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Diana Petrarca
EdD

Professor

Acting Program Director, Graduate Programs

Faculty of Education

LinkedIn Website

Contact information

Charles Hall - Room 334
Downtown Oshawa
61 Charles Street
Oshawa, ON L1H 4X8

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 (Educational Studies)

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

Bachelor of Education

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

Master of Education

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

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., & Samaha, Y. (2022). The digital learning portfolio: A pedagogical tool to foster reflective practice. In E. Langran (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1207-1215). San Diego, CA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/220870/ 
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (Eds.). (2022). Initial teacher education in Ontario: The four-semester teacher education programs after five years. In Canadian research in teacher education: A polygraph series (Vol. 12) [eBook]. Canadian Association for Teacher Education/Canadian Society for the Study of Education. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/114502 
  • 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