May 5, 2005 - 5:00pm
Dr. Janet Gail Donald, a visiting scholar and researcher from McGill University, will present a free public lecture based on her book: Learning to Think: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective (Jossey-Bass) on Wednesday, May 11 at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo from 3:30 - 5 pm (building 355, Room 203).
Donald, with over 25 years of research experience, works in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University where she researches post-secondary student learning and development and how disciplinary differences may affect the quality of teaching and learning. Professor Donald has created a framework for understanding how students learn to think in different disciplines.
Her research shows that the learning and thinking process a student undergoes in Physics is markedly different than the process that a student of Literature may undergo. Donald proposes that each discipline has its own particular movement from memorization to synthesis to critical thinking. Professor Donald identifies key concepts for each discipline, such as orderly, multifaceted, or logical thinking, and goes on to examine how these concepts work in a cross-disciplinary manner.
Donald received the Distinguished Researcher Award for the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education in 1994, its Distinguished Member Award in 1998, and the McKeachie Career Award from the American Educational Research Association in 1999.
Her visit to Nanaimo is co-sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Centre and the Research and Scholarly Activity Office at Malaspina University-College, and by a grant from The Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation. The lecture and workshop are part of Malaspina's two-day celebration of teaching and learning.
To attend the free public lecture, call Lyn Johnson at johnsonl@viu.ca or at 753-3245 local 2676. For further information, check the websites: www.unca.edu/et/br031503.html or www.exchangesjournal.org/reviews/review_1126.html.
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