Sheridan College

This reflective article presents a critical analysis of doctoral study results, which shed light on how the researcher’s perceptions as a Canadian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) educator during the sudden and dramatic pivot to emergency remote teaching in 2020 and 2021 informed his teaching realizations in virtual spaces. These perceptions were recorded in a teacher learning journal (Moon, 2006) after facilitating online classes with intermediate-level learners in March and April of 2020 and April and May of 2021. Utilizing autoethnography as a research method, the study explored how the researcher’s critical reflections as an EAP educator informed his teaching practice in the public college setting in Ontario, Canada. It also foregrounded the pivotal role that teacher emotions played in re-negotiating his EAP teacher identity and sense of professional self as he navigated the shift to virtual instruction. This article therefore weaves together the author’s doctoral research implications of EAP teacher identity and critical reflections on positive emotions and their constitutive role in shaping his professional identity roles. The study results offered three main implications for language educators: identity negotiation shapes pedagogical practices; reflecting on educators’ identity facets is closely related to their experiences of positive emotions, which can inform pedagogical decision-making; and language educators should continuously and critically reflect on the role their identity facets play in adapting teaching practices in times of major disruptions such as the global pandemic. This research paper therefore offers a critical reflective analysis of the doctoral research the author concluded in 2022 and serves as a provocation for language educators to critique the study findings and transfer pedagogical insights to their contexts.

IntroductionThe opioid crisis remains a significant public health emergency. Key contributors to this crisis include an increasingly toxic drug supply and inadequate health policies that rely on strategies to address opioid-related harms and underutilise primary prevention and early intervention approaches. To inform comprehensive prevention and early intervention strategies, research is needed to explore pathways involving hazardous opioid use (ie, daily opioid use that results in, and may arise from, disruptions to health, relationships, work or social functioning) and the individual, social and structural factors that shape such pathways. This qualitative study aims to address this research gap by exploring the substance use journeys of adults with lived or living experiences of hazardous opioid use who are receiving substance use treatment at a large Canadian mental health hospital.Methods and analysisA qualitative descriptive study informed by the life course perspective will be conducted. Data will be collected using participant-led timeline mapping in combination with semistructured interviews. Participants will include 20–30 adults who are receiving or have received substance use treatment from the hospital where the study is being conducted. Timelines and interviews will be analysed using thematic analysis. A brief demographic questionnaire will also be administered to describe characteristics of the sample.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was granted on 1 October 2025 by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research Ethics Board (Protocol no. 2025/026). Findings will be reported through peer-reviewed publications, lay language reports and/or academic conferences on mental health and substance use health research.

In this review of Beyond Plagiarism: Transforming Pedagogy to Help Students Write with Sources by Kenny Harsch and Betsy Gilliland, I analyze the book’s contents and key messages. The book attempts to redefine plagiarism by extending the definition beyond the traditional description of not acknowledging sources and promotes a “proactive pedagogy” approach to addressing plagiarism. Teaching students how to avoid plagiarism is recommended as part of teaching writing as a process. The purpose of the book is to guide educators on how to integrate a pedagogical approach to plagiarism by unpacking what plagiarism is and recommending specific tools instructors can use in their courses and assessments. The target audience of the book are faculty who primarily teach and assess through writing, as well as library and learning services staff who assist students with writing and integrating sources in places such as libraries, writing centres, or centres for teaching and learning.

BackgroundCommunity‐based programs, such as intergenerational programs, have been identified as a viable option to reduce dementia stigma and foster connections between generations. Cooking and eating with others is a social opportunity that bring people together. To date, few programs have been developed using food activities to connect community‐dwelling persons living with dementia (PWD) and young adults (18‐30 years old). Cooking Together is an innovative multi‐week intergenerational cooking and nutrition program that was collaboratively developed and evaluated. The aim of this ongoing pilot study is to test a revised program model in three separate offerings (up to 10 participants/offering) to determine feasibility, usability of procedures and outcomes, and program utility. We report preliminary feasibility based on two offerings.MethodWeekly 2‐hour sessions are chef‐facilitated, using a brain‐health focused menu. Feasibility was evaluated through recruitment (8‐10 eligible participants per offering in 2 months), attendance (70% sessions attended after enrolment), and completion of pre‐ and post‐program evaluation measures (85% participants). Young adults were recruited through a contact list of individuals who expressed interest in a previous offering but did not participate, campus advertisements, and word of mouth. PWD were recruited through a senior day program, repository of PWD interested in research studies, and word of mouth.ResultTen young adults (age (median (range)): 19 (18‐30), 90% women, 50% white) and 9 PWD (age (median (range)): 73 (36‐80), 56% women, 89% white) were recruited over two offerings within a two‐month time period. Long lead times to reserve kitchen space and scheduling meant that the offering start dates had limited flexibility, resulting in ongoing recruitment until the second week after the offering started. Fourteen participants (74%; 7 young adults and 7 PWD) completed both pre‐ and post‐program measures. Average attendance at cooking sessions was 87%, with 40% attending the full program. Common reasons for non‐attendance were prior commitments or illness.ConclusionPreliminary findings from two offerings indicate that Cooking Together is feasible and acceptable. Recruitment for the third offering is underway, with data collection expected to be completed by April 2025. Findings from this study will inform future efficacy testing.

BackgroundIntergenerational programs provide an opportunity to connect generations. Currently, there are few community‐based programs that combat dementia stigma, and few food‐based opportunities for connecting community‐dwelling persons living with dementia (PWD) with youth. Cooking Together is a collaboratively designed and tested intergenerational cooking and nutrition program. The aim of this study was to identify and develop components that would be meaningful and acceptable to potential end users (phase 1) and conduct a feasibility test (phase 2).MethodPhase 1 interviewed (n = 11) youth (14‐19 years) and PWD and care partners dyads to inform design of the proposed program and identify potential benefits. The phase 2, 4‐week prototype was tested with 15 participants, who had not participated in phase 1 development. Phase 2 participants included those from a dementia day program (n = 8), day program facilitators (n = 3), and youth (n = 4; 18‐30 years). Data collection included participant observation notes (e.g., engagement, feasibility issues) and interviews (n = 10) focused on improvements, participant experience, and potential outcomes. Content analysis was used to summarize findings.ResultFindings from phase 1 identified important components to include in the prototype for phase 2 testing. For example, potential challenges included daytime scheduling for youth under 18 years. Suggested benefits included socialization for PWD, and dementia education for youth. The phase 2 prototype was found to be feasible. Participants identified potential outcome measures and feedback led to refinement of the model for future feasibility pilot testing.ConclusionAn intergenerational cooking and nutrition program for community‐dwelling PWD and young adults (18‐30 years) was created and a prototype demonstrated interest in the program and outcomes that should be measured.

Learners of English for academic purposes (EAP) encounter various academic and social challenges in their learning pursuits. To explore collaborative ways of energizing their learning behaviour, an intervention was designed and implemented through the participation of 18 EAP learners and their teacher in a Canadian college classroom for one semester. Adopting a participatory action research framework, the group formed a community in which power was gradually shared and collaborative changes were made to lesson design and delivery. Moreover, the learners participated in the design and implementation of social activities in which they interacted with other members of the public and investigated their mini-research projects. Data were collected through recurrent experience sampling surveys ( n = 449), semi-structured interviews, and the researcher’s journal and field notes. Results indicated an overall increase in classroom engagement and motivation after implementing the intervention despite the fluctuations of the former and the occasional stagnation of the latter. Furthermore, a linear mixed-effects analysis of repeated measures data revealed significant differences between the learners’ engagement levels before and after implementing the intervention. Finally, the concepts of motivation and engagement and their timescales were complementary, revealing noteworthy information about the learners’ desire to participate in classroom activities, as well as their actual participation in activities.

ABSTRACTHypothyroidism is a prevalent chronic condition requiring precise levothyroxine dosing to prevent complications. However, factors such as stress and weight fluctuations complicate dosage determination. This study applies machine learning to improve dosage prediction accuracy. A synthetically generated dataset incorporating key clinical parameters (age, gender, TSH, T3, and T4) was used to train and evaluate predictive models. Compared to the current standard‐Poisson Regression (64.8% accuracy), our approach achieved significant improvements: Ridge and Lasso Regression (82%), Support Vector Regression (83%), and k‐Nearest Neighbors (86%). These results highlight the potential of machine learning in optimizing hypothyroidism treatment and enhancing patient outcomes.

In this qualitative paper, we address, from the perspectives of youth workers, how Afrophobia marginalizes African-Canadian youth in youth-serving organizations and institutions. Using phenomenology and online data from Youth Research and Evaluation Exchange (YouthREX’s) 1 Virtual Café, we therefore interrogate from the above perspectives, how youth sector professionals (YSPs) including youth workers themselves, challenge or enable Afrophobia-caused youth marginality within the Ontario youth sector. With 1790 registered members, the Virtual Café is an online Community of Practice (CoP) forum hosted and moderated by YouthREX. Our findings show that culturally and socially conscious YSPs are vital in combating Afrophobia at the frontline and at the policy levels. The findings also highlight systemic obstacles faced by YSPs combating Afrophobia and the strategies they use to push back on these obstacles. Using these findings and phenomenology (as a self-responsible beginning), we highlight effective intervention strategies already used by some YSPs, and from our analysis.