Prior to coming to Western University, I earned my Bachelor of Education degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and my Master of Education degree from Queen’s University, where I explored through a phenomenological methodology the visual arts-based experiences of two Grade 7 students with learning disabilities (Karagiorgakis, 2013).

Under the supervision of Dr. Jacqueline Specht, my research interests traverse the fields of inclusive education, learning motivation, and arts integration. For my doctoral research, I am exploring arts integration (e.g., dance-, drama-, visual arts-, music-based pedagogies) as an inclusive teaching strategy. More particularly, the findings from my research will help build upon our understanding of the quality of students' learning motivation when learning through the arts.

I understand learning to be a sociocultural, constructivist activity, which compels me to use narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) to gather students' experiences in arts-based learning environments. Moreover, I draw upon self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) to facilitate my conceptualisation of learning motivation.

References

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Karagiorgakis, I. (2013). The visual arts-based experiences of students with learning disabilities: Two multiple-perspective case studies (Unpublished master’s thesis). Queen’s University. Kingston, Canada.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54–67.

Jacqueline Specht, PhD

Supervisor