Lynn McQuarrie, PhDAssociate Professor
Department of Educational Psychology
5-125 Education North
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB Canada
T6G 2G5
(780) 492-1146
lynn.mcquarrie@ualberta.ca
Personal faculty page
Minerva Deaf Research Page
Research & Interests
I began my academic career in 2003 as a faculty member in the Special Education area within the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education. I completed my PhD in Special Education at the University of Alberta in 2005. Previous degrees include an M.Ed in Special Education/ Deaf Studies (1995), a B.Ed in Elementary Education (1992) and a B.A. in Recreation Administration (1980).
Prior to my academic career, I was an elementary school teacher and taught for many years in a multiage (Grades 1, 2, 3), combined (hearing and deaf), bilingual (English and American Sign Language (ASL) classroom. I have had the great good fortune then of watching and learning from both deaf and hearing little ones in their early grades as they were first discovering the joys of learning and the ‘wonders’ of print. It is not an overstatement to say that some of my very best teachers could not yet tie their own shoes! My research interest in typical and atypical reading development has been shaped by the lessons learned from my students throughout my experiences as a classroom teacher, and continues to evolve through my experiences teaching and learning with graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Alberta.
In the past few years my research has focused on reading acquisition and fluent reading in bilingual (American Sign Language – English) learners. I am interested in understanding the properties of the language input that Deaf children receive and how sign language (ASL) as L1 facilitates learning a spoken language (English) as L2. I am particularly interested in our explorations of teaching and learning strategies that support reading acquisition in struggling readers with diverse needs.
Publications
