Dr. Carol ReesProfessor | Faculty of Education & Social Work

Interests

My primary interest is in teaching and research in the fields of science and technology education. See here the video of a recent panel I was on at the U of Toronto on STEM teacher education: A Canadian Perspective https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/smt/resources/panel-discussions/

Research Interests

I have a background as a scientist and as an elementary teacher. My research area is science inquiry education. I study the science inquiry experiences that students are involved in both in schools and informal settings. I investigate the ways that these experiences are student-led, authentic and open-ended and how best to help teachers prepare to provide such experiences for their students. For more information, see our faculty research page http://www.tru.ca/edsw/research.html
I am also interested in game scholarship for education.

Projects
"Supporting curiosity-driven inquiry-based science education online through a community-of-inquiry
partnership: rethinking pedagogical approaches during the Covid-19 pandemic" SSHRC Partnership Engage grant # 1008-2020-0045 Principal Investigator (with co-applicants Michelle Harrison and Naowarat Cheeptham and collaborators Christine Miller, Morgan Whitehouse and Elizabeth deVries)

"Supporting learner-centred pedagogy and dialogic teaching through co-teaching." SSHRC Insight grant # 435-2019-0907 Principal Investigator (with Co-applicant Wolff-Michael Roth and Collaborator Colette Murphy)

"Transitioning to Student-Centred Science Inquiry: Investigating Classroom Talk." (with Wolff-Michael Roth ). SSHRC Insight development grant # 430-2014-0620 Principal Investigator (with Co-applicant Wolff-Michael Roth and Collaborator Norm Friesen)

Creating engaging science inquiry activities for middle school students that incorporate online remote access to analytical instrumentation (with Tory Anchikoski, Susan Lidster, Sharon Brewer, Bruno Cinel)

Education

Ph.D., Faculty of Science, University of Western Ontario (1989)
M.A.Ed., Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (2008)
B.Sc., Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland (1982)

Teaching Diploma Montessori St. Nicholas Centre, London, UK (1997)

Publications

Recent Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:

Rees, C.A., Murphy, C. and Kaur, R.D. (2022). Inquiring together: Teacher candidates, teacher mentors and faculty share ideas for a coteaching practicum model. Teaching and Teacher Education 117, 103814,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103814

Rees, C.A. & Roth, W-M. (2019). Discourse forms in a classroom transitioning to student-centred scientific inquiry through co-teaching. International Journal of Science Education. 41(5), 586-606.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/mBa5VkI3rnqnbEGyMeQB/full?target=10.1080/09500693.2019.1571649

Alexander, E.; Pardo, R.; Lindsay, S. & Rees, C.A. (2018). The D.r.I.V.e. framework. Alberta Science Education Journal 45(3), 29-34 (https://sc.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ASEJ/ASEJ-Vol45No3.pdf).

Stewart, N.; Lidster, S.; Anchikoski, T; Cinel, B.; Brewer, S. & Rees, C.A. (2017). Creating an engaging science inquiry activity for middle school students that incorporates online remote access to analytical instrumentation. Alberta Science Education Journal, 45(1), 30-39. https://sc.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ASEJVol45No1November2017.pdf

Rees, C.A. & Roth, W-M.,(2017). Interchangeable Positions in Interaction Sequences in Science Classrooms. Dialogic Pedagogy Journal, 5, A18-A36.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/dpj.2017.184

Rees, C.A. (2015). Developing Science Literacy through the Heat Game: an Online Role-Playing Game International Journal for Leadership in Learning 1(3) (21 pages) https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1070710

Rees, C.A., (2014). Developing Awareness of Connections Between Science, Technology and the Environment through Participation in a Game-Like Approach to Curriculum. Brazilian Journal of Research in Science Education (RBPEC), 14(2), 147-157. file:///Users/carolrees/Downloads/4357-Texto%20do%20artigo-13586-1-10-20160711.pdf

Rees, C.A., Pardo, R., Parker, J. (2013). Steps to Opening Scientific Inquiry: Pre-Service Teachers Practicum Experiences with a New Support Framework. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(3), 475-496.

Steele, A., Brew, C., Rees, C.A., Ibrahim-Khan, S. (2013). Our Practice, Their Readiness: Teacher Educators Collaborate to Explore and Improve Pre-Service Teacher Readiness for Science and Math Instruction. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(1), 113-131.

Recent Conference Papers:

Rees, C.A. (2019). The Shift to More Dialogic Discourse in a Classroom Transitioning to Student-Centred Science Inquiry. Annual Meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Toronto (April 5-9).

Rees, C.A. (2018). Creating Opportunities for More Equitable Teacher-Student Discourse through Student-Centred Scientific Inquiry. Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference, Regina (May 26-30).

Rees, C.A. Mba, R., & Roth W-M. (2017). Transitioning to Student-Centred Science Inquiry: Investigating Classroom Talk. European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) Conference, Dublin, Ireland. (August 21-25).

Rees, C.A. & Roth, W-M. (2015). Interchangeable Positions in Interactional Sequences in Science Classrooms. Annual Meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL, U.S.A. (April 16-20).

Rees, C.A. & Roth, W-M. (2015). Fostering the Emergence of More Equitable Teacher/ Student Dialogue Patterns during Science Inquiry. International Conference for the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Chicago, IL, U.S.A. (April 11-14).

Rees, C.A. and Morran, S. (2014). Investigating Actions and Interactions at a Summer Science and Technology Camp. STEM Conference, UBC, Vancouver (July, 12-15).

Rees, C.A. (2014). Analyzing Actions and Interactions in a Game-Like Approach to Curriculum based on Video-Game Research. International Conference for the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Pittsburg, PA, U.S.A. (March 30- April 2).

Employment History

Maynooth University (2022-present). Lecturer.

Thompson Rivers University (2022-present) Professor Emerita.
Thompson Rivers University (2021-2022). Professor.
Thompson Rivers University (2015-2021). Associate Professor.
Thompson Rivers University (2011-2015). Assistant Professor.

Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario. (2010-2011). Assistant Professor.

Wilfrid Laurier University (2009-2010). Part-time Assistant Professor.

University of Western Ontario (2007-2010). Part-time Assistant Professor.

Sunshine Montessori School/Stratford Montessori School (1994-2010). Teacher.

I was a science specialist teacher of primary, junior and intermediate students for ten years (2000-2010) and a Montessori (Casa) Teacher for six years (1994-2000).

University of Western Ontario (1989-1990). Lecturer in the Faculty of Science.

Courses Taught

EDCO 3100 Communications; EDTL 3100 Teaching and Learning; EDPR 3100 Practicum; EDSC 3200 Science Methods; EDPR 4200 Practicum; EDCO 4200 Exit portfolios; EDUC 5000 Learning about Learning; EDUC 5900 Special Topics Inquiry Across Curriculum; EDUC 5280/5281 Capstone. Intro to STEM (EDSM 3100); Teacher Action Research (EDAR 4200).

Professional Affiliations

Science Education Research Group (SERG) President 2014-2015, Vice-President 2013-2014, Secretary/Treasurer 2012-2013.
Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (CACS)
Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE)
European Science Education Research Association (ESERA)
American Education Research Association (AERA)