{"id":24206,"date":"2015-01-20T16:29:09","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=114"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:19","slug":"carletons-pickering-centre","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/carletons-pickering-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton's Pickering Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Carleton's Pickering Centre\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Carleton\u2019s Pickering Centre for Research in Human Development<\/a> is a shining example of how using an older endowment can benefit the students and faculty of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, former city council member C.E. Pickering allocated money that was then used for an annual public lecture focusing on development psychology. He made the contribution in honor of his daughter June Pimm (nee Pickering), who was not only a graduate of the program, but Carleton\u2019s first PhD graduate in arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, the funds were put to use in establishing a new centre focusing on better understanding the development of children and youth. Meanwhile, the lecture continues with 2013\u2019s headliner being Ian Manion of the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health.
\n\u201cThe lecture went dormant for a number of years, which ultimately was good for us. The funds stayed there and accrued interest,\u201d said Robert Coplan, today\u2019s director of the Pickering Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe purpose of the centre is to support collaboration among development researchers, and fostering a rich environment for our students. Its creation allowed us to put all of the various activities under one roof.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young centre has come a long way in a few years. There are nine faculty members and over 40 graduate students taking part in the research. It\u2019s become the go-to centre for developmental psychologists in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that makes the Pickering Centre stand apart is its robust connections with the community, Coplan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Child Language and Literacy Research Lab, helmed by Monique S\u00e9n\u00e9chal, examines how home learning of language helps students in school. Her work with local school boards and others is helping to track language acquisition in French, which is less well-studied than English, the other language her group is looking at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example is Stefania Maggi\u2019s Child and Adolescent Research Lab, which examines cognitive development and mental health among youth and children. Since the goal is to track development over time, the lab has several long-term research projects watching children as they progress through school.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to position ourselves as a place of expertise for local community organizations to come and consult with us,\u201d Coplan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs director, I\u2019m sitting on a number of different organization committees trying to partner with a lot of school-board based research. Also, our students work, intern, volunteer and fill in positions with different local school boards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the researchers, this allows them access to local populations, while school boards and other organizations can receive the most up-to-date research to assist with education. One thing that makes the Pickering Centre stand apart is its robust connections with the community<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey know if they need additional information, or if they need someone to do background research for them, they can come to us. We\u2019re able to provide them with the expertise, or connect them with the person power they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also coming right up is the Carleton-hosted Development 2014: A Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology<\/a>, which will encompass two days of presenting peer-reviewed research. This follows on from a highly successful conference at Carleton in 2010, and aims to be a forum for knowledge exchange as well as researcher collaborations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt used to be offered out of the University of Waterloo as the Waterloo Conference, and went on into the early 90s. I happened to be a graduate student at the University of Waterloo at the time. Now we\u2019re going to host it every two to four years, depending on the energy we have to organize it,\u201d Coplan said. \u201cWe\u2019re expecting 400 to 500 people to attend the conference.\u201d
\nAnother primary goal of the Pickering Centre is to encourage collaboration among faculty researchers. For example, supported by a Research Excellence Fund award, Coplan, Maggi, and S\u00e9n\u00e9chal are leading a multi-institutional, large-scale grant proposal to look at the impact of full-day kindergarten on children. In Ontario, all schools are now mandated to have kindergarten for a full day, instead of the previous model of half-days. The program is being introduced gradually, and is now in the fourth year of a planned five-year deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is believed that the move is of benefit to students from high-risk households who may not receive the educational resources they need to progress. That said, provincial officials have not yet done a full evaluation of the policy shift, providing ripe ground for Carleton researchers to step in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hoping to do is a larger-scale evaluation of the impact, with longer term positive impacts of the benefits of this type of free early-quality education,\u201d Coplan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coplan, Maggi, and S\u00e9n\u00e9chal are leading a multi-institutional, large-scale grant proposal to look at the impact of full-day kindergarten on children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pickering-logo\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"stuffed<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pickering Centre for Human Development Faculty Members:<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director \u2013 Robert Coplan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Bowker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tina Daniels<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Howard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deepthi Kamawar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jo-Anne LeFevre<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stefania Maggi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelley Parlow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monique S\u00e9n\u00e9chal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton\u2019s Pickering Centre for Research in Human Development is a shining example of how using an older endowment can benefit the students and faculty of today. In the 1970s, former city council member C.E. Pickering allocated money that was then used for an annual public lecture focusing on development psychology. He made the contribution in honor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[567],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-24206","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-arts-and-social-sciences"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/24206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/24206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44763,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/24206\/revisions\/44763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=24206"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=24206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}