LSAC Pacific Regional Conference

Session 1: Supporting Knowledge Construction Using an Intersubjective Framework

Seanna Takacs, PhD
Learning Specialist & Academic Skills Instructor
Centre for Students with Disabilities
Douglas College

As educators, knowledge construction is our aim. In their book How Learning Works, Ambrose at al. (2010) discuss the importance of activating prior knowledge, pointing out that students often must be explicitly directed to exploit prior knowledge and that this exploitation of prior knowledge must occur in such a way as to help rather than hindering learning. The question that necessarily follows is how to achieve accurate, sufficient and appropriate prior knowledge activation. Who is the activator of the knowledge? Who is the judge of its accuracy and sufficiency? In the case that prior knowledge is insufficient, who or what is the sentinel and how might the knowledge base be expanded?

Intersubjectivity is the notion that learning is negotiated on the terms of developing shared understanding. The outcome of discussions, conversations, and questions is not simply to verify the veracity of one’s own thoughts or conclusions, but to take, hold, negotiate perspectives and to acknowledge how those perspectives serve to expand or limit learning. Instead of finding out whether “I’m correct”, intersubjective processes focus instead on comparison and negotiation: “I think I’m right, how does your thinking compare?” This presentation will elaborate the theoretical framework on intersubjective processes in knowledge construction and demonstrate how that framework intersects with the principles outlined in Ambrose et al. (2010).

Session 2: Building on Prior Knowledge or Deconstructing It: How do we help students move on with Math?

Chris Stewart, Director of Quantitative Reasoning
Michelle Spencer, Peer Tutor
Aaron Slobodin, Peer Tutor
Quest University Canada

Tutoring is often about drawing out of the student what they know and helping them see how to apply their knowledge. What if their knowledge is incorrect? And what if their knowledge is correct, and yet still acts as an obstacle to further learning? In this session we will share some research on prior knowledge which hinders mathematical development and discuss a tutoring program which has been designed to develop students’ skills and ability to apply these skills to unfamiliar situations. We will show how the following “principles for effective learning” are components of our tutoring strategies:

• How students’ prior knowledge helps/hinders learning
• How students’ knowledge organization impacts their learning and application of knowledge
• How students attain mastery through acquisition of skills, practice, and analysis of when and where to apply them
• How to provide goal-directed practice with targeted feedback

Although this will start with a presentation, there will be time for groups to discuss their experiences and challenges when tutoring mathematics.

Session 3: Hybridizing Texts, Connecting Meaning: Using non-traditional genre and text-types to improve students’ academic writing

Adam Vincent, M.A.
The Learning Centre
Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Through their daily multimodal/digital interactions, many of today’s Canadian post-secondary students have adopted a unique discourse that does not often translate into success in their academic writing courses. Students are asked to write essays, book reviews, term papers, and lab reports which do not reflect their personal discourses and as such they fail to activate their full literacy and learning potential. These students are at risk of never achieving the capacity to exercise academic autonomy in their writing.

A solution to mitigate the disconnect between students’ personal writing (i.e. digital writing) and required academic writing is found in the creation of hybrid texts. Hybrid texts draw from students’ previous experiences, get them writing in traditionally non-academic text-types, and can be adapted to suit their specific academic purposes which benefits their learning overall. This presentation provides an introduction to the concept of creating hybrid texts and explores how those texts can be used to connect students with their academic writing assignments.

Session 4: Learning for Success: It’s all in the attitude

Jasica Munday & Daveen Panasar, Supplemental Learning Leaders and students (Bachelor of Science program)
Elizabeth Templeman, Supplemental Learning Coordinator
Thomson Rivers University

What students expect of themselves and how aware they are of their own behaviours as learners matter. First generation students, in particular—those without family experience to draw from—are particularly prone to bring what Carol Dweck calls a “fixed” mindset with them into post-secondary. (Thibodeau)

The presenters will share two core principles that have informed their leadership and their learning, and how they weave those principles into their practice within the Supplemental Instruction (SI) context. Participants would not need to be familiar with SI to appreciate the perspectives these two student leaders bring to learning. The presenters will share their understanding of metacognitive awareness and control, and growth mindset, and how those two principles foster learning and sustain best practices both within their SI sessions, and in their own development as leaders and learners. Their perspectives are both personal and scholarly, and they will incorporate active and collaborative learning (a foundation of their SI training) into their presentation.

Time permitting, the presentation will be framed by sharing the broader perspectives on the development of these two students as leaders, and the nature of their collaboration—on how the concepts, experience, and skills have reinforced one another as they’ve learned about learning.