careers Archives | Research & Innovation

New Teaching Commons will open in September

fmaquito — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Consultations with the 91��ɫ community about the role of a new teaching and learning support centre have yielded rich results.

In September 2011, the dynamic process to revision the University’s existing Centre for the Support of Teaching (CST) was launched by Sue Vail, 91��ɫ’s associate vice-president teaching & learning.

Sue Vail

“This initiative represents the commitment of the Office of the Vice-President Academic & Provost to advance the priorities of the University Academic Plan through providing enhanced support for teaching and learning at 91��ɫ,” said Vail. “Further contributing to this important focus was the creation of the associate vice-president portfolio on teaching and learning and the establishment of the Academic Innovation Fund, which supported 39 projects this year.

“These inspired projects have contributed significantly to building systems for eLearning, experiential education and the first-year student experience.”

Vail established a CST Revisioning Work Group to consult with the University community and develop a new model for teaching and learning support. During March and April, members of the work group met with students, faculty and staff who shared their ideas, concerns and advice about teaching and learning support at 91��ɫ.

“A discussion framework document was circulated which set out a proposed name, vision, mission and areas of responsibility for a new teaching and learning support centre,” said Vail.

The Work Group responded to requests for consultation sessions from eight faculties, meeting with their teaching and learning committees or leadership teams. Consultations were also held with the Librarian Forum and graduate students. Input was sought from potential University partners, including the Career Centre, the University Libraries, the Learning Commons, Learning & Technology Services, the Writing Centre and Learning & Organizational Development. Each of the partners welcomed the opportunity to work more closely with the Teaching Commons.

“The directions laid out in the framework document were well received, as was our proposed new name – the Teaching Commons,” said Vail. “The feedback was rich and thoughtful, and consistent with what was collected through the earlier green and white paper processes.”

“Colleagues felt strongly that the Teaching Commons must play a role in improving the culture of teaching and learning at 91��ɫ,” she said, “and that this culture shift will require open and ongoing collaborations with faculties.”

Areas of needed support identified through the consultations include: utilizing eLearning and experiential education as learning tools; writing learning outcomes and undertaking curriculum mapping; developing innovative pedagogy and teaching strategies for large classes; and building course assessment approaches.

“The majority of those consulted strongly encouraged the Teaching Commons to work with the Faculty of Graduate Studies to develop a comprehensive system of support for tutorial and graduate assistants,” noted Celia Popovic, an educational developer in the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning and a member of the Work Group. “Many emphasized the need to provide new faculty members with orientation sessions, as well as ongoing professional support throughout the year.”

Work on a new model for teaching and learning support will continue through the spring. Discussions regarding the resourcing needs of the Teaching Commons are taking place within the context of a strategic planning process.

In the interim, to ensure that faculty and graduate students are supported through this developmental period, two new educational developers will be recruited to work with Popovic for 2012-2013. They will contribute to laying the groundwork for the new Teaching Commons, which is set to open in September 2012.

A second round of consultations with the University community will take place this fall. “We welcome all feedback as we continue to shape the Teaching Commons. Suggestions may be sent to Celia Popovic or me by e-mail to sperara@yorku.ca,” said Vail.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Legendary quarterback Matt Dunigan gives keynote at concussion symposium

fmaquito — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Legendary quarterback Matt Dunigan will give the keynote address at a symposium on sport concussion at 91��ɫ next Monday.

Blow by Blow: The Second Annual Donald Sanderson Memorial Symposium on Sport Concussion is open to the public – athletes, coaches, parents, researchers and anyone interested in the physical and psychological impact head injuries can have on individuals and their families.

91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science will host the two-hour evening event, which will bring sports medicine and brain researchers together with athletes to discuss an injury that continues to impair the careers and health of both amateur and professional athletes − most recently, hockey champion Sidney Crosby.

The symposium is held in honour of Donald Sanderson, the 91��ɫ kinesiology student and promising hockey player who died Jan. 2, 2009 as a result of a head injury during a Whitby Dunlops game.

Right: Matt Dunigan

"Educating our student athletes about head injuries is critical,” says Cindy Hughes, manager of the Gorman/Shore Sport Injury Clinic in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, who helped organize the symposium. “They need to understand the importance of reporting a possible concussion right away so they can receive the proper care."

, a game analyst with TSN since 1996, played football for 14 years on five Canadian teams and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2006. He retired from football in 1996 after suffering at least a dozen diagnosed concussions, and continues to struggle with the long-term effects of those concussions. He will speak about the post-concussive symptoms he has experienced since retirement and the effect of concussion on himself and his family, as well as the importance of reporting concussion and taking it seriously. A champion of research on sport concussion, Dunigan announced last spring that upon his death his brain will be donated to Toronto’s Krembil Neuroscience Centre.

Dahna Sanderson, who established the Donald Sanderson Memorial Trust Fund in memory of her son, will also speak during the symposium. A sports mom and fan for 20 years, she coached professional figure skating and is passionate about sports and sports safety.

is a primary care sport medicine specialist, certified in family and sports medicine in Canada and the US. Currently practising in Burlington, he has been a junior hockey team physician for the past decade in Canada and the US. He is a research chair of the Hockey Neurotrauma and Concussion Initiative Research Committee and is primary investigator of the Hockey Concussion Education Project.

Lauren Sergio is a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health. A neuroscientist, she studies the effects of age, sex, neurological disease, head injury and experience (élite versus non-élite athletes) on the brain’s control of complex movement. She works with a wide range of adults, from NHL draft prospects to Alzheimer’s disease patients, using behavioural and brain imaging techniques.

Left: Lauren Sergio

Roy McMurtry, 91��ɫ chancellor and former chair and chief executive officer of the Canadian Football League, will deliver opening remarks. Award-winning CBC sports reporter Teddy Katz will MC the event.

The symposium takes place in the Price Family Cinema, Accolade East Building, from 7 to 9pm. Admission is free, but registration is required. To register and for more information on speakers, visit the symposium website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Personality and ability to relate affect career choices, says visiting Professor Shmuel Shulman

fmaquito — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Some theories point to delayed commitments and the instabilities inherent in today's youth as the prime determinant of their careers, but psychology Professor Shmuel Shulman of Bar-Ilan University in Israel says their vast array of experiences, their individual personalities and their ability to relate to others may also play a role.

, a visiting scholar at the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, will deliver a LaMarsh talk Wednesday, June 15, from 1 to 2pm, in 163 Behavioural Science Building, Keele campus. His talk, “The Role and Meaning of Work in Individual Lives During Emerging Adulthood: Trajectories and Adaptation” will be based on data collected in a four-wave longitudinal design in which 175 Israeli emerging adults with the mean age of 22 years were followed over a period of seven years. The focus of the study was on the occupation and relationship decision-making process.

Right: Shmuel Shulman

“Taking a biographical approach, we focus on the processes of occupation and relationship decision-making among young people rather than on concrete outcomes,” says Shulman, whose research covers developmental processes and psychopathology during adolescence and young adulthood. “That is the subjective meaning that certain options and outcomes have for the young person and on his or her subsequent adaptation.”

In addition to the four assessments, at the fourth wave the participants were given an in-depth interview covering work and love domains. As part of a broader interview, young people were asked to talk about their work experiences, feelings and expectations about work and its meaning. They were also asked to reflect on changes and turning points in their work and career histories.

Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded four main constructs of personal inner work meanings and their evolvement over time, reflecting adaptive and maladaptive trajectories. “Our findings show that the multiplicity of experiences can be traced to individual personality and relational attributes,” says Shulman. “For example, self-efficacy, self-criticism, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation explain the different trajectories that young people embark on.”

He will discuss the importance of examining subjective meanings in developmental processes as well as the role of personality constructs in coping with developmental tasks during emerging adulthood.

Shulman has more than 100 publications, including books and papers. His work has focused mainly on understanding the development and processes in adolescent romantic relationships. Recent research on young adults, however, has also examined the process associated with consolidation of occupational identity and its interplay with commitment in relationships.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail lamarsh@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Jelena Zikic's SSHRC-funded study finds immigrants who embrace challenges more successful

fmaquito — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

How qualified immigrants react to challenges they face in building a career in a new country corresponds to how proactive they are and how well they are equipped to cope psychologically and overcome barriers, a new study has found.

, a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Human Resource Management, is the lead researcher for a -funded study which involved interviewing 45 qualified immigrants in Canada, Spain and France. The study looked at the barriers to career development for qualified immigrants in each country, how they coped with them and whether they were able to overcome them.

“These are people who consciously made this decision to move to a new country and had the education and resources to do so,” says Zikic. “It’s a highly skilled group.”

Left: Jelena Zikic

The study is one of three in Zikic’s research project “Investigating Labour Market Experiences of Immigrant Professionals (IPs) in Canada, the Role of Personal and Organizational Barriers to Career Success in the Host Country”. An article based on the study, “Crossing National Boundaries: A Typology of Qualified Immigrants’ Career Orientations”, co-authored by Zikic, Jaime Bonache of the ESADE Business School in Spain and Jean-Luc Cerdin of the ESSEC Business School in France, has been published in the July issue of the .

In terms of experience in dealing with immigrants, Canada is considered the "country of immigrants", Spain is just beginning to get an influx of immigrants, and France falls somewhere in between, says Zikic. Despite the differences, what researchers found was that immigrants in each country faced similar significant barriers to the labour market, such as a lack of recognition for their foreign career training and experience, learning how to navigate the labour expectations of a new country, and difficulty creating new social networks and tapping into local resources to assist in finding a job.

“It is a very challenging journey that these people take. Getting work doesn’t happen overnight,” says Zikic. “A lot of these immigrants had great careers in their own country. They had to give up quite a bit. Many of them had a lot of status, friends, a network, and it all disappeared when they entered the host country.”

The study sought to understand the underlying causes of underemployment for qualified immigrants from professional backgrounds and how they managed physical and psychological mobility.

What they found was the subjective experiences of qualified immigrants were interdependent with the social, economic and cultural realities, such as the structure of local labour markets and the need to retrain. Older immigrants were often more resistant to retraining and re-education, believing they were too old. As a result, they were more disappointed with the experience and had less success in finding work in their field.

Those who embraced the new challenges, about 24 per cent of those interviewed, were extremely positive about career success in the new country, while the majority – 49 per cent – adapted to their new circumstances and were successful at either adapting their careers or crafting new ones, although many were in survival jobs. The adaptive group understood the reality of having to retrain or get more education and was prepared to deal with the circumstances. “They had this sort of future orientation; they knew good things would come eventually,” says Zikic. The remaining 27 per cent found the obstacles impossible to overcome as they often had psychological barriers as well, such as age or other constraining circumstances.

Immigrants used six strategies in finding work – maintaining motivation, managing identity, developing new credentials, developing local know-how, building a new social network and understanding career success – but again, how successful they were was dependent on whether they embraced, adapted or resisted the challenges.

“It’s incredible how much talent is searching for the right job and a lot of immigrants just give up,” says Zikic. “We often call this the brain waste; they’re underemployed.”

It is important when devising programs for immigrants to keep in mind the interplay between subjective experiences and the objective realities, she says. Most studies look at one or the other, but little has been done on how each affects the other, and more research is needed.

Zikic also notes that in Canada there is a need for more programs that offer occupation-specific mentoring to immigrants, such as The Mentoring Partnership available through the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Souha Ezzedeen's study on men behind successful women recognized as one of 2009's 20 best on work-family research

fmaquito — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

After a review some 2,000 articles in 75 leading English-language journals worldwide, an article co-written by 91��ɫ human resource management Professor Souha Ezzedeen was chosen as one of 20 official nominees for the 2009 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.

The annual award, presented last month, is named for Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who has influenced modern research literature on work and family, and is a partnership of the and the , and is sponsored by the Alliance of Work-Life Progress.

Ezzedeen’s article, “The Man Behind the Woman: A Qualitative Study of the Spousal Support Received and Valued by Executive Women”, appeared in the Journal of Family Issues and was based on a study she co-authored that found female executives were backed by emotionally supportive husbands more often than previous research would suggest (see YFile, Aug. 13, 2008).

A professor in the School of Human Resource Management in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Ezzedeen interviewed 20 senior and executive-level women in the United States. The study, which began at the University of Penn State Harrisburg, looked at spousal behaviours that impacted the women’s ability to juggle the demands of career and family life.

Out of the 20 best articles of 2009, four were selected as finalists for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award, and from those, only one as the winner – a University of California, Irvine sociology professor’s article about career prioritizing and dual-earning couples.

Ezzedeen’s research interests focus on work-life balance and the advancement of women in organizations. She is a recipient of the George Washington University 2002-2003 Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award and the Harrisburg Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma's 2006 Professor of the Year Award.

The purpose of the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award is to raise awareness of excellent work-family research, foster debate about quality research standards and identify the best of the best for future research.

For more information about the award, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Video: Research, Knowledge Mobilization and Careers

fmaquito — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Knowledge Mobilization connects research and researchers to the outside world to benefit society. At 91��ɫ, the Knowledge Mobilization unit helps people and organizations seeking to develop sustainable solutions to social, environmental, economic and cultural challenges access appropriate researchers and expertise at 91��ɫ.

David Phipps, director of 91��ɫ's Office of Research Services, heads the university's . He and Peter Levesque, chair , gave a presentation at on the interplay between research, knowledge mobilization and what it takes to be successful in this new and growing field.

The complete video series is available on .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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