education was experimented within two coastal communities of Eastern Canada with 39 students 13 and 14 years of age. The pedagogical process, based on local observation of climate change, Duit's conceptual change theory (1999) and experiential learning, aimed for the improvement of…

Concept mapping, a student-driven assessment tool, is used to compare student attitudes toward conventional school and the Community Environmental Leadership Programme (CELP), an integrated outdoor semester for 11th graders that develops community skills, environmental awareness, leadership, and responsibility. Although pre-CELP concept maps…

The proceedings contain the text of the major presentations to the interpretation seminar, held September 21-23, 1983 at Bark Lake, Irondale, Ontario, and attended by 66 participants. The proceedings contain the keynote address, which defined interpretation for the participants, and 11 other presentations dealing with planning and evaluating…