We are excited to announce the 2022-2023 recipients of the Ontario Graduate Scholarships, the SSHRC CGS Master’s Scholarships, and the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarships.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)
The Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS) promote excellence in graduate studies at the master’s and doctoral levels. OGS awards are merit-based scholarships available to graduate students in all graduate disciplines in Ontario Universities.
Christine Armstrong - Using self-directed form-focused metacognitive listening exercises to improve senior French Immersion students’ French and develop their learner autonomy | Supervisor: Lindsay Morcom
The Covid pandemic illustrated the need for providing students with self-directed learning strategies as a part of their regular school-based curriculum. Self-directed learning strategies tend not to be a part of the regular French Immersion Curriculum in Ontario, nor an element of classroom-based practice. Students of French Immersion need to develop skills and strategies to self-direct their language learning independently before they leave regular classroom instruction at graduation as their French as a Second Language (FSL) is still in development. Ensuring the acquisition of such skills would support learners’ maintaining and continuing to develop their FSL independently post-graduation. This study focuses on the effect on FSL students’ language development and learner autonomy through engaging in self-directed form-focused metacognitive listening strategies.
Ingrid de Vries - Empowering Families: the relationship between licensing exams and complaints | Supervisor: Saad Chahine
Society has a duty to protect the public against unqualified or incompetent professionals. These assurances are made through regulatory bodies, licensing and certification exams, and a formal complaints system. It is critical that the examination process correctly identify those who have met the passing standard, and that families are empowered to challenge the credentials of these professionals. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the associations between licensing exams, regulators, and the complaints system, and to understand how these protect patients and their families.
Becca Evans- Examining the experiences air cadets in relation to agency and responsibility | Supervisor: Theodore Christou
Rebecca’s research examines experiences of air cadets – a federally sponsored citizenship education program for young people - from the Toronto, Ontario region. The qualitative study will shed light on how young people from across diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds experience the program with respect to agency and responsibility.
Jia Guo - Is Life Shaped by Young Learners’ English Tests | Supervisor: Liying Cheng
The uses of English tests to assess young learners’ language (YLL) proficiency has gained increasing popularity over the past two decades. My study will examine TOEFL Primary test-takers’ experiences, the consequences of TOEFL Primary tests on test-takers and their parents, and how parents perceive and use the tests as efforts to capture the two key stakeholders' voices in a parallel manner.
Leaf Kretz - Shifting the Higher Education Landscape: Promoting Authentic Assessment to Support Learning | Supervisor: Heather McGregor
A rapidly growing body of literature shows that present climate change harms and anticipated climate change futurities are, in intersectionally-differentiated ways, harming the mental health of children and youth. New terms, such as ecoanxiety, are being developed to account for these climate change emotions. Dominant approaches to education at present do not adequately center climate change. This research adopts a youth participatory action methodology, generating educational resources for facilitating healthy relationship to climate change emotions.
Shuyuan Liu - An exploration of newcomer high school youth learning experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic | Supervisor: Claire Ahn
My study aims to explore newcomer high school youth’s learning experiences during COVID-19. It investigates both the students’ formal learning experiences that occurs with structured curriculum at school, and their informal learning experiences such as that with peers, community programs, and online activities during the pandemic. I hope that by engaging in students’ learning during these shifting learning environments that also coupled with the unique, temporal period of pandemic time, the study will be able to further inform the development of sustainable strategies and supports for newcomer youth now and in the future.
Jane Mao | Supervisor: Lee Airton
Jane holds a Bachelor of Sciences from Queen’s University in Psychology, a Certificate in Sexual and Gender Diversity, and is currently a Master of Education Candidate. Their grassroots community organizing experiences (e.g., the Gender Affirming Assistance Project, Roots and Wings Kingston) inform their degree, where they hope to utilize the power of education for resistance and collective liberation. Jane's study focuses on how racialized transgender and/or gender non-conforming individuals experience gaps in healthcare, and how to leverage education to reduce medical bias.
Jennifer Tewathaha:kwa Maracle Using Indigenous Knowledge to Improve Reading Success for Elementary Students | Supervisor: Lindsay Morcom
Western research indicates that early intervention for struggling readers is essential to mitigating long-term reading deficits. The route to intervention focuses primarily if not completely on cognitive supports (ie. special education remediation, psycho-educational assessments, accommodations, modifications etc.). Pairing western research with Indigenous Knowledge by using the two-eyed seeing approach, shows us that supporting the health of the whole child (mental, physical, spiritual, emotional health) instead of focusing only on their cognitive ability ensures that students reach a higher level of success.
Sunaira Tejpar - I Am Who I Am: Examining how Students Understand their Exceptionalities | Supervisor: Ian Matheson
Within the school system, the identification process for students with exceptionalities is intricate and multidimensional and does not comprise an organized method within the Individualized Education Plan process to communicate with students about their given identification. Without having a structured and accessible way of teaching students about their exceptionalities, individuals may be learning about them through a multitude of sources such as medical professionals, parents, teachers, or sometimes not at all. This can cause a lot of variability in the accuracy and depth of information they may be receiving regarding their identified exceptionality. Therefore, The purpose of my research is to examine how students make sense of their exceptionalities within the identification process of Ontario schooling.
Zemei (Jasmine) Wang - Chinese International Secondary School Students’ Adjustment Experiences in Canadian Schools | Supervisor: Maria Myers
This study employs a qualitative phenomenological methodology to focus on Mandarin-speaking international secondary school students’ voices as they discuss their transitional experiences during their first year of study in Canadian schools. The goals are: to understand factors that hinder or promote successful adaptation; identify causes for struggles; and learn about the strategies students employ to cope with the obstacles they encounter during their adaptation process. The findings will help expand practitioners’ understanding of the challenges experienced by Chinese international secondary school students, as well as the strengths these students bring so that effective strategies can be designed to support newly arrived international students.
Paisley Worthington - An investigation of how evaluation in higher education can influence change and growth | Supervisor: Michelle Searle
This doctoral work seeks to better understand how program evaluation within university contexts contributes to processes of change. This topic is worthy of exploration as members of society work to improve living, working, and environmental conditions across the globe. Higher education institutions are sites of evaluator development and have a profound impact on society as places of professional learning, research, and citizen development. This research is guided by one main question: How can evaluation in university contexts promote processes of change? The proposed inquiry will integrate data and analyses from diverse sources to share insights regarding personal evaluation learning, shared evaluation experiences, and evaluation infrastructure within universities. This study will conclude by articulating how program evaluation in academia may influence change on individual and institutional levels.
Master's CGS M Holders
The objective of the Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s (CGS M) program is to help develop research skills and assist in the training of highly qualified personnel by supporting students who demonstrate a high standard of achievement in undergraduate and early graduate studies.
Shelly Gelman - The Future Is Worth It: Developing At-Risk Youths’ Resilience | Supervisor: Ian Matheson
The study looks to understand how teacher actions and qualities can support at-risk youth in their development of resilience outside of the classroom. Focusing on youth who face challenging risk factors such as homelessness, mental health, and incrimination with the law, the qualitative study focuses of youth perspective and voice to understand exactly how teachers impact their resilience. With in-depth narrative accounts of impactful actions on the development of resilience, findings from this study will enable teachers to be better positioned to provide valuable and meaningful support to every student.
Emma Hamilton - Achieving Literacy Equity by Practicing Excellence: Identifying the Instructional Strategies of Exemplary Literacy Educators in Ontario | Supervisor: Pamela Beach
Helping students become proficient readers and writers is one of the most crucial objectives of our education system. Decades of literacy research show that reading failure can be prevented in all but a small percentage of children and, therefore, we can teach nearly every child how to read. Explicit and systematic literacy instruction in elementary school focusing on the five components of effective reading instruction is critical to mitigating risk factors and to preventing reading disabilities. This research examines the instructional strategies used by exemplary teachers to best support all students' right to read. Further, it highlights the importance of teacher self-efficacy, professional knowledge, and professional judgment in supporting the best outcomes for all students.
Sophia Klymchuk - Literacy Intervention in FSL Classrooms | Supervisor: Ian Matheson
I have spent several years teaching and learning in French Immersion classrooms, and my goal is to address the need for effective literacy instruction in the second language classroom so that the Ontario curriculum can be addressed more meaningfully. By allotting importance to the development of effective French reading and literacy instruction in the early years, we open the door to French resource development, funding for FSL programs, and agency in curricular and educational policy. Ultimately, these elements help form active, engaged, and bilingual citizens to contribute to Canadian society.
Brooke Parker - Enhancing pre-service teachers' mental health literacies through educational programming | Supervisor: Amanda Cooper
The aim of this study is to explore the mental health literacies of pre-service teachers in Ontario to identify the knowledge and skills gaps that exist in supporting student mental health. With the growing concern of child and youth mental health, it is crucial that teachers be trained to support their students alongside other health professionals in prevention, identification, and intervention. The findings from this study will provide suggestions for addressing this gap in future educational programming.
Emily Teves - Using Virtual Manipulatives to Teach Multistep Equations to Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities in Online Learning Environments | Supervisor: Jordan Shurr
While the connection between the use of virtual manipulatives and student math performance for students with learning disabilities in math is well established, few studies have investigated the impact of virtual manipulatives on alternative student outcomes such as learner engagement in an online learning context. This study has the potential, not only to reduce the achievement gap between students with and without learning disabilities in math, but also to improve math education for all students.
Mohamed Yusuf - Investigating Supports and Barriers Affecting Black Students' Enrolment into Graduate Studies | Supervisor: Alana Butler
The following qualitative study will focus on the lived experiences of current Black Masters Candidates, and their enrolment journey in pursuit of higher education. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, the goal is to provide a deeper understanding as to what barriers are affecting the low enrolment-rate for Black students at the graduate level, as well as what supports have helped best combat this enrolment disparity.
PhD CGS D Award Holders
The objective of the Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral (CGS D) program is to promote continued excellence in Canadian research by rewarding and retaining high-caliber doctoral students at Canadian institutions. By providing support for a high-quality research training experience to awardees, the CGS D program strives to foster impacts within and beyond the research environment.
Katrina Carbone - Shifting the Higher Education Landscape: Promoting Authentic Assessment to Support Learning | Supervisor: Michelle Searle
Despite the promotion of authentic assessment, many higher education faculties and instructors are resistant to adopting new approaches to assessment. There is weak alignment between what the assessment literature is calling for and the practices enacted in higher education. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore how providing higher education instructors with opportunities to learn about, enact, and reflect on authentic assessment impacts their assessment practice and their students’ learning experiences.