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Understanding the need for targetted workplace learning strategies
Using recent labour force data and related studies, this Lessons in Learning examines the state of workplace learning in Canada—who’s getting training and who isn’t—and highlights areas where workplace training needs to be improved.
Job opportunity at CCL for knowledge exchange specialist
CCL is seeking a full-time knowledge exchange specialist to work out of in its Ottawa office.
Knowledge exchange is defined as “getting the right information to the right people in the right format at the right time so as to influence decision-making.” It is the multi-directional movement of data, information, and knowledge between individuals and groups for mutual benefit.
The roles of producer and user of knowledge are interchangeable. The major function of the CCL Knowledge Exchange Directorate is that of knowledge broker – hosting, supporting and/or facilitating initiatives that foster dialogue and the sharing of evidence among the multiple stakeholders involved in learning in Canada.
The ideal candidate would have a solid understanding of education and learning issues, be knowledgeable of the federal and provincial systems related to learning and be fluent in both official languages. In addition, the position requires an ability to identify opportunities to influence decision-making and an ability to build solid relationships among a wide range of stakeholder groups.
Home learning environment more telling than parents’ education: CCL researchers find
Preliminary results of a study involving two CCL researchers have found that children’s academic achievement in the first grade is more influenced by the home learning environment during early childhood than by their parents’ level of education.
The findings are from a study examining the impact of parental education on student achievement.
The report’s results will be presented in May at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education at York University by CCL researcher Zohreh Zadeh and CCL’s Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization, Charles Ungerleider. They will be joined by their co-investigator Fataneh Farnia, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
The analysis uses data from U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
CCL works with researchers to investigate language, thought and psychiatric disorders in adolescents
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has awarded more than $200,000 to a team that includes CCL researcher Zohreh Zadeh to investigate the relationship between language, thought, and psychiatric problems in adolescents.
Dr. Zadeh is part of a multidisciplinary team led by Nancy Cohen, the director of research at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre in Toronto.
While most studies on this topic have examined preschool and elementary school-aged children, some longitudinal studies indicate that language problems identified early on persist into adolescence. However, the longitudinal studies undertaken to date are limited because they have only considered the persistence of the same structural language problems measured earlier in childhood.
Adolescence is a unique developmental period characterized by dramatic biological, social, and cognitive changes, and the demands on language for both social and academic adjustment shift dramatically during these years. For example, it becomes increasingly important to be able to understand non-literal meaning in language, or higher-order language—reading between the lines, or understanding body language, for example.
Some investigators have gone so far as to suggest that, in some adolescents, psychiatric disorders may be secondary to problems in communication.
Meanwhile, clinicians also are interested in how behaviour, cognition, and emotion become integrated during adolescence, and how that integration is central to the process by which the self, or ego, develops.
This interdisciplinary research project is the first-ever attempt to understand how the process of ego development in adolescents is related to problems with higher-order language.
Work on the three-year project is set to start in March 2006.
Robert Aucoin appointed coordinator of Health and Learning Knowledge Centre
CCL is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Aucoin as the coordinator of the Health and Learning Knowledge Centre in Victoria.
Robert comes to the job with more than 15 years of experience in education and health care, beginning with a three-year term in rural Zimbabwe. There he taught math and science, and ran the local library and first-aid station.
Since then Robert completed his MA in Educational Technology at Concordia, focussing on distance learning and program planning. Robert has developed e-learning programs for physical therapists and rehabilitation clinicians in Canada.
He is also an advisor and editor for the World Bank Development Gateway Foundation e-learning Portal and has developed education programs in Bosnia and Jordan.
Outside of work Robert spends much of his time trying to keep up with his 17-month-old daughter and is involved in minor hockey as an on-ice official.
François Lamontagne appointed coordinator of Work and Learning Knowledge Centre
CCL is pleased to announce the appointment of François Lamontagne as coordinator of the Work and Learning Knowledge Centre in Ottawa.
François brings over 20 years of experience in the field of social and economic research.
He has been actively involved in research and policy development on the labour market and issues surrounding skills and learning, as well as economic development and restructuring.
Until December 2005, François was a senior researcher at the Canadian Labour and Business Centre. The Centre’s mission is to improve business and labour practices in Canada and to provide public policy advice.
Prior to joining the Canadian Labour and Business Centre, François spent 10 years as a partner and director of research at the New Economy Development Group, an Ottawa-based consulting company.
During that time, he supervised and conducted a wide range of community and economic development projects, and carried out evaluations and impact assessments of government programs, as well as community and regional development initiatives.
François also worked as an economist at the Economic Council of Canada, and as a labour economist for the Government of Quebec.
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