Ho Younghusband, Christine

The intent of this project to create a presentation and facilitation guide to support School Districts with the amalgamation of early care and learning and education into the same Governmental Ministry. The early care and learning system and the kindergarten-grade 12 (K- 12) systems currently sit in two separate government ministries. The project articulates both the parallel systems of the early care and learning and the K-12 systems and preparation of the amalgamation of the two systems. This project examines the historical differences between the two systems, the rights to access early care and learning and different types of governance models. This project will include a PowerPoint presentation and facilitation guide and can be used, as a template, for School Districts in British Columbia to start the initial discussion of this amalgamation with key stakeholders.

Punjabi Sikhs migrating to Canada form a disproportionately large population of the migrants from South Asia. There has been limited research or current literature on the schooling experiences of the second-generation children of these migrants despite the large numbers of this group migrating to Canada. The effects of minority status within the K-12 British Columbia school system regarding school experiences of second-generation students of Punjabi Sikh descent are presented throughout this research process. The investigation focused on the research participants’ perceived school experiences and whether there were differences based on the school type’s demographic composition of responders. I categorized these school types into three: small minority population, large minority population, and large majority population. I hypothesized that schools with large majority populations would have greater perceived satisfaction with school experiences. I found that I could further analyze by subscale and total scale groupings, based on my original correlational analysis. I found differences on school experiences (SE) and home experiences (HE) subscales based on school type, school type being differentiated by schools with a minority population, a large minority population, or a large majority population of the responder demographic of second-generation students of Punjabi Sikh descent. I found that responders from small minority population schools and large minority population schools showed a statistically significant difference in responses than responders from large majority population schools.

Classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse and the need for effective inclusive strategies is becoming more pronounced. Including students with exceptionalities into general classrooms is becoming the norm, however effective strategies are necessary to facilitate meaningful inclusion rather than superficial sharing of space. This need is especially true in content areas such as science. In these classes, students with exceptionalities tend to complete alternative programs in a resource room or have poor learning experiences in class. This project contains a content analysis of inclusive strategies and presents inclusive teaching resources that can help inclusion in middle school science classes. The strategies surveyed are research-based strategies that a teacher can implement in a general middle school science class. The strategies include technology, collaboration, universal design for learning (UDL), differentiated instruction (DI), strategy instruction, peer assisted learning, behaviour supports, and teacher practices. The strategies were analysed from the point of view of a learning support and science teacher for effectiveness in a middle school science class. A directed literature review was completed to more deeply examine strategies chosen for the teaching resources. Teaching resources were created and included with this project. The teaching resources were designed using universal design for learning (UDL) and other strategies from the content analysis.

The intent of this research project is to inform educators about the development and implementation of an Introductory Business Communications course at the post-secondary institution level. This course has evolved over the past two years of implementation. The information provided in this project is divided into the following sections: researcher’s personal location, project purpose, project significance, project literature review, and a concluding chapter that presents project lessons, project recommendations, future implications and concluding statements. The appendices section of this project includes the newly revised course package that has resulted from the lessons learned in the past two years of teaching an Introductory Business Communications course at a post-secondary institution.

Assessment reform has drawn educators’ attention to standard-based and performance-oriented assessment. By the end of the 1990s, many education systems around the world had developed mandatory learning standards for curriculum (O’Connor, 2018). The assessment reform has drawn educators’ insights in effective formative assessment to enhance student learning. However, early year teachers have experienced difficulties in implementing effective formative assessment due to a lack of practical guidelines in relation to grade-level learning standards. The purpose of this project is was construct a practical handbook about standard-based formative assessment for British Columbia (BC) Grade 2 teachers. This project sifts through the existing literature and examines the five formative assessment approaches which were most reflected: teacher observation, self-assessment, oral questioning, teacher-student conferences, and performance assessment. A qualitative research approach was employed in this project to analyze text data.

Elementary schools in Northern British Columbia with vulnerable populations are facing a decline in the academic achievement rates of their students. School districts facing these challenges are focusing their initiatives on intensive interventions to reduce and eliminate the achievement gap affecting the vulnerable populations. The After-School Academic Proficiency (ASAP) Program was a pilot project introduced to eight elementary schools with populations that were deemed vulnerable. Reading data collected from a school district located in Northern British Columbia determined that 49% of Grade 2 students were not meeting expectations.