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Scholars spend much of their professional lives immersed in research. Through the publication of empirical studies and theoretical papers, they are able to share information with each other, contribute to knowledge in their area of study, and help identify new questions that can further advance their field. The central role played by research and its products in the lives of scholars is such that they require no convincing about the fundamental importance of doing and sharing research. Yet, despite the ongoing development of increasingly knowledge-intensive economies, making accessible the practical implications of much scholarly research remains a challenging pursuit.
The Minerva Lecture Series was designed by CCL in response to this challenge. Conceived as a national forum through which research on learning could be brought to all Canadians, it was intended to give audiences the opportunity to explore the relevance of scholarly work on learning to their lives. Following the end of the Series, in late spring 2008, we asked the researchers who had traveled the country to share their work to each prepare a scholarly article based on the presentations they had delivered. The result is this special issue of the Journal of Applied Research on Learning, which we are proud to bring you through our website.
In contrast to regular papers published in JARL, the articles in this issue are not strictly reports of original empirical research by the authors. All of the articles in this special issue of course draw upon the very best of empirical research from a number of fields: educational reform; the study of expert learning; early childhood bilingualism; and post-secondary education. Yet, in addition to being rooted in research, they are united in how they go beyond the reporting of results—itself a craft that requires considerable training, talent, and effort—and seek to draw out the relevance of learning research to all Canadians.
In her contribution, entitled “Can You Learn How to Learn for Life? Principles from Expert Development Research”, Dr. Jacqueline Leighton, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta explores the secrets behind the success of expert learners. Based on the findings of research on expert learners, she argues that the basic strategies they use—such as deliberate practice, good mentorship, and a cognitive mindset—are in fact important keys to everyone’s successful lifelong learning. She concludes her contribution by making a compelling case for the use of intelligent assessment techniques such as cognitive diagnostic assessments. This type of assessment, which she describes briefly in her article, would enable both educators and learners to monitor the extent to which demonstrably successful strategies are being developed within classrooms. Dr. Leighton’s article is intriguing in no small part because it draws our attention away from simplistic curricular prescriptions to the much more arduous, but potentially much more rewarding, work of developing means of assessing learning that actually contribute to the learning process; means that can, she suggests, “help circumvent children’s detachment from the learning process during a potential sensitive period when they are learning about what it means to learn”.
Picking up on the significant role of environments, policies and structures in supporting learning, Dr. Clermont Gauthier discusses educational reforms and school success at the K-12 level, examining the effectiveness and impacts of attempts at reform. His central argument—that, for the most part, educational reforms are launched without proper attention to what the extant research literature has to say about the factors that positively affect student performance (and thus that many attempts at reform are doomed to fail before they begin)— reflects the core goal of the Minerva Lecture Series of highlighting the relevance of educational research to decision-makers, practitioners, as well as citizens in general. An expert of international renown in the areas of teacher education, educational foundations, and instructional practice, Dr. Gauthier teaches at Université Laval in Quebec City and holds the Canada Research Chair in the Study of Teacher Training.
Turning his attention to post-secondary education (PSE), Dr. Dale Kirby, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland, discusses in his paper (“Widening access: Making the transition from mass to universal post-secondary education in Canada”) the urgent need for increased PSE participation and educational attainment levels among members of traditionally disadvantaged and under-represented groups. Dr. Kirby identifies a number of these groups whose access to PSE has historically been limited, including first-generation, Aboriginal, and disabled persons, as well as adult and older learners. He also reviews the factors that have curtailed their participation, and outlines useful strategies for action to help increase latter. Dr. Kirby convincingly argues that increased access to PSE has impacts on various aspects of all Canadians’ lives, including the demonstrated relationship between higher levels of PSE attainment and economic prosperity (both individual and collective); an improved ability to weather demographic storms; as well as a number of societal benefits—greater equity, civic participation, volunteerism, and the capacity to better support the learning of future generations. As such, his article brings out clearly why increasing access to PSE and levels of participation in the latter are matters of interest to all Canadians, and not just to those who have the means or desire to pursue this form of learning.
Finally, in a fascinating article that highlights how wonderfully equipped children’s brains are to actively engage in complex learning, Dr. Fred Genesee discusses the many advantages of early childhood bilingualism. Dr. Genesee, an eminent authority on bilingualism who teaches at McGill University, notes that the benefits of bilingualism can be personal (given the strong association between bilingualism and cognitive development), societal (facilitating communication and exchange between cultural and linguistic groups), or economic (the opportunity to compete more effectively with residents of other countries who can effectively communicate in more than one language). In his contribution to JARL, he makes use of recognized scholarly research to discuss persistent myths about the challenges and perils of raising children bilingually. By doing so, he encourages readers to set aside their presuppositions about children’s ability to acquire something as complex as language and, in turn, draws our attention to the quality of the language environments and the degree of exposure to language as determinants of children’s ability to become linguistically competent in any number of languages.
Through the lens of their specific topics, each article in this special issue of JARL highlights important aspects of lifelong learning, and underscores the role of research in helping us establish the conditions that can best support it. Because supporting lifelong learning is at the core of our mandate and because many of these articles also relate to work that we, at CCL, have undertaken, we have elected to provide links on each article’s page to topically related reports and studies found elsewhere on our site. I hope you will enjoy this unique series of articles and that, at your leisure, you will take the time to explore the many other resources available through CCL’s website.
Charles Ungerleider, Senior Editor Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization Canadian Council on Learning
Current Issue April 2009, Volume 2, Special Issue
Article 1: Réussite scolaire et réformes éducatives Clermont Gauthier
Article 2: Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities Fred Genesee
Article 3 : Widening Access: Making the Transition from Mass to Universal Post-Secondary Education in Canada Dale Kirby
Article 4: Can you learn how to learn for life? Components from expert learning research. Jacqueline P. Leighton