Emma Minish, Jodi Nickel and Jessica Cuillerier 

Jessica Cuillerier (year 4 teacher candidate) and Emma Minish (2025 B.Ed. graduate) presented with Dr. Jodi Nickel at the Annual Conference for the Scientific Study of Reading. This prestigious international conference was conveniently held in Calgary July 17-19, 2025 and showcased presentations from a variety of renowned scholars in reading research.

Their poster presentation was entitled: Evolution of a Tutoring Program: Learning From Teacher Candidates.

The purpose of the research was described as follows: Embedding school-based tutoring as a course requirement has shown great promise in fostering teacher candidates’ (TCs’) competence for reading instruction. Confusions and gaps in knowledge inevitably surface while TCs are learning. The study examines the benefits of structured literacy tutoring for TC knowledge, and how their varied understandings informed course development.

Jessica and Emma’s involvement as research assistants and copresenters highlights the voice of teacher candidates in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and in program development. Attendees were impressed by the participation of undergraduate researchers and their rich knowledge of effective reading instruction.

This research was supported by a Marshall Family Literacy Grant, Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and MRU’s Office of Research, Scholarship, and Community Engagement.