Sharon Friesen

Dr. Sharon Friesen is the Vice Dean and the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in the Faculty of Education. She has been a researcher in the area of cultivating the intellect, the role of digital technologies and education for the past thirty years. Finding ways to define, create and study the emergence of what are now called communities of practice has been her life work. Sharon's experience as a teacher includes kindergarten, elementary, junior high and high school. From the outset she has systematically created, studied and published first from within her own classrooms (K – Graduate students) and more recently from within the work of the Galileo Educational Network which she co-founded and from where she, along with a team of consultants, support teachers in face-to-face and online environments as they break down the isolation of the self-contained classroom and learn the power of working in community.

Dr. Friesen has most recently completed several funded studies (CCL and Alberta Education) that investigated intellectual engagement across of variety of learning contexts. Three of these studies were longitudinal, employing design-based research methodologies in which ideas from the learning sciences figured prominently. Building upon previous studies, these longitudinal studies examined knowing knowledge deeply, technology-rich participatory learning environments, complex pedagogies and engagement in learning. Her primary research interest consists of investigating the ways in which intellectual engagement emerges within contemporary learning environments.

Current Projects:

Engaging Learners in Forest Lawn High School, Alberta Education

Evaluation of Three High Performing School Jurisdictions in the Application of 21st Century Learning, College of Alberta School Superintendents

Olds High School: An Innovative Learning Environment, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

PhD
University of Calgary

MEd
University of Calgary

BEd
University of Calgary

Dr. Sharon Friesen offers her expertise to a variety of government and non-government organizations across Canada and internationally. She was on the Steering Committee for Alberta Education’s Inspiring Education. She continues to offer her expertise to the development of Alberta Education’s Research Framework and various High School Completion initiatives. Working with the Executive Directors of the Western and Northern Curriculum Protocol (WNCP) agreement, she developed the Guiding Principles for WNCP Curriculum Framework Projects. She served as a consultant to Saskatchewan Education in the development of a renewed curriculum for k-12. She continues to contribute to New Zealand’s, Core-Ed.

• Galileo Educational Network, President

Friesen, S. (2010). Uncomfortable bedfellows: Discipline based inquiry and standardized examinations. Teacher Librarian, 37(6).

Friesen, S. & Jardine, D. (2010). New times, new ways: The changing role of teachers. ATA Magazine, 91.

Friesen, S. & Jardine, D. (2009). On field(ing) knowledge. In S. Goodchild & B. Sriraman, eds. Festschrifte in Celebration of Paul Ernest’s 65th Birthday. S. Goodchild and B. Sriraman the Montana Monographs in Mathematics Education Series. Charlotte NC: Information Age Publishing.

Friesen, S., Jardine, D. & Gladstone, B. (2010). The first thunder clap of spring: An invitation into aboriginal ways of knowing and the creative possibilities of digital technologies. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds) Teacher education yearbook XVIII: Cultivating curious and creative minds: the role of teachers and teacher educators. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education.

Jacobsen, M. & Friesen, S. (2011). Hands on vs. hands up: Technology-enabled knowledge building in high school. Education Canada, 52(2). Web exclusive.

• Awarded, Distinguished Lecture, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary. I Hold In My Hand A Bird: Intellectual Engagement.
• Awarded, Special Settings Category, Calgary Educational Partnerships Foundation Special Settings Award by the Calgary Educational Partnerships Foundation.
• Awarded, Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) Mathematics Educator Award for activism in improving mathematics education across western Canada.
• Awarded, AERA Division B Outstanding Book award for Back to the basics of teaching and learning: Thinking the world together. This award recognizes scholars whose books have made a vital contribution to Curriculum Studies.
• Awarded, Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence.

• Does Class Size Make A Difference To Student Learning? A video interview for CTV News. September, 2011.
• Teaching, Learning and Leading For Today. Exclusive Podcast Interview Mindshare, February, 2011.
• Learning with Laptops in Middle School. An interview for Alberta Primetime Broadcast, Sept 2, 2010.

• Courses