EDUC 525 Quiz 1

what is the purpose of laws

tro carry out socila policies, in additon to protecting collective and individual rights and freedoms to ensure a peaceful society, such as providing benefits when workers are injured, loans to students and health care

public laws

public law- rules for relationship between individual and society. when somebody breaks a criminal law, it is seen as a wrong against society.

types of public laws

criminal law- deals with crime and punishment

constitutional law- defines relationship between gov. branches, limits gov power, and protects individual rights and freedoms

admin law- deals with actions and operations of gov

what are public laws based off of

rules of precedent- guides judges in making future decisions based on past ones- not written in legislation, and is adaptable to changing circumstances

private law

rules between individuals- settles disputes among groups of people and compensates individuals

what is another name for private laws

civil law

where are rules for private law contained

contained in civil codes whioch have comprehensive sets of rules. unlike common law courts, civil law courts look to a civil code, then to previous decidions if they are inconsistent

how do we settle private law disputes

civil cases

talk about the breakdown of legislation in canada

democratic countries have legislation/parliment, with the powerr to make new laws ort change old ones. canada is a federations, sop ti has a federal parklimant that makes laws for the whole of canafda, and then legislateure in each of the provinces/tewrriorites that deals with laws in their areas. laws at either level are called statutes, legislation, ro acts.

what are regulations

regulations- specific laws that carry out the purposes of the genneral laws or expand on them

what is the process of something becoming a law

• gov ministers/public servants examine a problem, and suggest ways in which, under federal jurisdiction, a law can solve the problem

• they draft a proposed law

• law is approved by cabinet (members of parliment chosen by the PM)

• this version is presented to parliment as a bill to bedebated

• bill becomes law if it is approved by a majorty in both house of commons and senaate- it also needs to be assented by the gov general in the name of the queen. all laws need royal assent

aboriginal justice strategy

way to divert low risk and nonviolent offenders from mainsteam justice to restorative justive- criminals dont get a record, and can make amends to their community and funds and resources are freed up to deal with more serious offences

goals of aboriginal justice strategy

• goals are to give indg greater role in admin justice in communities

• dec rates of victiminzation, crime and imprisonment

• provide better and more timely info about community justive programs

• reflect and include indg values within the justice system

what is the constitution- what does it do (and talk about the queens power)

• constitution- supreme law of canaa- reaffirms canadas dual legal system and incl. indg rights and treaty rights

  • defines branches of gov (executive, legislative, judiciary)

  • queenn has executive power- but her powers are exercised by constitutional conention on advice of ministers who have confidence from the house of commons

  • when we talk abot government we are usually talking about the executive branch

what is parliment and who is in it

the legislative branch of the federal gov

• consists of the queen, represented by the gov general, the senate and the house of commons

• bills are debated on and passed by the senate and the house of commons . gov general must also give royal assent to a bill to pass it into law (by constitutional conention, royal assennt is always giveen to bills passed by the senate and house of commons))

what can parliment make laws about and for

• parliment can make alws for all of canada, byt only about matters the constiution assigns to it

  • provincial or terriotorial legislature can only make laws about info withitin the provinces borders

what are some things parliment deals with

parliment deals with things lik epostal services, trade between provinces, national and criminal defence and law, and the three territories (NWT, yukon, nunavut)- allows terriotiries to elect cooincils with powers like those of the provincial legislations

what are some things the provinces make laws for

provinces have authority to make laws about education, property, civil rights, justice admin, hosptials, etc.

what are some things municipal govs make laws for

there are also local/municipal govs- they are created under provincial laws and make bylaws that regulate a variety of local matters like smoking, business regulations, pesticide use and parking

what act gives indg things like control over reserve land

the indian act

what does sct 35 of the constitution do

• sct. 35 regocnizes and affirms aboriginal rihts which are related to the hostirical occupancy and use of land by indg

• specifically recognizes and affirms treaty rights

who is aboriginal/indigenous

first nations, metis, inuit

bijurnalism

canada has both civil and common law systems

• most private laws in quebec are governed by civil law, while common law applies in the other provincices

• legal concepts must be expressed in french and english

problems with the swiss cheese model and siloing elements of the justice system

it neglects the interactions between elements and how bias cascades and snowballs- the different elements are not independent; they are coordinated and mutually support and bias each other, creating and enabling hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects. Hence, minimizing bias requires not only taking measures to reduce bias in each of the elements but also a wider perspective that addresses bias cascade and bias snowball effects.

what elements of the judtice system does bias impact

both subjective and objective

explicit and intentional bias

• the worst form

• the dirty harry problem/noble causes corruption

• soometimes seen when people feel so justified in their goals that they will take unethical paths to achieve it- ie. the end justifies the means, the greater good, immoral actions are needed to achiee moral goals, etc.

• alarming when scientific, unbiased and objective things show this bias- ie. signal detection analysis shows that forensic science experts in firears evidence deliverately do not report elimination conclusions- this deprives innocent suspects of the evidence needed to proe their innocence

t or f- cog bias is less of a concern than expllicit/intentional? why?

• cognitie bias is potentially an even bigger concern than explicit and intentional bias because…

  • it is widespread- explicit intentional bias exists, but is less common and widespread- the former is exhibited by some people, but cognitive bias is ubiquitious that imapcts everybody duue to the top down nature of human cognition

  • it is harder to detect- explicit intentional bias is easier to detect than implicit and hidden cognitive bias

    • often not onlyy is cogntiive bias implicit, but it is unconscious

  • minimizing and countering cogntive bias is not easy or straightforward

define cog bias

cogntiive bias- a by product of peoples cogntive architeture and how the brain processes information. within the justice and legal syystems, cognitive bias has been defined as the class of effects thorugh which an individuals pre existing beliefs, expectations, etc. influuence the collection, perception and interpretation of evidence during the course of a criminal case

top down vs bottom up- which does the brain use

• human cogntiion relies on top down info like what we expect, past experinces, etc.p-p as info arrives in the brain, the bottom up info, the top down process guides it and impacts how we interpret that ifnormation.

  • top down brain cogntiive processes imapct not only our judgements, but whhat we see, such as with selective attention

  • we must distinguish between random noise and systematic biases created by toop down infleunces like expectations, motivation, etc.

  • top down processes are needed for human congition- they dec the computational demands placed on the cogntiive system

t or f- cognitive bias is an ethical issue of personal integrity or imcompetence

cogntiive bias impacts all people and is a natural and innate part of cognition

t or f- expertist and experinece reduce and protect us from the effects of cotniive bias

• often people in the justice/legal system claim they are not biased de to their vast and extensive experince, but experince does not reduce bias and can actually inc. or create it because it enhances the prevelance, power and impact of top down processes

  • with expertise, base rate bias is likely to inc. experts in the justice and legal systems are just as susceptible to bias and novices

t or f- the use of tech and ai protects from bias-

not true as we have already seenn tech and ai have their own biases within the software

t or f- belief that people can eliminate their biases via mere will power

this is not true, and in gfact intentional efforts to minimize bias can actually inc the impact of bias due to ironic and rebound processing

3 categories of bias, with 8 sources of total (talk about the pyramid)

category a of bias

• category a- something about a specific case triggers the bias

  • data- evidence creates empathy and synpathy, dislike or anger- ie. we develop bias against a child predator over disgust for their actions

  • reference materials- ie. description of suspect, fingerprint, dna profile, etc

    • ie. when non eyewitnesses identify a suspect, it can be based on their prior familiarity with the person, not evidence presented in the case

    • ie. if we show somebody a video and ask if they can identify person x, as opposed to asking if they can identify anybody, since they will already be primed to look for person x and this creates a cognitive bias

    • these types of bias are de to the forensic degrees of freedom- forensic exminers have latitude for discretion and judegement

      • as there are more deggrees of freedom, bias has more opportunity to impact the decision making process.

    • ie. expectatinos and previoous beliefs/experinces regarding things like shaken baby sydrome, murderers, etc. create cogntiive biases that taint and investigation

  • contextual information

    • ie. when a fingerprinting aalyst is exposed to info about a individuals criminal history before analyzing their fingerprinting, tainting their judgements

    • ie. an interviewer asking a suspect leading questions that cause a false confession

    • studies have shown that fingerprint analysts can reach different condlusions when exposed to different, biased info about the suspect

category b of bias

• relates to the person handling the case, not the case itself

  • base rate- different experinces of people in the justice and legal system can lead to bias from the prevelance effect, or the phenomena where people are more likely to miss and not see things that have a lower prevelance base rate

    • ie. a pathologist who experinced that children who died in the care of a parent moe frequently diagnose deaths as homicides

  • orgganizational factors- emerge from organizational pressures and cultures

    • lawyers reach to work condlcusions that satisfy the party who hired them

  • training and education- police offers can be trained to suspect somebody is guilty, which creates evidence like false confessions and wrongful convictions

  • personal factors- jurors can be swayed by the suspects attractiveness, race, etc.

    • can impact people in the legal/justice system who ahve been victims of a crime- ie. if a prosecutor was a victim of sexual assault, tey may be more lieklly to see a suspect as guilty

category c of bias

• the source of bias is not the specific case or specific person doing the work, but human nature

  • personal factors, human and cogntiive factors, and the brain

    • ie. confirmation bias, need for closure, slective attention, etc.

what do each of these pictures represent

An adaptation of the Swiss cheese model (Reason, 1990). Top panel: although bias exists in the various elements within the justice and legal systems (the black holes in the Figure), it rarely impacts the final outcome because a bias has to be aligned through all the different layers. E.g., ‘A-1’ in the top panel has been able to go through two layers but becomes stuck and is stopped at the third layer; similarly, ‘B-1’ gets stuck and ends at the fourth layer. As the justice and legal systems have many elements before someone is convicted (many checks and balances even before it goes to court), it would rarely happen that a bias could penetrate and align through all the various elements. However, this all hinges on and assumes that the different elements are relatively independent from each other. As illustrated in the bottom panel, the reality is that supposedly independent elements (that should constrain one another) actually work in concert, influencing and biasing each other, creating bias cascade and bias snowball effects (which are not mutually exclusive). ‘A-2’ is able to go through all the layers (in contrast to ‘A-1’) because the bias cascade has moved the hole in layer three to align with the holes in layers 1 and 2. ‘B-2’ illustrates bias snowball in which multiple biases upport and feed each other, creating a bigger and bigger bias so powerful that it can penetrate and go through the last layer.

when does the swiss cheese model work, and why doesnt it work

swiss cheese model works if all elements are independent, but in reality they are interdependent- ie. the judge works with and communicates with the police, and may therefore be unable to be an unbiased check and balance.

describe the bias cascade

occurs when a bias that is introduced to an element in the justice and legal systems does not only impact that element. The bias cascades and thus also has an impact on other elements in the justice and legal systems. Consider, for example, that a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) learns that the suspect is black or that they have a criminal record; this irrelevant contextual information creates a bias that impacts their work, e.g., the samples that they collect at the crime scene (Eeden et al., 2019; Lange et al., 2018). Bias cascade occurs when this biasing information does not only impact the CSI work but when the biasing information is cascaded to bias other elements in the justice and legal systems. For example, they share irrelevant information about the suspect’s past criminal record with the fingerprint examiner, witnesses, and others. Thus, this bias not only impacts the CSI but the bias cascades across the justice and legal systems.

talk about the bias cascade vs bias snowball with pics

Bias Cascade (left panel) occurs when a bias is introduced and it not only contaminates and impacts that specific element (‘X’ biasing ‘A’ in the left panel of the Figure) but then that same bias (‘X’) cascades to also impact other elements (‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D’, left panel). Bias Snowball (right panel) occurs when biases accumulate and feed one another. The impact increases as the bias gains greater and greater momentum with more and more biases added. In bias snowball, one bias creates additional new biases, which then support the creation of even more additional new biases, and so forth (including interactive loops adding more bias—the dashed arrows).

define bias snowball

occurs when bias is not just cascading but additional biases are added (as different elements are being biased, they then add a bias that further impacts others), thus increasing the biases as it progresses through the justice and legal systems. Bias snowball is not like bias cascade, which is about one bias cascading to impact other elements, but bias snowball involves more and more new biases being added. As the biases accumulate and interact with one another, they add up and increase in power.

challanges to minimizing bias

• the bias blind spot and the implicit nature of cog bias make it hard to acknowledge biases existence, in addition to being transparent about it

• errors due to bias may not be apparent- ground truth is often unknown in the justice system- no idea how many people have been wrongfully convicted

• adverserial legal system makes i impossive to uncover and acknoelge biasses- fear that acknowldgement will be used against people in court

  • plea bargains and even dropping charges can be offerend when prosecution realizes that defense will reveal bias against the client

big takeaway from bias cascade paper

• as much as possiblem oeople should be blind to biasing ifnormation (ie. fingerprint technicians should not know the clients race or other information about the scene)

  • if we cant remove bias sources, we shold compartmentalize them so that peeople involved in one aspect of a case do not learn about unrelated information from another aspect of the case

    • ie. cops should not work as a team with forensic investigators

• if we cant seperate things, we also need to think about how we can present info in a sequential way to minimize bias- ie. always present the data first before people discuss it with one another

• mandate full transparency so people are reluctant to give irrelevant info or attempt to bias others

talk about the issues with ai and bias

And personalization is the whole pitch. Brisk, MagicSchool, and Khanmigo are already being piloted in classrooms, all promising feedback that adapts to the student in front of it. That promise assumes adaptation is good by default. This study is the first real evidence that adaptation, done without anyone deciding what it should adapt toward, defaults to the same stereotypes a tired, well-meaning teacher falls into on a Friday afternoon- even saw this occur when it was very subtle (ie. a racially stereotypical name as opposed to an overt label like an Indigenous student)

big takeaway: autoamted personalizatioon is not a replacement for a pedagogical design

talk about the 3 types of failure

• basic failure- known terriority when a simple error led to the failure

  • ie. accidentally transfer 900$, not 90$

  • simple, predictable and preventable

  • ie. leaving the door open when in a classroom with an eloper- small mistake that leads to huge failure

• complex failure- failure with multiple causes

  • ie. supplu chain breakdowns

  • multiple basic errors, across different people, decision an actions

  • ie. did a bad job of unit planning, so all your students didnt learn with enough of a depth of cirriculum in the next grade, and that grades teacher also did a bad job, so by the time kids get to the next grade it is a massive catostrophe because they dont have the knwoeldge base they need and the kids have a gap in their knwoeldge base that continues till they graduate

  • ie. more and more teachers are quitting early or going on leave of absence- kids experince interrupted learning because every new teacher has a different philosophy and approach so the kids are left behind each time theres a new teacher- lots of factors all over the place

• intelligent failure- the right kind of wrong, can lead to new kinds of knwoeldge and discovery

4 criteria for intelligent failure

• its in new terriority- we dont yet have the knwoeldge

• its in pursuit of a goal

• hypothesis driven- not randomly trying stuff

• the failure is as small as possible, just big enough to learn from so we dont waste resources

what kinds of experiences do we want kids to have in schools

• accouunting for preventable errors and with good, thoughtful decisions and open comunication, trying different solutions to known problems

  • we want kids to have these experinces in classrooms, and we want teachers to have this- able to use experinces and leanring to know how to do better next time

who do we think like to have intelligent failures

• to do this, we have to think like a scientist and welcome the lessons that failure brings

• involved expeirmenting with somehting you are not positive will work

what type of situations do intelligent failures occur in

• happens in situations where stakes are medium to low- ie. testing in a lab first, not directly on patients

• accounting for preventable errors and with good, thoughtful decisions and open communication, trying different solutions to known problems

what do people gget wrong about stakes with mistakes

oftentimes we think the stakes are erroneously high, but this is untrue- a lot of failures are not awful or dangerous, just inconveneint but good because they give us new information

what is a hopeful skeptic

• this is what we should aim to be for intelligent failure

• means that we are open minded, think like a scientist, but fundamentally believe in the good in others and themselves

  • approach things with a creative thinking sace- not entirely sure but are open minded and willing to be onvinced

4 types of skepticism/cynicism

• hopeful skeptics- open minded, but fundamentally belive that we and others are good. not naive, but willing to listen to new ideas

• suspicious skeptics- believe in science and not people- only wants data and wont believe things that arent proven

• naive trusters- blindly believe in the good of others but reject scientific evidence- can be closeminded

  • cynics- end up sicker, poorer and sadder than others, believing neither science nor people can be trusted

t or f- canada has 1 educational system

false- this will be on the quiz- we are one of the only ed systems in the world with 14 educaion systems due to the way our confederation has been formed

what is jurisdiction

jurisdiction- right to make laws or bylaws in a specific area

what is parliment made up of

• at the federal level, parliment is made of moonarch, house of commons and senate

  • the legislative branch is parliment- makes laws and holds gov accounable to canadians

    • provincial and terrioritial legislations do a similar thing on a smaller scale

who focuses on currency, national defense, criminal law and the postal service

federal gov

who focuses on healthcare, education

the provincial gov (indg ed is handled poorly by the federal gov)

who handles libraries, city parks, and publiic transit

the municipal gov

what is the role of each level of gov in education

• provincial goc

  • fund and legislate public, seperate, and independent/private schools

  • education system mainly falls under provincial gov- they will fund and come up with policies related to schools

• federal gov

  • resp. for indg reserve education- jordans principle came from federal gov underfunding indg reserve education, schools in prisons, and in the military

  • tend to follow same cirriculum as the provincial gov of the nation, but dont actually have to

• school baord trustees- elected during municipal elections and are accountable to specific boards

  • the one employee of the school board trustees is the superintendent, and they run everything

  • people elect trustees—> trustees employ a single person, the superintendent

talk about legal pluralism in canadas legal system

• canada has common law (from england)

• civil law (quebecs is from france)

• indigenous laws and treaties like the great law of peace and wampum, great law of peace

what is the basis of canadas legal system

english common law, french common law, haudensaunee great law of peace

which court in canada has the final say on every court case

the supreme court of canada

who writes laws in canada

elected representatives

what are laws

written rules in legislation, regulations, policies, codes,and by-laws at the federal/provincial/municipal level

what documents have the same onus/power as supreme court decisions in canada and why

treaties are federal legislation- they imapct all fo us because they pre-date canada itself- they are the same as an outcome from the supreme court of canada

what document decides division of power

canaian constitution has the final say for division of power- division of power determines who writes which laws

when was the charter of rights and freedoms added to the consitition

1982- this will be on the quiz- every decision befor 1982 didnt have to take into accouunt the charter of rights of freedoms, and every decision after did have to take it inot account

t or f- overlap between the 3 levels of gov is common, and can be confusing

true

who enforces legislation

enforced by the police or others charged with enforcement and then legality is determined via legal tribunals and courts

case law

used to help interpret legislation, previous cases are used to either support or deny current legal cases. judges make decisions that are in line with previous rulings, but can also make changes

____ legal cases render decisions that become the basis of future cases- ie. banning corporal punishment in canada

landmark legal cases render decisions that become the basis of future cases- ie. banning corporal punishment in canada

what do we use as a reference for legal cases?

• case law is like the reference sof current cases- shows what has happened in the past, and helps inform how future decisions can be made

  • look at previous court decisions fromthe past and use them to help inform the decisions about the current case in front of them

    • unless there is a big change- ie. in 2001 corporal punishment became ilegal, so case law rhat used corporal punishment could not longer be used for ifnormation by a judge trying to determine the best outcome for a case

talk about the structure of legal systems in canada

• supreme court- federal and final court of appeal

• provincial and territorial courts- superior court is highest level in the provincial system

• tribunals- not a part of the court system, but play a vital role in resolving issues

  • most likely to see as a teacher via the teaching commission- this happened in 2022- the tribunal used to be run by the ATA and other teachers would determine if stuff was against the code of conduct, but now it is part of the provincial gov and is made up of community members

who decides how legislation will work in practice

the courts

talk about lower arbitrition/court panels

lower court/arbitration panels can be appealed to the next level. in education that means that commission decisions can be appealed in provincial court

when is the last time you can appeal a court decision

federal supreme court- they have the final say

what tells you how specxific laws should be interpreted, and are these subject to change over time?

• court decisions tell you how specific legislation is to be understood in practice

• words and common meanings/practices become very important when decisions are made

• menaing of laws can evolve over time and context via judgements

  • sometimes a very big leapp will change the fundamental enforcement of a law (ie. corporal punishment)

education can be understoof as a…

legislative portfolio

teachers are accountable to… (list 7 thing)

• constitution of 1867 (federal)

• charter of rights and freedoms 1982 (federal)

• education act from 2023 (provincial)

• professional codes of conduct for professionals (provincial)

• teaching competency standards (provincial)

• health and safety bylaw (municipal)

• school board policies (municipal, adapted frrom provincial)- ie. ai use

what act explained language rights in canada

constitution act/BNA act- enshrined that there are english rigths and french rights, which has been exapnded to inlude indg language rights and other language rights. also enshrines that there will be both public and catholic schools which is why there is a dual system (sct 93)

what is problematic about the nonwithstanding clause

• the charter of rigthd and freedos changes how legislation was enacted over time, ebcuse we had to consider peoples rights and freedoms everytime legislation was enacted and enforced

  • ie. the notwithhstanding cause is problematic because it can be used to limit individual rights and freedoms

why are we all treaty people

because treaties were negotiated between indg and non indg peopel

what did the indian act do in the legal system

indian act took away trad. gov systems and iimposed a chief and council sysstem, and a pass system which wouldnt let people off of the reserves withouut permission, prevented them from hiring lawyers, etc.

what is unceded land

land where no indg treaties were made

t or f- treaties follow provincial borders

treaties are not bound by provnicial borders- treaty 6 crosses alberta and sask. into manitoba

what is problematric about how treaties have been interpreted, and how does this relate to reconciliation

• supposed ot be upheld in the traditional spirit, but we have to make sure this is how ti is upheld- not being upheld like it is today where the federal gov will only pay for kids education if they are on traditional reserve land

• part of reconciliation is to honor the treaties as integral to canadian law

what treaty area are we in

treaty 7

what 3 legal systems have been combined ot make the current canadian legal system

english, french, and indigenous

who creates, who enforces, and who enlivens laws

created by elected politicianms, enforced by police, enlivened by courts

what governs our relatinoships with eachother and our acceptable public behavior

legislation

how do we avoid legislative pitfalls in education

by making thoughtful decisions in classroom based on evidence and court rulings, we can avoiid legidlative pitfalls

what makes us unique

opinions

what type of profession is teaching

a moral and ethical one

what are the core values of education

core values are honestt, fairness, compassion, respect, patience, respect, iimpartiality, care and dedication

who provides a model of appropriate behavior, speech and dialogue for students

teachers

where are expected teaching ethics stated

the professional code of conduct

decision making is like an …

iceberg- lots of things go into it

4 drivers of decisions (maybe need to rewatch video?)

• unconscious thoughts

  • minds process tons of info fast via heuristics- these are like mental shortcuts- can lead to distortions to thinking (ie. biases)

• unthinking custom and practice- society, families, culture, etc. alll have sets of beliefs about whats right and wrong- can easily absorb them without ever stopping to ask if we agree with them or if hey are valud

• ethical decision making profile- ie. some people focus on relationships, some focus on outcomes, etc.- can lead us to fail to consider other ethical issues

• reflective practice- most important- this is conscious decision making- considers context and is guided byy values and principles, and exercises our imagination by thinking about what is possible

  • we are driven more heavily by the first 3 drivers of decision making

• ethics- consicous practice of making decisions- important because so much of our decision making is unconscious- if we cannt id. our bad decisions it is hard to make good ones

talk about a job vs a profession

• job- series of predictable tasks

  • employer/employee

  • decisions controlled externally

  • limited autonomy

  • rouotine

• profession

  • disciplinary knowledge

  • subjective and idscretionary judgement

  • situational sensitivity and autonomy

  • professional instinct or intuition

  • decision capital- up to you to decide what is most important, what order we do it in, and how kids will be assessed fairly

    • conduct and competence frameworks unperpin ethical and moral responsibilities (ie. TQS, code of conduct, etc.)