Recent adult immigrants1 arrive in Canada but some find difficulty obtaining jobs or attaining employment in their fields of expertise. This prompts a substantial number to attend post-secondary education (PSE) to improve their Canadian credentials, where they often face access and completion barriers. This synthetic review is divided into two parts. The first part consists
of two quantitative analyses of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Canada (LSIC); the first examines the economic integration of recent immigrants with respect to entry class, and the second provides an analysis of immigrant’s PSE pathways as a means of locating employment that match their qualifications. The second qualitative section, examines the responsiveness of universities and colleges to recent immigrants that enter PSE to receive Canadian credentials and work experience.
Accelerated courses continue to be part of the changing academic landscape at Canadian universities. However, there is limited evidence to support their efficacy in relation to knowledge retention. A greater understanding of knowledge retention associated with accelerated courses (i.e., intensive full-day course for a one- or two-week duration) as compared to traditional courses (i.e., one three-hour lecture once a week for 12 weeks) will provide university stakeholders and administrators with evidence to determine whether quicker courses should be pursued in the postsecondary education environment.
Consuming information online is as simple as a click, scroll, or swipe these days. All searches are not created equal — and rarely do we think about fact checking what we find on the internet.
“…The internet is actually changing the way we read, the way we reason, and even the way we think, and all for the worse,” says Tom Nichols in his recently published book, The Death of Expertise.
In higher education, I think it is imperative that we teach our learners and peers about what it means to participate and interact in digital spaces and places. How can our institutions help students, staff, and faculty “be” online and consider how both information and digital environments impact knowledge sharing and learning.
The thesis of this book is that the present approach to the provision of baccalaureate education in Ontario is not sustainable and
is in need of significant modification. The stage for the present approach was set by two higher education policy decisions that
were made in the 1960s: (1) that the colleges would have no role in the provision of baccalaureate credit activity; and (2) that the
publicly supported universities would have complete autonomy in deciding on their purpose, mission, and objectives. While the
universities had been primarily teaching institutions until the 1960s, since then a single idea of the mission of the university—the
research university—has been adopted by all. A key element of the research university model to which the university community
in Ontario has subscribed is that of the teacher-researcher ideal: that undergraduate students should be taught only by
professors who are active researchers.
Teaching preparation is enriched by opportunities for teacher candidates to participate in practicum experiences where they integrate classroom theory into practice. Typically, such practicum placements take place in classroom settings where teacher candidates facilitate the learning of school-aged children by teaching the established curriculum of the jurisdiction. However, some teacher education institutions are offering teacher candidates alternative practicum experiences that may take different forms. One of those forms is a service learning practicum. However, the advantages and challenges to a teacher candidate’s professional growth resulting from involvement in this alternative form of community-based practicum are not yet fully understood. This study examines the experiences of two groups of teacher candidates who engaged in 120 hours of pre-service community-based service learning placements in different models, and reports on teacher candidates’ perceptions of their learning. The major difference between the two placement models was the configuration of time allowed for service learning in the programs. On one campus, teacher candidates engaged in service learning for four consecutive weeks in the final term of their five-year program. On the other campus, teacher candidates could configure 120 hours of service learning over an extended time period during their fourth year of the program. The perceptions of each group of participants allow for comparisons of the benefits of each model and provide an overview of the associated learning outcomes of the entire group.
Hosting international students has long been admired as one of the hallmarks of internationalization. The two major formative strands of internationalization in Canadian universities are development cooperation and international
students. With reduced public funding for higher education, institutions are aggressively recruiting international students to generate additional revenue.
Canada is equally interested in offering incentives for international students to stay in the country as immigrants after completing their studies. In its 2011 budget, the Canadian federal government earmarked funding for an international
education strategy and, in 2010, funded Edu-Canada—the marketing unit within the Department of Education and Foreign Affairs (DFAIT)—to develop an official Canadian brand to boost educational marketing, IMAGINE:
Education in/au Canada. This model emulates the Australian one, which rapidly capitalized on the recruitment of international students and became an international success story. Given current Canadian higher education policy trends, this paper will address the cautionary lessons that can be drawn from the Australian case
Vision
Success for all through learning and partnerships.
Mission
To ensure quality, accessible education through innovative programs, services and partnerships for the benefit of our Northern communities.
Every professor has had one: the incredible disappearing student. Mine was "James," a talented and innovative thinker who had great things to say in class until he vanished, about halfway through the semester. He didn’t submit his paper. He didn’t show up in office hours. He didn’t respond to my emails. He was just gone. Poof.
Students like James are increasingly common at colleges and universities. Report after report has shown that undergraduates today experience more anxiety and stress than ever before. In extreme cases, the "pressure of perfection" can have tragic consequences. Nationally, suicide rates for 15- to 24-year-olds have risen, and suicide remains the second-leading cause of death for college students.
Self-care -- maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle through individually determined activities -- has been found
to improve productivity and a sense of well-being as well as physical and emotional health in a variety of work
settings. Although it is still considered a somewhat controversial concept, many colleges and universities are now
regarding self-care as essential for the optimal well-being of everyone in their community: faculty, staff,
administrators, students, support personnel and others. The benefits of promoting self-care in the workplace are
well documented.
This annual report from Noel-Levitz goes beyond the usual metrics of standardized test scores and high school transcripts to explore a wide range of non-cognitive attitudes that infl uence student retention and college completion rates for today’s entering college freshmen. Findings are reported separately for fouryear and two-year institutions, private and public, as well as for student subsets such as male vs. females.
The report is based on student survey responses drawn from a sizable national sample of entering
undergraduates in 2013.
Among faculty, student evaluations of teaching (SET) are a source of pride and satisfaction—and frustration and anxiety. High-stakes decisions including tenure and promotions rely on SET. Yet it is widely believed that they are primarily a popularity contest; that it’s easy to “game” ratings; that good teachers get bad ratings and vice versa; and that rating anxiety stifles pedagogical innovation and encourages faculty to water down course content. What’s the truth?
Today, students view mobility among, and access to, the different educational experiences as offered by colleges and universities as essential to their success in the workplace; they need to equip themselves with skills in a way that sets them apart from the rest and best speaks to their own interests and aptitude, and move more seamlessly between certificate, diploma, apprenticeship and
degree programs.
Probing the question of the effectiveness and applicability of outcomes-based funding policy for higher education in Ontario requires an approach that (1) reviews current research and policy literatures on this topic and (2) differentiates and contextualizes the knowledge available. In order to evaluate successful and unsuccessful policy features and institutional practices, it is important to take stock of current policies across varied provincial, state, regional and national contexts,
as well as over time. The topic of outcomes-based funding has received considerable and continuing attention in the research and policy literatures, and syntheses of these are currently available (e.g., Dougherty & Reddy, 2011, 2013; Frøhlich, Schmidt & Rosa, 2010; National Conference of State Legislatures, 2013). However, a comprehensive policy-relevant perspective can only be a product of extended study that considers policy contexts internationally and provides an actionable, differentiated view on the research and policy in this area. This study will examine policy and research literature to address the following research questions:
This study explores faculty and student perspectives on learning management systems in the context of current institutional investments. In 2013, nearly 800 institutions participated in the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service (CDS) survey, sharing their
current information technology practices and metrics across all IT service domains. In 2014, more than 17,000 faculty from 151 institutions and more than 75,000 students from 213 institutions responded to ECAR surveys on higher education technology experiences and expectations.2 Combining the findings from these sources provides a multidimensional perspective about the status and future of the LMS in higher education.
In 2004, former Ontario Premier Bob Rae was invited to lead the Postsecondary Education Review to provide advice on the seemingly intractable job of reconciling the province’ aspirations for a high quality, highly accessible and affordable postsecondary education system with the level of financial support that governments have felt able to provide for this endeavor. The report was considered extremely successful in providing 28 recommendations that were “sensitive to long- standing patterns of public opinion, articulated new public goals, [and] recognized the important role to be played by each major stakeholder.”(Clark and Trick, 2006, p. 180).
When and how are today’s prospective undergraduate students entering the recruitment funnel and moving through it? This report provides funnel conversion and yield rate benchmarks for particular student groups and particular entry points, such as in-state vs. out-of-state FTIC (first-time-in-college) students, campus visitors, transfer students, and other groups. By comparing these external benchmarks to their own internal benchmarks, campus enrollment teams can more accurately forecast the conversion and yield rates to expect at each stage of the college decision process.
Universities and colleges strive to grow and fulfill their mission of educating their communities. Communicating the data around that mission—how many students are graduating? What does the student population look like? Is the University managing its finances?— is an important component of any institution’s daily life. In this era of larger data and disparate data sources, that can be especially challenging. However, institutions that have been able to present important data online have been able to tell their stories better and engage with their communities in a meaningful way.
This paper presents eight ways that higher education is using analytics and data visualization, supported by examples from real institutions. It also addresses common issues such as keeping data up-to-date as well as appropriately private and secure.
Mentoring novice teachers often features buddy support, technical advice, and classroom management tips to meet teacher-centered concerns of survival. Such mentoring aligns with conventional models of teacher development that describe the
novice concerned with self-image, materials and procedures, and management, and only after the initial years, able to focus on individual student learning. Drawing on the wisdom of practice of 37 experienced teacher induction leaders and case studies of mentor/new teacher pairs, this study found that mentors can interrupt that tendency among new teachers, focusing them on the learning of individual students, especially those underperforming. For this work, mentors tap knowledge of student and teacher learners, pedagogy for classrooms and for tutoring teachers, and especially multilayered knowledge and abilities in several domains of assessment. These include assessment of students, alignment of curriculum with standards, and formative
assessment of the new teacher. Skillful use of this knowledge can bring individual student learning into focus and help new teachers generate methods for shaping instruction to meet students’ varied learning needs. These results challenge developmental models of teaching and conservative mentoring practices, calling for articulation of a knowledge base and relevant mentor development to focus new teachers early on individual student learning. Do students think I’m in charge? What materials should I use in this unit?
Getting students to take their reading assignments seriously is a constant battle. Even syllabus language just short of death threats, firmly stated admonitions regularly delivered in class, and the unannounced pop quiz slapped on desks when nobody answers questions about the reading don’t necessarily change student behaviours or attitudes. Despite the correlation between reading and course success, many students remain committed to trying to get by without doing the reading, or only doing it very superficially, or only doing it just prior to exam dates. In return, some exasperated instructors fall into the trap of using valuable class time to summarize key points of the readings. It’s not a new problem, and clearly we can’t simply bemoan the fact that students don't read. Furthermore, doing what we’ve been doing — the threats, the endless quizzes, the chapter summaries — has failed to solve the problem. The better solution involves designing courses so that students can’t do well without reading, and creating assignments that require students to do more than just passively read.
Featuring 11 articles from The Teaching Professor, this special report was created to give faculty new ways of attacking an age-old problem. Articles in the report include:
. Enhancing Students’ Readiness to Learn
. What Textbook Reading Teaches Students
. Helping Students Use Their Textbooks More Effectively
. Text Highlighting: Helping Students Understand What They Read
. When Students Don’t Do the Reading
. Pre-Reading Strategies: Connecting Expert Understanding and Novice Learning
Whether your students struggle with the material or simply lack the motivation to read what’s assigned, this report will help ensure your students read and understand their assignments.
In B.C.’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint: Re-Engineering Education and Training, we said we would get and use better data to drive decisions. This B.C. Labour Market Outlook (the Outlook) is that data. Presented by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism, and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour (the Ministry), the Outlook provides labour market demand and supply trends to 2022.
With the anticipated investment and activity related to LNG, the Ministry contracted KPMG to produce labour market forecasts for the LNG sector. The resulting LNG workforce occupation forecasts are added as a supplementary analysis of workforce needs in the Outlook and are aimed at providing a better understanding of the skills needs for this new sector. This Outlook report includes two major parts:
THE FIRST PART provides the labour market outlook based on an economic scenario without LNG; and THE SECOND PART highlights the findings of the LNG workforce occupation forecasts.