Congratulations to our Outstanding Master-Level Student Award recipient, Fabiano Camara!

Camara is more than deserving of such an award. Not only has he maintained an A+ average in his coursework, but he has also been a research assistant for a SSHRC-funded study pertaining to early learning environments and physical activity, and was recently hired by Dr. Cherkowski to help develop a graduate student online portal.

“UBC puts your values into practice and supports students in all matters. I feel very lucky and privileged to be surrounded by amazing people at UBCO,” says Camara. “I have had many opportunities to develop my studies and career as a whole. The Okanagan School of Education is continually offering high-quality options to help me flourish in my academic career. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I’ve been provided great opportunities to enhance my teaching skills and to build a learning community. And as a Research Assistant, I have been able to immerse myself in all the aspects of research in the Education field.”

Question and Answer session with Fabiano camara

What receiving the award means to you?

This award is one of the highest accomplishments in my career and personal life. I believe that the academic journey is composed of many aspects: courses, events, projects, meetings. I try to be involved in these activities as much as I can. I am honoured to receive this award because it symbolizes the recognition of years of studying, working and living education.

What was your research project?

My study focuses on the role of mentoring groups in the professional development of Physical Education (PE) Teachers.  The purpose of my research is to understand the potential of a mentoring group for the development of PE teachers’ autonomy, based on critical pedagogies, through the Action Research methodology. I am preparing to organize the data collection to start in August 2020.

Why did you choose that project?

I have been involved in mentoring groups and service projects all throughout my undergraduate and graduate programs in Physical Education. In these academic activities, I realized that courses might not be enough to promote a proper transition from academic life to the professional environment. As a university Professor and Mentor, I have perceived a lack of studies regarding mentoring in PE practices. It is not completely clear what type of pedagogical trend the mentoring routine has been applying. I hope my research can contribute to making a model of mentoring that would be able to help mentor and students to a healthy and less stressful transition from the school to the workplace.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

Be involved as much as you can! Try expanding beyond your courses. Research, service and internships are fundamental components of the graduate journey!

Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Berg

The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to welcome Dr. Bill Cohen to the faculty in the position of Assistant Professor!

Dr. Bill Cohen is from the Okanagan Nation with extensive kinship ties throughout BC and Washington. He specializes in the areas of Indigenous knowledge, research, education, and transforming pedagogy. For over twenty-five years, he has engaged in community-driven, transforming projects, as parent, volunteer, advisor, facilitator, and director. He is an educator, artist, story-teller and author. The focus of Dr. Cohen’s continuing research is to identify, understand and theorize the transforming potential of Indigenous and Okanagan knowledge and pedagogy through organic language and cultural knowledge revitalization. As an educator, he has organized numerous community, school, arts, language, literacy and numeracy projects involving elders, fluent speakers, parents and children.

Congratulations to our Master of Education Outstanding Project recipient, Morgen MacDonald!

Morgen attended the Okanagan School of Education for her Bachelor of Education degree (2014), and we were delighted to see her again as she pursued her Master of Education!

“It was nice to work with some professors again on a deeper level and to meet new professors who shared similar passions,” says Morgen. “I did both online and on-campus classes and found both to be rewarding opportunities for collegial discussion and learning.”

Question and Answer session with Morgen MacDonald

What receiving the award means to you?

Receiving this award is an honour, to be recognized for writing about something you are so passionate about and for all the dedication, time and hard work that goes into a Master’s Capstone Project is really flattering. I am not alone in outstanding work though, I had classes with many colleagues who were all doing some really interesting projects that they were really passionate about.

What was your research project?

My project is a literature review of Mindfulness in the Classroom including a unit plan that is suitable for all grades to help educators get started with mindfulness. As a mindfulness practitioner and educator, I felt it was important to bring to light the many ways being a mindful teacher can affect your classroom. Our students are our mirrors, with a mindful, calm, openness teachers can model for students what regulated learning and being looks, sounds and feels like. In my paper, I discuss not only the useful aspects of mindfulness in the classroom but also some red flags to watch out for when looking to bring mindfulness into your own class. I truly believe that mindfulness is best taught by someone who has experience with it themselves. So, in the educational setting, mindfulness starts with teachers.

Why did you choose that project?

I have been passionate about mindfulness for many years. This started with my own personal journey, which is discussed in my paper. Along this journey, I brought some mindfulness practices to my classroom and witnessed a dramatic change in my students. From there, my personal research began which slowly grew into something I wanted to pursue on a more academic level. I was lucky enough to get connected with Dr. Karen Ragoonaden early on in my Master’s journey, as a supervisor who shares my interest in mindfulness.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

My advice for future graduate students would be to find something you are passionate about. With every course, you take look for ways the learning connects to your passion. You will be pleasantly surprised to find that no matter the course there will be a link. In this way, you are constantly gathering sources for your research and also working through your paper with each course. This will help you to narrow down your topic, discover what specifically really interests you and find those colleagues and professors who share your passion. Don’t be afraid to take a risk, ask questions and dig deeper into topics or courses that interest you. The professors are so amazing at sharing their passions that it is well worth the time and effort to reach out to them for support and ideas.

Supervisor: Dr. Karen Ragoonaden

Congratulations to our 2020 graduate student award recipients!

Vicki Green Graduate Award: Camille Rousseau

Stephen Daniel Pope Graduate Award: Leslie Shayer

Master of Education Outstanding Project: Morgen MacDonald

Master of Arts Outstanding Thesis: Nicole Harris

Outstanding Master-level Graduate Student: Fabiano Camara

Master-Level Outstanding Presentation/Publication: Leslie Shayer

Doctoral Studies Outstanding Conference Presentation: Darlene Loland

Congratulations to our Vicki Green Award recipient, doctoral student, Camille Rousseau!

The Vicki Green Graduate Award recipient is selected based on how their research will implement contemplative, transformational, imaginative or creative interdisciplinary understandings in sustainability for children, youth or teachers.

This fall will mark Camille’s third year as an interdisciplinary Ph.D. student in the Okanagan School of Education. Committed to improving the school experience of children with Public Speaking Anxiety, Camille’s research will explore the role of therapy dogs in fostering public speaking confidence and competency.

Question and Answer Session with Camille

What does receiving the award mean to you?

I am very grateful to receive this award in recognition of the research I am developing. My goal is to conduct applied research on the social-emotional and educational development of youth by investigating whether dogs, as part of children’s ecology, can influence their developmental trajectory. Receiving this award allows me more flexibility to conduct research that inspires me. In this way, it is an important reminder to myself that I am well supported in my research and that findings hold potential of transformational significance for youth and innovative approaches in sustainable education interventions.

What is your research project?

Research related to public speaking (PS) competence has largely focussed on adults’ PS anxiety as anxiety rates in in adult populations related to PS reach up to 70%. However, research suggests that PS anxiety often takes root at around 10-14 years of age and, for most, the opportunity to participate in formal communication training is limited to elementary and secondary school.  Still, although communication education, particularly public speaking, has long-term ramifications for students’ personal development, academic achievement, and learning, little research has been done to explore young people experiences with PS anxiety and ways to support them.

Building on the success of canine-assisted reading interventions, this research project responds to the need to identify a method to improve youth public speaking skills by investigating whether therapy dogs can enhance children’s PS experience. Specifically, with a triangulated data collection method we will investigate whether dogs reduce PS anxiety in children and whether presenting in the presence of a dog increases motivation to present and promotes behavioural indicators of PS competence.

What difference do you hope your research will make?

Canine-assisted interventions in educational spaces are proliferating across communities. This research aims to elucidate the ramifications of involving dogs in educational experiences.  Specifically, beyond facilitating students’ academic achievement and augmenting their professional opportunities, this research holds potential to inform educators on innovative possibilities to cultivate and bolster public speaking competence. It also holds promise for Canadian families as a potential low-cost, sustainable intervention, especially given there are 7.6 million dogs currently living with Canadian families.

Ultimately, I hope findings from this research can help us nurture diverse generations of young people that can actively and confidently participate in learning communities through clear communication and sharing of information. This research forges ahead by exploring an innovative way to positively impact a developmental cornerstone of learning for our young leaders of tomorrow.

Graduate Supervisor: Dr. John-Tyler Binfet

Our 2020 Stephen Daniel Pope Graduate Award and Master-Level Outstanding Presentation/Publication recipient is doctoral candidate, Leslie Shayer.

Shayer has recently graduated with her Master of Arts in Education degree – her oral examination was the Okanagan School of Education’s first remote defence completed in March of this year! Her thesis research considered the impact of contemplative (e.g., mindfulness) practices on math anxiety (individuals becoming emotionally disturbed in the presence of mathematics).

“We all know people who avoid math, whether they do so in their daily lives, or overall in their education or career,” says Leslie. “My case study supported my hypotheses to decrease math anxiety via guided breathing, visualization, and meditation techniques.”

In the pursuit of her MA, Leslie also worked on two funded projects with Dr. Karen Ragoonaden: one on Mindfulness and Indigenous Knowledges: Shared Narratives about Identity and Well-Being; and another on a research cluster studying Culture, Creativity, Health and Well-Being.

Leslie has been a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Okanagan College, Kelowna Campus since 2006.

Question and Answer Session with Leslie

What does receiving this award mean to you?

It is an honour to receive the Stephen Daniel Pope Graduate Award. I strive to be more like Dr. Pope by making contributions to the public education system in B.C. I have been teaching math at the post-secondary level since 2000, in B.C. since 2005. I have seen students struggle, all for the wrong reason. There is a belief in my potential as an Education student and what my research can do. With this award goes large shoes… and I have small feet…. All I can say, is that I will do the best that I can. Perhaps some insoles will help!

What is your research project, and what stage are you at?

I am officially beginning my Ph.D in the fall at UBC Okanagan and plan to extend my Master’s Research to be more inclusive of different genders, ethnicities, as well as Indigenous students. If I can help anyone feel better about math to make learning easier, then that would be a great success.

Ideally, I plan to add to the body of knowledge of how contemplative practices can improve the educational environment for marginalized students, in particular, by minimizing marginalized students’ anxiety in the post-secondary mathematics classroom, which in turn, could improve overall math performance. Marginalized students here are women and non-binary individuals, non-white ethnic groups and Indigenous students.

Also, I would like to contribute to the important theoretical dialogue regarding diversity and marginalization in post-secondary classrooms, especially ones containing mathematics and statistics. I could stretch and say that poor performing, math-anxious students are also marginalized. There is research to support that as well, but there are many hurdles to overcome beforehand.

What difference do you hope your research will make?

I’ve been teaching math, primarily at the post-secondary level for twenty years. During that time, I have seen a lot of struggling students. I am hoping that my research will offer ways to support students to gain some ease with math, achieve greater math success as well as more diverse career options. Also, and perhaps more importantly, I would like to use math to balance the scales for all as, according to Mighton, “math is the key to a more equitable society.”

Congratulations to our Master of Arts Outstanding Thesis award recipient and recent graduate, Nicole Harris!

Nicole completed her Master of Arts in Education while working full-time as an educator. She also is a volunteer dog handler with the B.A.R.K. program!

“I had a wonderful time during my two years with the Okanagan School of Education. The professors and the other students were all great,” says Nicole. “The B.A.R.K. program has been hands down my favourite thing about the Okanagan School of Education. Dr. Binfet is an incredible supervisor and all of the B.A.R.K. volunteers, handlers, and of course the dogs, are amazing to volunteer and work with.”

Question and Answer session with Nicole

What receiving the award means to you

I am incredibly honoured to receive this award. It is affirming to be recognized for the two years of very hard work I put into doing the research and writing my thesis while working as a full-time teacher. This means all those long days I put into my research and thesis were worth it because evidently, quite a good product came of it. I am overwhelmed with pride and gratitude for this acknowledgement.

What was your research topic?

It’s been shown that explicitly teaching children social and emotional skills can have a positive effect on their social and emotional competence and can also improve academic success.  That is why schools are becoming increasingly responsible for teaching social and emotional learning.  One relatively new way of teaching social and emotional skills is in conjunction with therapy dogs.  My study explored what it was like for children to participate in a social skills training program facilitated by therapy dogs.  Observations of the children were collected by university volunteers and eight children were interviewed by the researcher.  Findings indicated that, overall, the children enjoyed the social skills training program with dogs and the therapy dogs provided unique benefits.  Interacting with the therapy dogs improved the children’s moods and increased their engagement.  It also showed evidence of the therapy dogs providing some emotional and behavioural benefits.

What difference do you hope your research will make? 

Professionally-speaking, I have always been interested in social-emotional learning (SEL). As I was looking into the Master’s programs at UBCO, I discovered the B.A.R.K. program and immediately knew a marriage between my lifelong love of dogs and a professional interest such as SEL could become an ideal academic endeavor. Dogs have the ability to provide many stress-reducing and confidence-boosting benefits to children and I hope my research might contribute to a decision to welcome therapy dogs on public school campuses some day.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

Pick a topic you are truly passionate about. On long days, your passion for your research will give you the fuel you need to keep going. Doing a thesis-based Master’s degree will teach you countless skills, many of which you probably never expected to learn. It is such an enriching experience.

Congratulations to our Doctoral Studies Outstanding Conference Presentation recipient, Darlene Loland!

Darlene has shown great initiative for presenting her emerging scholarship for her doctoral studies at peer-reviewed venues such as the American Educational Research Association and the Canadian Society for the Study of Education.

Her general research interests include organizational wellbeing and mental health in education, teacher professional learning, mindfulness, and place-based learning.

“My experience at the Okanagan School of Education has been very rewarding both personally and professionally,” says Darlene. “I am grateful to work with such a supportive and inspiring group of faculty members and fellow students.”

Question and Answer Session with Darlene

What does receiving this award mean to you?

I am honored to receive the Doctoral Studies Conference Presentation Award this year. I really appreciate having the opportunity to share my work and build conversations with my colleagues!

What is your research project?

Taking findings from mindfulness research and combining that with research on the restorative effects of engaging with nature, I plan to explore how mindful nature experience supports teacher mental health and wellbeing.

What difference do you hope your research will make?

With stress and anxiety becoming the plague of the modern classroom, there is great need to address mental health and wellbeing proactively in our schools. Having taught for more than 20 years I was alarmed by the changes I was noticing in student and teacher wellbeing and consequently sought out research to understand what was going on and ways to help. This search for knowledge ultimately led me to begin my PhD. I hope to find an effective approach of promoting and supporting wellbeing for teachers that can be used individually and with classes of children. I would like to see mental health and wellbeing advanced as a priority in school districts.

What’s your advice for future graduate students?

• Follow your heart and let what you are passionate about lead you!
• Be kind to yourself, remembering that learning is a process.
• Actively seek out and embrace moments of connection to learn from and with others.

Supervisor: Dr. Sabre Cherkowski

We look forward to celebrating with you in-person when it’s safe to do so. Until then, we’d like to share with you our wishes for your future:

Learn more about UBC Okanagan’s 2020 graduation at virtualgraduation.ok.ubc.ca.

We also have a few special acknowledgments:

Congratulations to our Bachelor of Education, Head of Graduating Class, Alyssa Pembleton! 

Read Alyssa’s story

Congratulations to our 2020 Sharon McCoubrey Award in Visual Arts Teaching recipient, Jamie Roodzant! 

Read Jamie’s story

Congratulations to PhD graduate, Cindy Bourne!

A congratulatory message to the 2020 graduates plus a special congratulations to our newest PhD graduate, Dr. Cindy Bourne, from her doctoral supervisor Dr. Susan Crichton. Congratulations Dr. Bourne!

Watch the video:

Congratulations to the Sharon McCoubrey Award recipient and 2019/2020 Bachelor of Education graduate Jamie Roodzant!

Question and Answer Session with Jamie

What has your experience been like at the Okanagan School of Education

Art has the freedom and flexibility for every student to explore what interests them and to allow that to enrich their education. This was highlighted for me during my time at Okanagan School of Education, where my professors welcomed my alternative methods for assignments–drawing my essays–and therefore allowed me to enrich my own learning.

Why did you decide to enter the field of education?

Teaching has always been a passion of mine. Growing up with five younger siblings, I have always been in a role of mentoring and leading, which lead to an interest in teaching early on. In high school that interest was fostered by an amazing teacher I had, who gave me plenty of opportunities to teach. He even went so far as to create a course for me, allowing me to teach Kindergarten to grade 5 art for a semester. This experience truly cemented my desire to teach.

The ability to stand beside the next generation and push them to become their best self –to find their passion– is truly a gift. I believe that art gives students the ability to explore themselves and the world around them; it gives them a chance to express difficult subjects and emotions.

What does receiving the award mean to you?

The validation this award provides is incredibly meaningful and I’m honoured to receive it.