Jacqueline Leighton, Ph.D., R.Psych

Availability

I am currently not accepting to work with any new graduate students.

Area of Study / Keywords

Human Development and Cognition Educational Measurement of Learning Critical Thinking Research Methodology

About

PDF - Psychology, Yale University, 1999 - 2001 (funded by SSHRC)

PhD - Psychology, University of Alberta, 1999 (funded by SSHRC)

MEd - Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, 1995 (funded by NSERC)

BA (Hon) - Psychology, University of Alberta, 1993 (funded by NSERC)

Research

Dr. Leighton’s research focuses on human development and cognition, including investigating children's (and adults') achievement and wellbeing against the backdrop of humanistic psychological principles, children's human rights as informed by the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and her own Learning Errors and Formative Feedback (LEAFF) model. Dr. Leighton's research involves the interplay of affective, cognitive and social variables in the learning environments in which human beings develop and grow. An increasingly important focus in Dr. Leighton's research is the human need (right) for free expression in learning environments for the development of critical thinking and emotional wellness. A secondary research focus is the methodological and theoretical underpinning of think-aloud/cognitive interview techniques, and assessments in support of claims about student achievement (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, 2014).

Dr. Leighton’s research is and has been consistently funded by Tri-Council research grants, including the Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC), National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

She is past winner of the American Educational Research Association, Division D (Educational Measurement & Research Methodology) Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology for the Cambridge University Press book – Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment: Theory and Applications, and is former editor-in-chief of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice (EMIP), a flagship journal for the National Council on Measurement in Education.

Recognized by the Canadian Council of Learning as a Minerva Scholar, Dr. Leighton collaborates with scholars around the globe, including key partnerships with Learning Environments Across Disciplines (LEADS), and the International Collaborative for Performance Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (iPAL). As a testing specialist and registered psychologist, she has served as a member of technical advisory committees to many leading educational measurement organizations, including ACT, College Board, Educational Testing Service, and Pearson.

Teaching

Currently not teaching but the following are courses I have taught in the past:

EDPY 302 (Child Development)

EDPY 304 (Adolescent Development)

EDPY 500 (Introduction to Data Analysis in Educational Research) 

EDPY 501 (Research Methods in Education)

EDPY 505 (Advanced Univariate Statistics in Educational Research) 

EDPY 510 (Learning, Cognition, and Education) 

EDPY 610 (Selected Topics in Learning, Cognition, and Instruction)

EDPY 644 (Consultation in School and Clinical Psychology)

EDU 100 - Contexts of Education

This course focuses on the different contexts of professional practice within education. It critically examines the complex social relationships among educators as professionals and learners as participants in educational institutions. Teacher identity will be explored as a dynamic, reformative process in response to competing tensions that require an awareness of the positionality of educators. Preservice teachers will learn about the relationships between education and practice that are nested in social relations of learning that are also economic, political, and cultural. Engagement from a variety of perspectives they will develop professional knowledge for critical reconstructive practice. This course may not be taken for credit if credit has already been obtained in EDU 250, 300 or equivalent. [Department of Elementary Education, Department of Secondary Education]

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