Dr. Grant Williams

Assistant Professor
St. Thomas University – School of Education
Fredericton, New Brunswick

Dr. Grant Williams is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at St. Thomas University where he teaches methodology courses in Secondary Science and Mathematics. His current research focuses on the development of teaching strategies to facilitate students’ conceptual understanding, but other areas of interest include inquiry-based science learning, classroom discourse analysis, and model-based teaching and learning of abstract scientific concepts. Dr. Williams has presented his research findings at conferences of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, the American Educational Research Association, the Association for Science Teacher Education, the Atlantic Canada Association of Science Educators, and at various professional development sessions for K-12 educators. Prior to his university level research and teaching, Grant spent 21 years working in the New Brunswick public school system teaching middle school science, high school physics, and serving as district coordinator for K-12 Science and Mathematics.

  The current assessment focus of my work is:

Dr. Williams teaches the Measurement and Evaluation courses taken by all Elementary and Secondary Education students in the B.Ed. program at St. Thomas University. The courses examine the role of assessment practices in the improvement of student learning. Topics include diagnostic assessment, assessment for learning, assessment of learning, assessment as learning, formative and summative assessment, norm and criterion referenced assessment, and standardized testing. The courses also examine effective grading and reporting practices. Dr. Williams’ current research in the field of assessment is focused on pre-service Science and Math teachers’ peer and self-evaluation of their classroom teaching skills, particularly their whole-class discussion-leading strategies.

  You can find out more about assessment in my jurisdiction here:

Attached is the paper “Using Video Recordings of Student Presentations to facilitate Peer and Self-Assessment” to be published (2014) in the Proceedings of the 2013 Association of Atlantic Universities Teaching Showcase held at Mount Allison University in October, 2013.

 

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