Day: January 9, 2013

Categories
Announcements Department Events

Walkabout 2013- Opening ceremony next Wednesday!

It’s time for the 7th Annual, 2013 Walkabout! The nine-week walking challenge is back. Get your team together today!

Go to the website to register and for more information: http://educ-walk2013.sites.olt.ubc.ca/

Opening Ceremony: January 16th, 2013 12:30 – 2:00 pm. Scarfe 310.

For those new to Walkabout, here’s how it works.

·         You join with four others to form a team of five.

·         Each person on a team wears a pedometer and records his/her respective steps (or exercise equivalent steps) each day.

·         At the end of a week, the total number of steps walked by the team are submitted to the website and the distance walked (or exercised!) is calculated and plotted on the Walkabout virtual map.

This year Walkabout has joined in with the Year of Indigenous Education to provide a walking journey through the First Nations territories of British Columbia.

The Walkabout website details information regarding some of the Indigenous communities, organizations, and Nations that we will visit on our virtual adventure. We urge you to combine your physical journey with an imaginative one that engages the Indigenous peoples along our virtual route.

In keeping with the theme, your team may want to consider selecting an Indigenous name. This is a great idea, but we request that you be conscious of stereotyping and appropriation concerns. Please see the website for helpful guidelines.

Once again there will be prizes! And many ways to win them, including collecting ‘visas’ in your virtual passport as you engage Indigenous communities along the route. And of course there will be the million stepper club, most team social steps, most team actual steps, most team social and actual steps, best team photo, and so on.

So, don’t delay! Assemble your team and join us for the 7th annual Walkabout.

Go to the website to register and learn more: http://educ-walk2013.sites.olt.ubc.ca/

Dates to remember:

·         Opening ceremony: Wednesday Jan 16th, 2013; Neville Scarfe Building Rm 310. 12:30 – 2 pm.

·         Nine-weeks walking: Monday Jan 21st to Sunday March 24th, 2013

·         Closing ceremony: Wednesday April 3rd, 2013; First Nations House of Learning. 12:30 – 2 pm.

Please spread the word widely. Invite family, friends, and colleagues who are not on campus to join the walk!

By the way, if you don’t have a team, register anyway.  We will find a team for you.

Categories
Announcements

Volunteer at UBC Farm

VOLUNTEER WITH CHILDREN IN

THE INTERGENERATIONAL LANDED LEARNING PROJECT

AT THE UBC FARM!

“Farm Friend volunteers sow, grow, harvest prepare, and eat food plants with intergenerational teams of one elder, one younger, and 3-5 elementary students at the UBC Farm.

Volunteers commit 8 mornings (Wednesday or Thursday, approximately every other week) from February-June 2013 to work and learn with their Farm Friend teams.

Seniors particularly sought!  On-call volunteers are also sought to fill in as needed.

Want to know more?  Interested in becoming a Farm Friend?

Contact Stacy @ landedlearning@gmail.com or see our onlineFAQs sheet.

 

New Volunteer Orientation:

  • Wednesday, January 30, 2013
  • Thursday, January 31, 2013


GROW and LEARN
HARVEST, COOK and EAT!

Categories
Announcements Department Events Office of Graduate Programs - FoE

Invitation Doctoral Exam – Alayne Armstrong (January 16, 2013)

You are invited to Alayne Armstrong the Final Oral Examination:
 
PROGRAMME
 
The Final Oral Examination
For the Degree of
 
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)
 
ALAYNE CHERYL ARMSTRONG
B.A.H., Queen’s University, 1988
M.A., University of Manitoba, 1995
B.Ed., University of British Columbia, 1997
M.A., University of British Columbia, 2006
Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 9:00 am
Room 203, Graduate Student Centre
Latecomers will not be admitted
 
“Problem posing as storyline: Collective authoring of mathematics by small groups of middle school students”
 
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
 
Chair:
Dr. Pierre Walter (Educational Studies)
 
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Ann Anderson, Research Supervisor (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
Dr. Anthony Clarke (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
Dr. Susan Gerofsky (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
 
University Examiners:
Dr. J. Scott Goble (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
Dr. Carl Leggo (Language and Literacy Education)
 
External Examiner:
Dr. Elizabeth de Freitas
Ruth S. Ammon School of Education
Adelphi University
Garden City, New York
United States
 
ABSTRACT
This dissertation investigates the problem posing patterns that emerge as small groups of students work collectively on a mathematics task, and describes the characteristics of problem posing that result.
This case study is a naturalistic inquiry about four small groups of Grade 8 students in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia who are working in a classroom setting, with the researcher acting as participant/observer and videographer.
The concept of author/ity is used to highlight human agency in mathematics. Small groups, as learning systems, are considered to be “authors” of their discourse, and the improvisational nature of authoring is discussed. A parallel is drawn between the storyline of a literary work and the storyline that emerges as a group poses problems in order to work its way through a mathematical task.
The metaphor of a tapestry is used as a way of describing how the threads of group discourse weave together. To address the challenge of documenting collective behavior at the group level, a method of data analysis is introduced that “blurs” the data in order to capture patterns that emerge over time – transcripts are color-coded and then shrunk to create tapestries that provide visual evidence of collective problem posing patterns.
This dissertation finds that collective problem posing is an emergent process. Each group poses its own set of problems, and the number of problems posed and their frequency also vary, resulting in individual tapestries for each group. The tapestry patterns are then used to compare characteristics of the groups’ discussions.
Problem posing appears to be an activity that these groups are able to do without receiving formal instruction or direction. The reposing of problems helps to structure each group’s discussion, with the role that each problem plays in the conversation evolving as it reemerges. The concept of groups working as bricoleurs is also explored, with bricolage in mathematics being characterized as a creative and generative process.
The dissertation concludes with a discussion of expertise in school mathematics and what implications an “aesthetic of imperfection” might have in the mathematics classroom.
 
 
EXAM DETAILS for ALAYNE CHERYL ARMSTRONG
 
        1. Exam Time: 9:00 AM on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 (Please arrive 5 minutes early, so the exam can begin promptly).
        2. Exam Location: Room 203 of the Graduate Student Centre (6371 Crescent Road).
Categories
Announcements Department Events

Successful MA/PhD Defences and Advancement to PhD Candidacy‏

MESSAGE SENT ON BEHALF OF DR. PETER GRIMMETT:

 

Please join me in congratulating Fay Bigloo (supervisor, Joy Butler) and James Miles (supervisor, Penney Clark) who successfully defended their MA theses in November 2012. Also join me in congratulating Shaye Golparian (supervisor, Rita Irwin) and Yifei Wang (supervisor, Stephen Petrina) who successfully defended their PhD dissertations in November and December respectively. And last but not least, join me in congratulating Natalie Le Blanc, PhD student working under Rita Irwin’s supervision, who successfully advanced to candidacy in December, 2012.

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