Key actor in promoting student academic success for nearly 30 years, the Faculty of Education at the Université de Sherbrooke is receiving a $600,000 donation from BMO Financial Group. Increasing knowledge about prevention, facilitating the early screening of difficulties in at-risk students, and optimizing the training of future teachers about these issues are some of the benefits of this remarkable support.

The President of the Université de Sherbrooke, Professor Pierre Cossette, enthusiastically welcomes BMO Financial Group’s commitment: “With our partners in schools, the Université de Sherbrooke and the Faculty of Education have a hand in the successful efforts these last few years in the area of student persistence among Estrie students. That is in keeping with our values of engagement and innovation. Moreover, this philanthropic support will make it possible to combine research breakthroughs with technologies to maximize the benefits of all these joint regional efforts.”

As a result of the mobilization of all the concerned stakeholders, the dropout rate among Estrie youth decreased from 30.2% to 20.2% between 2005 and 2015.

Normand Legault, Chair of the Promising Futures, Shared Passions Major Campaign, is exceptionally pleased with today’s announcement. “We are proud to be able to count on such a major partner as BMO Financial Group to implement tangible actions that will directly affect students. I cordially thank this major donor and longstanding partner of the Université de Sherbrooke.”

Luc Blanchard, Senior wealth advisor and senior vice-president of BMO Nesbitt Burns, added: “BMO Financial Group is very sensitive to the cause of academic success. Investing in the development of education and higher education at the Université de Sherbrooke is investing in the socioeconomic future of our community.”

Three Leading-Edge Strategies

“The breakthroughs achieved by our researchers have shed new scientific light on the phenomena that influence academic success,” pointed our Serge Striganuk, Dean of the Faculty of Education. “Thanks to this knowledge and innovative technologies, faculty members have designed cutting-edge strategies to act upstream with students, in particular by better equipping young teachers. We are pleased to finally be able to deploy them as a result of the donation from BMO Financial Group, because we know the scope of the challenges involved. This support allows us to go further than we ever have before.”

Eye and Pen^®: Observing the Writing Process in Real Time

The donation will allow the Research Chair on Child Acquisition of Literacy (CREALEC) to acquire Eye and Pen^® technology. This advanced-technology system uses a tablet and eye-tracking system to provide for real-time analysis of student handwriting, making it possible to measure eye movement. Up to now, the research on learning to handwrite has been based on written matter produced by students. Eye and Pen^® will allow specialists to monitor the process and analyze what students are writing in real time.

Transforming Actual Teaching Situations into Training Tools

The videoclip has long been recognized as a useful tool in training future teachers because it makes it possible to observe teachers in actual classroom situations and analyze their strategies to improve their teaching practices. The Sherbrooke Regional School Board’s Research Chair on Student Achievement and Perseverance is studying this promising approach. The BMO donation will make it possible to produce 300 clips with 60 teachers and school-adjustment specialists, and host everything on a new portal that will be an outstanding training resource all teachers in Quebec.

Enriching the Intern Experience

In partnership with practising teachers in the community, the Faculty of Education will launch the 3^rdedition of its Programme de Soutien à la Réussite de l’Élève (supporting student success). This program, which allows hundreds of future teachers to carry out field projects related to their areas of teaching, promotes the success of primary, secondary, and university students while contributing to the training of teachers.

SOURCE Université de Sherbrooke