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Diana Petrarca
EdD

Associate Professor

Faculty of Education

Contact information

Education Building - Room 537
Downtown Oshawa
11 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, ON

905.721.8668 ext. 2839

diana.petrarca@ontariotechu.ca

Dr. Diana Petrarca: Pre-service teacher education; web-based learning

Dr. Diana Petrarca’s research interests include pre-service teacher candidate identity and development, and teacher education programs. She has launched the web-based learning tool Field Experience Learning Community.

Bio

Dr. Diana Petrarca is an Associate Professor and a founding member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She helped redevelop and implement a new Bachelor of Education program by serving as Program Director for two years. Her research interests include web-based learning tools to support the practicum and mindfulness, and preservice teacher education program enhancement. She is currently exploring the conceptions of teacher candidates as they progress through a pre-service program via a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded research documentary film project entitled The (Un)Making of the Teacher

For more information:

Courses taught

Bachelor of Arts (ESTD)

  • Models of Teaching - EDUC 4700
  • Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Assessment - EDUC 4702

Bachelor of Education

  • Primary/Junior Core Curriculum I - CURS 4200
  • Primary/Junior Core Curriculum II - CURS 4201
  • PJ Science & Technology Camp - CURS 3511
  • Classroom Communications - EDUC 2000 
  • Teaching for Individual Needs and Diversity - EDUC 3800: 
  • Field Experience I - EDUC 4900
  • Field Experience II - EDUC 4901
  • Analysis and Management of Classroom Behaviour - EDUC 4380

Master of Education

  • Learning Tools - EDUC 5104
  • Foundations of Leadership - EDUC 5201
  • OrganizationalTheory, Culture and Decision Making - EDUC 5202

Research and expertise

  • Documentary filmmaking as a form of knowledge mobilization
  • Field experience/practicum
  • Leadership
  • Pre-service teacher candidate identity and development
  • Pre-service teacher education programs
  • Visual ethnography
  • Web-based learning tools
  • Petrarca, D., & Kitchen, J. (2017). Initial teacher education in Ontario: The first year of four-semester teacher education programs. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Association for Teacher Education.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2016). Approaches to teacher education. In International handbook of teacher education (pp. 137-186). Springer, Singapore.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2015). Initial teacher education in Ontario: On the cusp of change. Handbook of Canadian Research in Initial Teacher Education, 61.
  • Petrarca, D., & Hughes, J. (2014). Mobilizing Knowledge via Documentary Filmmaking—Is the Academy Ready?. McGill Journal of Education/Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill, 49(3), 561-582.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2014). Teacher preparation in Ontario: A history. Teaching & Learning, 8(1), 56-71.
  • Petrarca, D., & Bullock, S. M. (2014). Tensions between theory and practice: Interrogating our pedagogy through collaborative self-study. Professional Development in Education, 40(2), 265-281.
  • Kay, R., Knaack, L., & Petrarca, D. (2009). Exploring teachers' perceptions of web-based learning tools. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 5(1), 27-50