Research Opportunities

The following faculty members may have research opportunities available:

Undergraduate Profiles

Jonathan Bell, School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education

Jon's research experience had him conducting a series of experiments in the Krigolson Laboratory Group aimed at examining the contributions of the dorsal and ventral visual streams to movement target localization. To examine the neural activity associated with target localization, electroencephalographic data was collected while participants made reaching movements to a series to target locations.

Learning objectives:

• gain experience in experimental design
• further his knowledge of electroencephalographic data collection
• further his knowledge of electroencephalographic data analysis
• expose Jon to poster and manuscript preparation
• provide Jon with the opportunity to present his data at an international scientific meeting
  
  As outlined in the learning objectives, Jon's role was that of the principal investigator. He was responsible for contributing to and testing the experimental design, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of the results. Admittedly, supervising faculty guided him through this process, however, the onus was on him to complete the research projects.

Martina Forster, School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education

Martina is working with the Action Schools! BC and is examining the healthy eating data of 1,100 children and  the relationship between sedentary behaviour and eating behaviour (energy intake, macro and micro nutrient profiles). She is responsible for extracting the data from the database and running diagnostic tests and descriptive analyses and then conducting correlation and regression analysis. She is also conducting a literature review and drafting a research article on her findings.

Learning objectives:

• Learn how to review the literature and develop a related research question and hypothesis
• extract data from a Filemaker Pro 10 database
• to conduct basic statistical analyses
• to summarize and report on the findings in the form of a publication draft

Dallas Hermanson, Curriculum and Instruction

Dallas assisted to coordinate, collect data, and help with analysis of findings from the following research projects:

Schools across Canada are steadily increasing their use of the Internet for communication between administrators, teachers, students and parents. With the vast majority of schools having a presence on the World Wide Web, there is a growing need for policy and consistency across districts to ensure professional and ethical communication via the web. The current literature shows that there is a need for more guidelines which delineate professional content of an educational website. This study evaluated the web presence of Vancouver Island schools and the presence of advertisements on classroom websites. For this research project, 1062 academic websites associated with 354 Vancouver Island schools were reviewed for advertisements and general web presence. Altogether, Dallas and his team delimited their research to school districts on Vancouver Island only. The districts included in this study were: 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 79, 84, and 85. He found that over 175 schools (51%) on Vancouver Island contained some form of advertisement associated with their public websites. In addition to our advertisement research he also recorded the general quality of the websites. Over 50% of the websites reviewed contained very little information or a severe lack of appropriate design elements, while only 7% were complex, clear, and informative. The team concluded that a district wide policy needs to be developed which will help school administrations regulate appropriate content on school websites.

“During my participation in this project I learned time management skills, research dedication, and research collaboration. The steepest learning curve for me was learning efficient time management skills. To minimize the amount of work I brought home over the weekend, I needed to learn how to work more efficiently during the week. In the end, while working on my PDPP in education, I managed to multitask and retain the focus needed to complete this project. Through this time management process I also learned the importance of research dedication. Essentially, good researchers require a high level of self-discipline to be patient and work through large amounts of information. Finally, I learned that researchers do not need to reinvent the wheel. Through this experience, I have found that finding resources for research is just as important as finding data.    
One thing I can say about research: Research is a trial and those who endure are rewarded with more research.”

Graduate Profiles

Will Bratt - MA student - Counselling Psychology

“I decided to pursue a graduate degree because it provided the opportunity to deepen my understanding of my field of interest, it can open up career opportunities that an undergraduate degree cannot, and it gives me the chance to explore research areas with the guidance of helpful and competent mentors. Presently, I am working on my thesis, which I hope to defend August of 2011. It is a qualitative study that investigates how spiritual experiences are helpful to those who have survived interpersonal trauma.”

Tracey Coulter - MA student - Counselling Psychology

“My goal is to become a counsellor in the community, and the master's degree is pretty well essential! I am from Victoria and hope to continue being part of the community - choosing UVic was a natural choice. My thesis is on how people who have experienced trauma have used music as part of their self-healing journey. My other interests are trauma in general, and sex and sexuality.”

Shane Goodridge - PhD student - Educational Studies

“My supervisor’s mentoring and that of the UVic Education community have afforded me a supportive environment grounded in subject specific expertise that would be difficult to find elsewhere. I would and have recommended graduate school at UVic to future students. UVic offers a vast array of scholarly expertise in a rigorous yet supportive atmosphere. There is truly something here for everybody!”

Lisa Starr - PhD student - Social, Cultural and Foundational Studies

“My dissertation research focuses on leadership identity as it informs philosophy and practice. Areas that inform my research include identity, reflexivity, autoethnography as method and qualitative methodologies. I am also passionate about teacher education, particularly inquiry-based and student centred learning, as well as the role of culture. At UVic, I have had the honour and privilege of collaborating with brilliant peers and have been truly supported by the faculty and staff. Those interactions have far exceeded any expectations I may have had coming in.”

Lindsay McCardle - PhD student - Educational Psychology

“I'm interested in athletes' self-regulated learning in their sports training and the potential for transfer of self-regulated learning skills and processes into a school context. I'm also interested in how coaches can support self-regulated learning in their athletes. The best thing about graduate work at UVic is the team atmosphere we have in our lab between our supervisor and the graduate students. It's a very supportive and enriching environment.”

Elizabeth Webster - MA student - Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies

“The best thing about being a graduate student in the Faculty of Education at UVic is the people. I have encountered some amazing people, from faculty to staff to other students, who have inspired and encouraged me in many different ways. My research interests lie in the area of self-regulated learning, with a specific emphasis on emotions and emotion regulation. Though conducting research in this area, I hope to develop learning modules that help students to recognize and respond to their emotions in strategic and productive ways.”

Megan Kirk - MSc student - School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education

“My name is Megan Kirk and I am proud to have recently obtained my Master of Arts degree under the supervision of Dr. Ryan Rhodes in the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education. I was born and raised in Barrie, Ontario and have spent the last seven years living in Victoria. In 2008, I graduated with distinction from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Recreation and Health Education. This co-operative education degree provided me the opportunity to educate various populations, such as youth-at-risk, seniors, preschoolers, cancer patients, and people with special needs, about the importance of regular physical activity (PA). My current areas of interest include understanding the impact of life-change events and transitions on health behaviours. My master’s thesis involved looking into the physical activity patterns of new professionals during their early career transitions. In addition to my graduate training, I volunteer with the BC Cancer Agency and help organize the track and field events at Operation Trackshoes, an event for athletes with a disability. I completed my third half-marathon taking place in May 2010! ”