Julie Mueller

Wilfrid Laurier University | WLU · Faculty of Education

The installation of global competencies within school systems is being prioritized as essential for developing adaptive, lifelong learners that will be successful in a rapidly changing labour environment. While students typically remain at the forefront of such reforms, 21st-century educators must be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to im...

In our globally connected, ever-changing society, the ability to adapt to new environments and technologies can greatly enhance success. Global competencies of critical thinking, problem-solving, innovation and entrepreneurship are extremely valuable skills to possess (OECD, 2014). In Canada these competencies, often referred to as “21st century sk...

The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) has recommended that education place strong emphasis on preparing students with global competencies for our ever-changing world. Skills such as critical thinking and digital fluency are crucial to the future success of students. While teaching these global competencies in schools is a necessary s...

As a problem-solving approach, design thinking (DT) emphasizes iterative, user-focused designing. While DT is being readily adopted into education, little is known about how educators integrate DT across curricula. To address this question, we collaborated with a tech-ed industry partner and a focus group of experienced educators to assess curricul...

Computational thinking (CT) refers to a set of processes through which people arrive at solutions to problems using principles based in computer science. A CT approach to problem-solving is increasingly valuable in education and workplace settings as the economy grows more dependent on digital literacy. Given the importance of CT, it is essential t...

Given a growing digital economy with complex problems, demands are being made for education to addresscomputational thinking (CT) – an approach to problem solving that draws on the tenets of computer science. Weconducted a comprehensive content analysis of the Ontario elementary school curriculum documents for 44 CT-relatedterms to examine the exte...

The potential of physical activity to support self-regulated learning in the classroom has encouraged the implementation of stationary bicycles across Canada and the United States. Positive testimonials suggest that their use by students has positive outcomes, but there is limited empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of this pedagogical pract...

The potential of physical activity to support self-regulated learning in the classroom has encouraged the implementation of stationary bicycles across Canada and the United States. Positive testimonials suggest that their use by students has positive outcomes, but there is limited empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of this pedagogical pract...

The relative contributions of expertise in search skills and domain knowledge were examined when using the Internet to find information. Four conditions were compared: expert searchers/high domain knowledge; expert searchers/low domain knowledge; novice searchers/high domain knowledge; and novice searchers/low domain knowledge. Search outcomes and...

Literature on teacher learning has shown links between being a self-regulated learner, reflecting effectively on one's own practice, and being described as an " adaptive expert ". For instance, the metacognitive skills needed for effective reflection on teaching practice are seen as critically important to developing adaptive expertise in the conte...

Despite continued acceleration of computer access in elementary and secondary schools, computer integration is not necessarily given as an everyday learning tool. A heterogeneous sample of 185 elementary and 204 secondary teachers was asked to respond to open-ended survey questions in order to understand why integration of computer-based technologi...

This study followed an innovative introduction of mobile technology (i.e., BlackBerry ® devices) to a graduate level business program and documented students' use of the technology from the time students received the devices to the end of their first term of study. Students found the BlackBerry ® device easy to use, and were optimistic regarding it...

This study examines the role of pre-service teacher research in facilitating early and meaningful links between research and practice. Results from this mixed methods study show that pre-service teacher research is a promising method of early acculturation. However, despite a programme-wide emphasis on research as a mechanism for learning to teach...

We examined the effectiveness of a professional development school model of teacher education in Canada. Teacher education candidates responded positively to program features related to sustained participation and collaboration in school communities throughout the year. Their efficacy beliefs about developing professional knowledge were most strong...

First-language (L1) and 2nd-language (L2) oral language skills and L2 word reading were used as predictors to test the simple view of reading as a model of 2nd-language reading comprehension. The simple view of reading states that reading comprehension is related to decoding and oral language comprehension skills. One hundred thirty-one Spanish-spe...

a b s t r a c t The purpose of the study was to examine the role of domain knowledge when retrieving and using infor-mation from the Internet as a resource for essay tasks, as well as to investigate the quality of Internet searches and its relation to essay performance. In two experiments, 100 undergraduates searched the Internet for 30 min and com...

Given the prevalence of computers in education today, it is critical to understand teachers’ perspectives regarding computer integration in their classrooms. Research identifying stages of implementation, and literature identifying barriers and supports, fall short of explaining what variables impact an educator’s ultimate decision to integrate tec...

Given the prevalence of computers in education today, it is critical to understand teachers' perspectives regarding com-puter integration in their classrooms. The current study surveyed a random sample of a heterogeneous group of 185 ele-mentary and 204 secondary teachers in order to provide a comprehensive summary of teacher characteristics and va...

The purpose of this study was to assess the educators' perspectives on the introduction of computer technology in the early childhood education environment. Fifty early childhood educators completed a survey and participated in focus groups. Parallels existed between the individually completed survey data and the focus group discussions. The qualit...

Fifty‐four elementary and secondary school teachers participated in focus‐group discussions and completed a survey to examine barriers and supports to computer integration. Although teachers used computers at home and school, they were not wholly comfortable with the technology. Familiarity with computers predicted greater comfort with technology a...

Computer technology is pervasive in education systems around the world. Although computers are now available in almost every school, that presence has not guaranteed the use of computers as part of the instructional repertoire of educators. This thesis is an investigation of the factors that affect implementation of computers from the perspective o...

This chapter addresses the research question of how learners utilize hand-held mobile technology (e.g., iPods, iPads, BlackBerry ™ devices) for learning at varying levels in education. Mobile technology is an "anywhere, anytime", creative learning tool that has the potential to support the development of self-regulated learners. The chapter examine...