TIS Teachers Never Stop Learning
Inspiring a love of learning is not just limited to students. Our TIS faculty also lives out this ideal. TIS recruits and maintains high quality teachers who are deeply committed to encouraging students to develop a love of learning and a desire to succeed as well as being lifelong learners themselves.
Our 142 teachers come from a variety of countries and are required to have a Bachelor of Education degree or equivalent in order to meet the school’s curricular demands. In addition, all teachers (SK - Grade 12) must be certified by Alberta Education which involves a rigorous process that ensures our faculty have the necessary training and experience to deliver the curriculum.
Many of our teachers also hold advanced degrees which enhance their expertise and specialized knowledge. In fact, 37 percent of our faculty have a Master’s degree while an additional 12 percent are in the process of finishing their Master’s - that’s almost 50 percent of TIS teaching staff who have or will have a Master’s degree! In addition, other faculty members are pursuing doctorate degrees, post graduate degrees and diplomas, as well as completing education leadership programs.
Mandarin Teacher Sarah Ip already holds a doctorate degree (PhD in Applied Psychology) which she received in 2018. Her research focused on psychological analysis and Chinese culture.
Four other faculty members are in the process of completing their doctorate degree, including Academic Counsellor Charles Wester (PhD in Comparative and International Development Education), JK Teacher Annie Choi (PhD in Education), Grade 2 Teacher Kristin Collins (PhD in Educational Psychology) and Head of School Howard Stribbell (PhD in Technology, Education and Management).
Mr Wester’s research explores how to design fair and transparent intercultural selection systems. “In other words, how can companies and universities who try to admit employees or students from many different cultures devise ways to fairly assess applications from very different cultural contexts.” said Mr Wester. He will be finished his PhD in December 2021.
Ms Choi submitted her thesis in December 2020. It focused on documentation and voices of children to support children’s learning in Reggio-inspired kindergarten classrooms. “Data was collected during the pilot and three official cycles, from September 2018 to December 2019, to prove children’s learning through their voices and teacher’s documented data, and the result was shared at two academic workshops, PECERA 2019 in Taiwan and ICEDU 2020 in Bangkok.” said Ms Choi. The oral defense of her thesis will be held at the University of Saint Joseph in May 2021.
Meanwhile Ms Collins’ research focused on qualifications for students being identified with Specific Learning Disorders as well as Response to Intervention (a process used by educators to help students who are struggling with a skill or lesson). “Access to resources and testing to identify students vary greatly from school to school, which was part of my research,” said Ms Collins.
Mr Stribbell’s upcoming research will be delving into how social media, brand image, brand trust, service quality and satisfaction influences parents' experiences at schools. His research uses quantitative methodology which requires a large amount of data to analyze with software and he is hoping that TIS parents will lend a hand.
“My research explores parents' experience before choosing TIS, parent experience as part of TIS and the likelihood of parents recommending TIS to others. I am hopeful that my research will enable us at TIS to better meet the needs and expectations of our parents and students,” said Mr Stribbell, adding, “I have really enjoyed diving into the research literature to learn about the influences of parent satisfaction and the role of social media and branding. This has been an interest of mine for a long time and I look forward to learning and sharing about my findings.”
Stay tuned for more information about Mr Stribbell’s research and how you can be involved.
