UBC Okanagan

Leyton Schnellert, BEd MEd PhD (UBC)

Office: EME3157
Phone: 250.807.8654
Email: leyton.schnellert@ubc.ca

Research and Teaching Areas: inclusive education, teacher professional development, middle years education, teacher inquiry, literacy learning, English language arts, classroom assessment

Background: Dr. Leyton Schnellert is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus. He teaches courses in the Elementary (ETEP), Middle and Secondary (STEP) undergraduate programs. These courses include The Developing Learner, Middle School Integrated Methods, Language and Literacy in Education, Literacy for Diverse Learners in Middle and Secondary Grades, and Guided Reflective Inquiry Project (GRIP).

Leyton has been a middle school, junior high, and secondary school classroom teacher, and a learning resource teacher for K–12. He has 20 years of experience as a school- and district-based resource teacher and professional development facilitator across British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Before joining this faculty, Leyton was a Faculty Associate at Simon Fraser University. As a Faculty Associate he developed and taught in graduate diplomas in the areas of special education, diversity, literacy and learning theory. Most recently he coordinated Simon Fraser University's Master of Education in Educational Practice (MEdEP) Program. Within that program, he taught Qualitative Methods in Educational Research, Foundations of Action Research, and Fieldwork .

Research interests: Dr. Schnellert researches teacher learning, practice, and collaboration. In particular he attends to how teacher professional development relates to student diversity, inclusive education, self- and co-regulation, and literacy instruction. His research grapples with the challenge of designing and facilitating teacher professional development that bridges theory and practice so as to achieve valued outcomes for students. Studies include:

• classroom teachers and special education teachers working as partners to improve their writing instruction and increase access to learning for students in inclusive classrooms (Schnellert & Butler 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012);
• secondary school literacy teams using formative assessment data to inform cycles of collaborative inquiry (Butler, Schnellert & Cartier, 2005, 2008a,b; Schnellert & Butler 2007, 2008, 2009; Schnellert, Butler & Higginson, 2008); and
• learning community approaches to professional development (Butler, Schnellert & Higginson, 2007).

Dr. Schnellert’s program of research addresses questions such as:

1. What practices do educators engage in when working collaboratively to consider, explore, and construct more inclusive instruction?;
2. How and why do collaborative, action-oriented inquiry cycles help teachers to develop understandings and practices that address, nurture and support diverse students' literacy learning?; and
3. What conditions and qualities within professional development activities support teacher learning and development of practice?

Scholarly and Professional Contributions: Dr. Schnellert has presented and published his work in local, provincial, national and international forums. Leyton is the co-author of four books written to support teachers to bridge research and practice. He is also Past President and Conference Co-Chair of BC Teachers of English Language Arts (BCTELA) Professional Specialist Association. He has been a member of several curriculum and assessment committees and writing teams through his involvement with the BC Teachers Federation, BC Ministry of Education, and Northwest Territories’ Education, Culture and Employment.