Research
Math Education Faculty Member Receives NAE Fellowship
Laura Bofferding, faculty member in Mathematics Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. This program supports early career scholars working in critical areas of education research. This postdoctoral fellowship funds proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education. The program also develops the careers of its recipients through professional development activities involving National Academy of Education members. Professor Bofferding's project will extend over two years as she investigates first-graders’ (year 1) and kindergartners’ (year 2) developing understanding of negative numbers in the context of a board game. Results will add to our understanding of the development of numerical concepts, particularly if children can learn negative number concepts while learning positive number concepts or only after developing positive number knowledge.
Special Education Faculty Member Receives Kinley Trust Award
Emily Bouck, faculty member in Special Education in the Department of Educational Studies, has been awarded a one-year grant from the Clifford B. Kinley Trust at Purdue. The project entitled, "Promoting Independence through Assistive Technology," is aimed at improving the independence of individuals with cognitive disabilities by using assistive technology to help with everyday tasks such as grocery shopping. The review panel praised the proposal for its excellent use of single subject design and clear methods connected to outcomes. The Clifford B. Kinley Trust was established in 1978 to fund research which uses a social science perspective to explore methods for improving the human condition. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis.
Researchers Receive University Incentive Grant
Helen Patrick and Youli Mantzicopoulos, faculty members in the educational psychology program in the Department of Educational Studies, are the investigators on an Emerging Research Incentive Grant from Purdue's Office of the Vice President for Research. The Emerging Research Incentive Grant program, a new initiative of the OVPR, awarded grants through a university-wide competition for the first time this year. The project proposed by Professors Patrick and Mantzicopoulos, "Evaluting Effective Teaching with a Content-Independent Measure: Does Subject Matter Make a Difference in Kindergarten?," will address critical questions about the evaluation of teacher effectiveness, a topic at the forefront of national and state debates about education. The project will run through August, 2015.
Chemistry Educator Receiving Award
Mary Nakhleh, recently retired chemistry educator who was jointly appointed in the Departments of Chemistry and Curriculum and Instruction, is being honored as the recipient of the 2013 American Chemical Society Award for Achievement in Research for the Teaching and Learning of Chemistry. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to experimental research that have increased our understanding of chemical pedagogy and led to the improved teaching and learning of chemistry. The award will be made at the ACS National Awards Ceremony and Banquet onTuesday, April 9th in New Orleans.
Faculty Member to Work with Computer Science
Aman Yadav, faculty member in educational psychology in the Department of Educational Studies, is receiving a Faculty Fellowship for Study in a Second Discipline from Purdue's Office of the Provost. The program offers faculty members the opportunity to extend their scholarship through a new area of study that complements their major area of teaching and research. Professor Yadav is a Co-PI of the CS4EDU project, an NSF-funded initiative focused on preparing secondary teachers to teach computer science. The fellowship will allow him to extend his collaborations with the Department of Computer Science on computer science education.
Purdue to Host Bejamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute
Anatoli Rapoport, faculty member in social studies education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, will direct the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute with funding from the U.S. Department of State. Participants in the summer institute will be 16-18 year old teenagers from the United States and Europe who are interested in learning about international relations, diplomacy, international cooperation, democratic development, democratic citizenship, civil society, the role of media, public policy, and community service. The institute will feature academically rigorous and culturally diverse content; opportunities for participants to meet with prominent scholars and practitioners in the areas of diplomacy, media and communication, civic education, and science; and opportunities to develop socially meaningful projects that they will be able to implement in their schools or communities. The institute will run from the end of June to the end of July, 2013. Collaborators include the Brian Lamb School of Communication, the Department of Political Science, the Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship, and the Tippecanoe School Corporation.
Teacher Education Innovation Grant Awarded
Luciana de Oliveira, faculty member in literacy and language education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is the recipient of a new College of Education Teacher Innovation Grant for 2013. The project is entitled "Teaching Diverse Students in the Secondary Content Classroom."
Service Learning Grant Awarded
Lynn Bryan, faculty member in science education and Director of the Center for Research and Engagement in Science and Mathematics Education, was one of five faculty members campuswide selected to receive a Service Learning Faculty Development Grant to incorporate service-learning projects and curriculum into their 2013 courses. The award recognizes dedication and commitment to service-learning and contribution to scholarly work. More...
Faculty Work Cited
College of Education faculty members were cited for their work in the 2011-12 Office of the Vice President for Research Annual Report. Those highlighted included Luciana de Oliveira, faculty member in literacy and language education, who was cited for her work with the English Language Learning licensure program; and Oliver Wendt, faculty member in special education and speech, language and hearing sciences, who was cited for developing an app to help autistic students communicate. To view the full annual report, click here.
Faculty Members Honored for Research
College of Education faculty members were honored at the university's annual Excellence in Research Awards Dinner held on November 14, 2012. Recipients of research awards in the College of Education were recognized including (top row, from left to right): Luciana de Oliveira (Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award: Scholarship of Engagement, Department of Curriculum and Instruction), JoAnn Phillion (Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award: Research-based Scholarship, Department of Curriculum and Instruction), Marcia Gentry (Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award: Professor Level, Department of Educational Studies), Emily Bouck (Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award: Associate Professor Level, Department of Educational Studies), and Aman Yadav (Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award: Assistant Professor Level, Department of Educational Studies). Seeds for Success Awards, given in recognition of obtaining a sponsored funding award of $1 million or more, were awarded to (bottom row, left to right): Brenda Capobianco, James Lehman, John Staver, and Johannes Strobel.
Faculty Members Receive Equipment Grants
College of Education faculty members were awarded equipment grants for non-laboratory research equipment as part of a new iniitiative from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Those receiving awards included: Susan Britsch; Ayse Ciftci; Judith Lysaker; Youli Mantzicipolous and Helen Patrick; Jill Newton, Laura Bofferding, Signe Kastberg, and Rachael Kenney; JoAnn Phillion; Ala Samarapugavan, Yukiko Maeda, Aman Yadav, Carrie Wachter-Morris, Jean Peterson, and Helen Patrick; Heather Servaty-Seib; Christopher Slater, Aman Yadav, and Carrie Wachter-Morris; and Oliver Wendt.
Primary Students' Development of Science Conceptual Understanding Focus of New Study
Ala Samarapungavan, faculty member in educational psychology and head of the Department of Educational Studies, is the PI of a new grant project from the National Science Foundation entitled, "Modeling in Primary Grades (MPG): Science Learning through Content Rich Inquiry." Lynn Bryan, faculty member in science education in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Physics, Yukiko Maeda, faculty member in educational psychology, and Nicholas Giordano, head of Physics, are project Co-PIs. This exploratory project examines how teachers of second grade students scaffold the development of student conceptual models and their understanding of the nature of scientific models and modeling processes in physical science conceptual areas associated with the particulate nature of matter. The project will employ a mixed methodological research design that incorporates rich qualitative data collection and analysis combined with a quasi-experimental design that examines student learning across a treatment and comparison group with the same curricular materials but with differing support for teachers to engage students in disciplinary productive discussions about the science phenomena that they are studying.
Special Education Researcher's Work Impacting Math Education
Yan Ping Xin, faculty member in special education in the Department of Educational Studies, has been invited to contribute to a new two-volume work on research into practice in mathematics education being developed at the request of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The book will feature summaries of key articles published in the Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, and Dr. Xin's 2008 article, “The Effect of Schema-Based Instruction in Solving Mathematics Word Problems: An Emphasis on Prealgebraic Conceptualization of Multiplicative Relations,” was chosen for inclusion. Her work on conceptual model-based problem solving in mathematics will also be showcased in a forthcoming book from Sense Publishers authored by Dr. Xin, Conceptual Model-Based Problem Solving: Teach Students with Learning Difficulties to Solve Math Problems.
Measurement Researcher Focusing on Pedagogical Feedback Tool in Engineering
Yukiko Maeda, faculty member in educational psychology and research methodology in the Department of Educational Studies, is Co-PI of an NSF-funded project focusing on the implementation of a multidimensional assessment tool in undergraduate engineering courses and its impacts on both instructor pedagogical expertise and student learning outcomes. In the project, about 2500 undergraduate engineering students will use the Global Real-time Assessment Tool for Teaching Enhancement (G-RATE) to provide pedagogical feedback to their course instructors. The research will investigate whether the feedback from the G-RATE improves the development of instructors' pedagogical expertise and student learning outcomes. The project PI is Monica Cox, professor of Engineering Education. More...
Synergy Grants Awarded
College of Education Synergy Grants for 2012-13 were awarded to several College of Education faculty members who are working with school-based colleagues. Synergy grants support research and development projects that strengthen preparatory education, improve the learning of P-12 students, and create synergistic partnerships between Purdue faculty and P-12 school personnel. This year's winners of synergy grants include: Luciana de Oliveira, faculty member in English language learning in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Kerry Hoffman, director of the Center for Literacy Education and Research; Tara Star Johnson, faculty member in English Education in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and English; Kathy Obenchain and Nadine Dolby, faculty mmbers in social studies and curriculumn studies respectively in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; and Melanie Shoffner, faculty member in English Education in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and English.
Faculty Member Named Community of Service-Learning Fellow
JoAnn Phillion, professor of curriculum studies, has been selected to be a 2012 Community of Service-Learning Faculty Fellow. The program is sponsored by the Office of the Associate Vice President for Engagement, the Service Engagement Advisory Board and the Center for Instructional Excellence. A total of 44 fellows have been selected since the program began in 2004. The program is competitive, and fellows are selected based on their experience with service-learning courses and potential for providing leadership and stewardship for service-learning to the campus while being supported by the Center for Instructional Excellence. More...
Awards and Recognitions
Faculty members in the College of Education were honored for contributions to research through university, college, and department awards given in spring 2012. Brenda Capobianco (left), associate professor of science education, was recognized as a university faculty scholar. Marcia Gentry (second from left), professor of gifted, talented, and creative studies, is the recipient of the Dean's Award for Outstanding Faculty Scholarship, which is given in recognition of exceptional scholarly contributions. Dr. Gentry was also the recipient of the EDST 2011-2012 Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award for full professors. JoAnn Phillion (center), professor of curriculum studies, is the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Award, which is given in recognition of sustained and significant contributions to graduate education. Dr. Phillion is also the recipient of the 2011-12 C&I Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award for Research Based Scholarship. In Educational Studies, Emily Bouck (second from right), associate professor of special education, received the EDST 2011-2012 Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award for associate professors, and Aman Yadav (right), assistant professor of educational psychology, received the EDST 2011-2012 Outstanding Faculty Discovery Award for assistant professors.
Faculty Member Collaborating on New Learning Technology
Bill Watson, assistant professor of learning design and technology, is working with the Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) organization to help shift the educational system to learner-centered engagement and skill building, as opposed to knowledge delivery through traditional lectures, in part with new technology to support the change. Kyle Bowen, ITaP’s director of Informatics, is partnering with Watson to create a personalized educational system, which will provide four primary pieces for use in driving student learning: record keeping, planning, instruction and assessment. The goal is to move beyond current learning software to create a system that helps students define their own learning paths and keep track of their progress. The system also would incorporate the idea of measuring student success based on mastery of specific and pre-defined skills. More...
ELL Faculty Member Received Early Career Award
Luciana de Oliveira, associate professor of literacy and language education, has been awarded the AERA Bilingual Education Research-SIG: Early Career Award for 2012. This award was presented at the Bilingual Education Research Meeting on Friday, April 13 during the annual AERA conference in Vancouver. Professor de Oliveira specializes in research and practice related to English language learners (ELLs).
Faculty Members Honored at Awards Dinner
College of Education faculty members were honored at the Excellence in Research Awards Dinner for fiscal year 2011, held at the university on November 1, 2011. Recognized for winning departmental outstanding faculty discovery awards were: Anatoli Rapoport (EDCI), Marcia Gentry (EDST - Professor), Yan Ping Xin (EDST - Associate Professor), and Emily Bouck (EDST - Assistant Professor). Recognized with Seeds for Success Awards, given in recognition of receiving a grant award of $1 million or more, were: Brenda Capobianco, Peggy Ertmer, James Lehman, Sidney Moon, and Johannes Strobel.
Providing Access to Advanced Math for Visually Impaired Students
Emily Bouck, faculty member in Special Education in the Department of Educational Studies, has been awarded a two-year grant from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation through its Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Children with Disabilities program. The goal of the project is to refine and evaluate the use of digital text readers, specifically MathSpeak-based technology, to support secondary students with visual impairments in using mathematics in the algebra classroom. The project aims to provide these students with access to standard algebra, improve their independence in mathematics, and improve their attitudes toward algebra.
Defining Global Engineering Competencies
Ayse Ciftci, faculty member in Counseling Psychology in the Department of Educational Studies, is Co-PI of an NSF grant project focused on building a theoretical framework for defining outcomes-based global engineering competencies. The goal of the project is to develop foundational knowledge about the complexities and multi-dimensionality of the term "global competence" so that a shared understanding of global competence in STEM education can be developed. The project PI is P.K. Imbrie in Engineering Education, and Rabi Mohtar in Agricultural and Biological Engineering is also a Co-PI.
Counseling Researcher Focuses on Grief and Loss
Heather Servaty-Seib, faculty member in counseling psychology in the Department of Educational Studies, studies the various ways in which people deal with grief and loss. Her work was featured in a recent Purdue Today article. Using a framework of gains and losses, she aims to get people thinking and talking about death, dying, grief and loss on individual, institutional and societal levels. Through research and student engagement via service-learning, she looks at the multidimensional aspects of grief -- emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, and spiritual. More...
Researchers to Investigate Algebra Teaching Approaches
Jill Newton, faculty member in mathematics education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Yukiko Maeda, faculty member in educational psychology and research methods in the Department of Educational Studies, have been awarded a 3-year NSF REESE grant entitled, "Preparing to Teach Algebra (PTA): A Study of Teacher Education." The project will investigate how state-level policies related to algebra and recently released algebra expectations are addressed in secondary mathematics teacher education programs. The project will seek to understand how opportunities for developing knowledge for teaching algebra are provided in different teacher preparation programs using a mixed-methods approach.
Gifted Education Researcher Among Most Prolific
Marcia Gentry, professor of gifted education in the Department of Educational Studies, has been identified as one of the most prolific researchers in the field in a recently published study. An article by David Yun Dai, Joan Ann Swanson, and Hongyu Cheng, published in Gifted Child Quarterly (2011, 55(2), 126-138), reported on a study that surveyed more than 1200 empirical studies on giftedness, gifted education, and creativity from 1998-2010. The most prolific researchers and research teams were identified, and Professor Gentry ranked 9th overall with 11 publications during that period.
SLED Math Science Partnership Project Launched
Brenda Capobianco, faculty member in science education and courtesy faculty member in engineering education, is Co-PI and project co-leader of a new National Science Foundation Math Science Partnership project entitled, "Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED)." The project focuses on the use of engineering design as a vehicle for teaching science in grades 3 through 6. Partnering in the project are Purdue's Colleges of Education, Engineering, Science, and Technology; the Discovery Learning Research Center; and the Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Taylor Community, and Plymouth schools. The project will span five years and impact about 200 teachers and 5000 students. More...
Project Focusing on Energy Concepts for Rural Schools
Peg Ertmer, faculty member in learning design and technology, is part of a team leading a new National Science foundation funded project. The project, entitled "A Sustainable Energy Concepts Professional Development Model for Rural Schools and Its Extension to a Systemic Approach for Integrating STEM Research and Education," is under the direction of Provost Timothy D. Sands, Gabriela C. Weaver, Director of the Discovery Learning Research Center, and Maureen McCann, Director of the Energy Center. The project is designed to increase interest and engagement in STEM disciplines by providing professional development to help rural teachers in Indiana to integrate sustainable energy topics in the classroom.
Researcher Receives Award for Article
Jean Peterson, professor of counseling and development, has received a 2010 Mensa Education & Research Foundation / Mensa International, Ltd. Award for Excellence in Research for her article "A Longitudinal Study of Negative Life Events, Stress and School Experiences of Gifted Youth," which appeared in Gifted Child Quarterly in 2009. More...
Purdue Education Researchers Awarded High Honor
Helen Patrick, Panayota (Youli) Mantzicopoulos, and Ala Samarapungavan, faculty members in the educational psychology program, have received the 2010 Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) Award for publishing the outstanding article in Volume 46 (2009) of JRST. Their article featured work from the Scientific Literacy Project, an initiative supported by a 3-year, U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences grant. This project investigated kindergarten students' learning of scientific inquiry processes and was cited in the March 2010 issue of Scientific American . For more information about the project, see www.purduescientificliteracyproject.org.
Gifted Education Researcher Awarded IES Grant
Marcia Gentry, faculty member in gifted education, is the principal investigator on a new grant from the U. S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences that will experimentally investigate the effects of scaling up the Total School Cluster Grouping (TSCG) Model. TSCG is a research-based, total-school application of cluster grouping combined with differentiation, focused on meeting the needs of students identified as gifted, while also improving the learning and achievement of all students. Research has shown that TSCG improves achievement and increases the numbers of students identified as gifted who come from economically disadvantaged families and from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. For more information, see geri.education.purdue.edu/research/grants.html.
Science Educator Elected AAAS Fellow
Anita Roychoudhury, faculty member in the science education program, was elected as a Fellow in the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was recognized at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego in February, 2010. See www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/1218fellows.shtml.
Education Faculty Assisting with NIH Grant
Education faculty members Marcia Gentry, Becky Mann, and John Staver are members of the leadership team of a new NIH-funded project directed by Timothy Ratliff and Sandra Amass in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Entitled Fat Dogs and Coughing Horses: Animal Contributions towards a Healthier Citizenry, the project will develop, deliver, and assess hands-on, problem-based learning curricular materials for students in grades 3, 6, and 9 that focus on health issues that affect both people and animals and how animal models play an important role in biomedical research. The project is designed to both inform and excite schoolchildren about careers in health science research and to encourage activities for better health. See http://www.vet.purdue.edu/engagement/sepa/.
Grant to Prepare Faculty to Use Technologies in Special Education
Emily Bouck and Teresa Taber Doughty, faculty members in special education, have received a grant from the U. S. Department of Education to support the Technologies in Special Education (TISE) Scholar Program. This project will prepare doctoral students in special education for academic positions in higher education focusing on technologies in special education. TISE Scholars will be funded for doctoral study for two years and will complete apprenticeships in teaching, research, and service.
Preparing Secondary Teachers to Teach Computer Science
Education faculty members James Lehman and Aman Yadav are Co-PIs of a National Science Foundation grant project, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science, focused on preparing educators to teach computer science at the high school level. Dubbed CS4EDU: Computer Science for Education, the project seeks to address shortages of computer scientists by contributing to a national effort to get computer science taught in 10,000 high schools by 10,000 well-qualified teachers by 2015. The project is developing a computer science teaching endorsement program, including a new CS teaching methods course, that will be open to all secondary education majors at Purdue. See cs4edu.cs.purdue.edu.
Understanding Student's Conceptions of Climate Change
Anita Roychoudhury, faculty member in science education, is the principal investigator of an NSF-funded grant project, "Making Sense of Global Warming and Climate Change: Model of Student Learning via Collaborative Research." This research project is developing a model of student learning in the complex domain of climate change and global warming. These topics require an understanding of climate science and underlying physics concepts yet the coherence between the two areas is rarely a focus in K-12 school level science. Science teachers from four school districts and 500 students from their classrooms (7th and 8th grades) are participating in the project. These teachers are collaborating with the Purdue research team in developing, modifying, and implementing lessons in middle school classrooms.
Project Helping Students to Learn to Multiply
Yan Pin Xin, associate professor of special education, is the principal investigator of a 5-year National Science Foundation funded project that is studying how students with learning difficulties develop multiplicative reasoning and using this knowledge to develop a computer system that models students' evolving conceptions and suggests tasks to help students achieve higher levels of performance. Entitled Nurturing Multiplicative Reasoning in Students with Learning Disabilities in a Computerized Conceptual-Modeling Environment, this research and development project will augment teaching practice by providing the tools to analyze student conceptions and enact best-practice on an individual, student-needs basis. The goal of the project is to diminish the gap between students with learning disabilities/difficulties and their normal achieving peers.