Research Interests

Teacher Identity & Deliberate Practice


Even with formal teacher training, new teachers must grapple with transition shock and learn to recognize and overcome default practice from years of observation from the student perspective. In post-secondary education, navigating this threshold, from one who teaches to one who is a teacher, is arguably more difficult, in the absence of sustained formal training in pedagogy. I am interested in exploring this development of professional identity, and how engagement in reflexive, deliberate practice can ease the transition and sustain a life-long practice.

 

Assessment & Feedback


Assessment and feedback in effective teaching and learning is an essential but often maligned aspect of education. I explored inconsistencies in teacher feedback on student writing as my Masters’ project, discovering along the way that even when grades align, teachers often provide remarkably different feedback to students. More recently, I have looked into ways to engage students in low-stakes writing in order to establish trust in feedback, and I believe this is an avenue worth exploring further. My doctoral research focuses on how the development of teacher identity in higher education influences teachers’ approaches to and attitudes toward assessment practices.

 

Methodology & Qualitative Methods


I appreciate the depth and scope of autoethnography and narrative inquiry. I am convinced of the appeal and merit of these approaches to research and pedagogy. In my doctoral research, I have come to appreciate the merits of interactive interviewing, and am exploring ways to incorporate this method into teaching as well as further research.

 

Institutional Evaluation


Despite increasingly progressive pedagogy, our institutions and practitioners remain bound by evaluation practices that undermine learning, and perpetuate students’ obsession with grades regardless of learning. I am interested in probing why summative evaluation still influences teachers and students to such an extent, and how we, as educators and researchers, might shift the perceptions of teachers, students, and institutions regarding the role of assessment.

My experience at Vanier College includes several projects dealing with institutional policies, such as the IPESA (Institutional Policy on the Evaluation of Student Achievement) and the Policy on Student Proficiency in the Language of Instruction. As well, I have worked on program evaluation and development of program and course frameworks, and believe that all of these aspects of my college career provide rich material for further research. In particular, I am interested in exploring how the Quebec Cégep system might serve as a model, and provide lessons learned, for pedagogical development in post-secondary education elsewhere.