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 Freedom of Expression Educational Measurement 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. Jacqueline Leighton was born in Santiago, Chile and immigrated to Brazil in 1975 and then to Canada in 1978. Leaving her homeland of Chile in 1975, two years after the coup d'etat and the start of the Pinochet dictatorship, which brought on significant human rights violations against those who spoke out against the dictatorship, instilled in her a lifelong commitment to independent thinking, fundamental human rights, and specifically freedom of expression. This commitment is observed in her ongoing research on human development, cognition and fair educational assessment practices. Dr. Leighton's research is multi-faceted, involving the complex interplay of affective, cognitive and social variables in the learning environments in which human beings develop, grow, falter and ultimately thrive. Dr. Leighton's conceptual and empirical research on think-aloud/cognitive interview techniques is one of the ways in which she simultaneously examines freedom of thought, freedom of expression and the fair assessment of achievement and learning. In addition, her research and teaching are informed by humanistic psychological principles, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and her own Learning Errors and Formative Feedback (LEAFF) model.

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 has collaborated with scholars around the globe, including, for example, 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. She is affiliated with CRAN - the Children's Rights Academic Network at Carleton University. 

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)