Department of Educational Foundations

College of Education
University of Saskatchewan
28 Campus Drive
Saskatoon
SK S7N 0V6
Tuesday August 5
th
2014
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am delighted to write a letter of reference for Ms Ali Pravda as part of her portfolio.
I have known Ms Pravda since September 2012 and consider her to be a mature and capable young
woman, who would contribute a great deal to her chosen vocation of school teaching. She is
knowledgeable about the subject matters she will be required to teach as a secondary educator, and
understands the importance of trying different approaches to teaching and learning. Her own capacity
for thinking, reasoning, and growing enables Ms Pravda to nurture these characteristics in her students.
As someone who shows a real passion for ideas and their importance to the lives of students, she looks
for innovative and effective ways to enable others to learn.
Ms Pravda has been a student in two of my courses, the first of which was in the fall term of 2012, titled
Introduction to Education . She achieved a strong A grade, consistently demonstrating excellence
in her written and oral work. The second class, which took place in the winter term of 2014, was titled
Educational Thought and Values : Critical Perspectives and she achieved one of the highest A grades
among 38 students. Since this was a post-internship class, I could see strong evidence of considerable
growth and maturity in Ms Pravdas thinking and behaviour. Not only was she willing to share openly
her experiences of teaching with her colleagues, but she made valuable contributions to class
discussions and worked cooperatively with other students in small groups. She always kept well ahead
of the required reading, posing intelligent questions of the texts. When called upon to work
collaboratively on a class presentation, she guided the group in a process that led to a first-rate piece of
work that used a variety of media and visual aids, and she was clearly comfortable performing in front of
her peers.
While Ms Pravda was awarded good grades in both courses, this was not her primary interest. Rather,
she was motivated by a desire to know more about the theory and practice of education, recognizing
what some students missed; namely, that the ideas we discussed in class could help her become a
better teacher. As a result, I sent her a letter inviting her to become a graduate student in our
department because I recognized her potential for further study as integral to her professional
development.
Given her overall potentiality and demonstrated academic ability, I would rank Ms Pravda among the
top ten teacher candidates I have taught in 25 years of teaching at the University of Saskatchewan. I
have no hesitation in recommending her to you as someone capable of being a fine teacher and
worthwhile educator.
Yours sincerely,

Howard Woodhouse Ph.D. (Toronto),
Professor,
Department of Educational Foundations and Co-Director,
Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit.