04-07
Curriculum and Instruction Professor Wins Texas Award for Instructional Improvement Research [photo]
Dr. Caroline R. Pryor, Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction was among those honored by the Top Honors Award: Excellence in Quality Enhancement at the recent 7th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas. The award was shared with fellow investigators Drs. Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt & Stephen Balfour, of Texas A&M University. The award was announced by Loraine Phillips, Ph.D. Interim Assessment Director, Office of Institutional Assessment, TAMU.
The honored project is a chemistry department effort to improve the instruction of teaching assistants (TAs). It used a variety of research approaches to investigate beliefs about TA instruction held by students enrolled in first and second semester chemistry courses. One of these approaches was pioneered by Dr. Pryor, the Philosophy of Education Scale (Pryor, C.R. 2004). Another was the theory of reasoned action about which she has also written. Dr. Pryor presented preliminary results of the latter investigation in a paper presented at the recent American Educational Research Association meeting in Chicago.
04-07
A Cat and a Goat in a Boat?... [photo]
Students in Dr. Vicki Scott’s SPE 417 Reading and Language Arts Methods class went on a field trip to Midway Elementary. The fourteen college students spent the day in Mrs. Linda Pape’s kindergarten class. Students had prepared literacy bags that included a texturized children’s book, a game to teach phonemic awareness, an activity for print concepts, and a dramatic play activity. The kindergarteners took turns working with each college student. The children’s favorite activities included “rescuing animals”, “riding in a boat dressed up like a cat and goat”, “blowing bubbles”, “weaving a spider web” and “helping Corduroy the bear find his button”.
03-07
MASLI Grant Teachers Present at State Capitol [photo]
On March 8, State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Christopher Koch celebrated the successes of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Mathematics and Science Leadership Initiative Grant (MASLI) at the State Capitol. SIUE’s Elementary Education Program faculty in mathematics and science education have once again facilitated a partnership between SIUE, 30 Collinsville and Granite City School District teachers, and staff from Madison County Regional Office of Education.
Drs. Stephen Marlette, Barbara O’Donnell and Ann Taylor, all from the School of Education, brought together a team of subject experts from the metro east region using their annual award of $240,000 from the Department of Education’s Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant which was awarded competitively by the Illinois State Board of Education. Their team includes: Joan Barrett, a math consultant from the ROE #4; Army Corp of Engineers consultants; Carol Ryan, museum coordinator at the National Great Rivers Museum; and the following faculty from SIUE: Dr. Jim Zhou, a civil engineer from the School of Engineering, and Dr. Kathleen Fink, a mathematician, Dr. Elaine AbuSharbain, a biologist, and Denise Plunk, a science resource specialist from the College of Arts and Sciences.
The MASLI grant provided teachers with an inquiry-based two week summer institute to strengthen their content knowledge in geometry and environmental science. During the 2006-2007 school year, they applied the math and science concepts from the summer institute in their teaching. Teachers worked cooperatively in groups to improve their practices through an action research process called lesson study. The goal of this process is to strengthen students’ knowledge and their teachers’ pedagogy in math and science.
Teachers from two Collinsville schools represented MASLI at the March 8 Capitol Showcase. Patsy Conway and Nina Maddox give details about the Collinsville Intermediate School lesson study project entitled, “Water Works,” in which students created a ‘water web’ to illustrate the interdependence among water users and producers. Annette Heth, Donna Moody and Sherry Piffner from Collinsville’s Summit Elementary School fielded questions about their project entitled, “Tetrominoes Cover-up,” a lesson study which helps student better understand the geometric concepts of slides, flips, and turns.
Money from federal legislation through the No Child Left Behind program mandates the formation of mathematics and science partnerships throughout states, said Barbara O’Donnell, associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the SIUE School of Education.
“During the past three years, the partnerships have provided outstanding opportunities for professional development in mathematical inquiry and problem-solving, scientific inquiry and technological design,” she said. “The partnerships have emerged from local districts, colleges and universities and a wide diversity of science, technology, engineering and mathematics leaders from our local communities.”
“At SIUE the partnership has afforded an additional benefit. Many of the teachers involved in the grant serve as cooperation teachers for SIUE’s Elementary Education Program. This provides teachers with an insight into the program and gives us common ground: providing the best instruction for the students in their classrooms as well as their teacher candidates.”
03-07
Department of Educational Leadership Offers Certificate in Web-Based Learning
The Department of Educational Leadership is pleased to announce a graduate-level certificate program in web-based learning. This certificate offers students an opportunity to gain expertise in the areas of designing and developing web-based learning environments.
“More and more, corporations and even non-profit organizations are seeing the need to train their employees, customers, and patrons using web-based resources,” says Dr. Wayne Nelson, Department Chairperson of Educational Leadership. “Many of these corporations want to hire experienced educators who can take their training programs more strongly into any-time-any-place and learning-on-demand environments. We think that this certificate program will prepare professionals for just that opportunity.”
The curriculum for the certificate program combines a study of instructional systems design with project management and media-development skills, such as web-page design, digital video, course management systems, and other areas. “These are the products and processes that corporations are using on a daily basis,” said Dr. David Knowlton, a faculty member in Instructional Technology.
The faculty members who teach the courses in this certificate program have practical experiences in major corporations, like Anheuser-Busch, Time Warner Communications, and A. G. Edwards. Therefore, students receive practical knowledge and experiences that will equip them for the information age marketplace.
For more information, contact the Department of Educational Leadership at 618.650.3277 or contact Dr. David Knowlton at 618.650.3948.
03/07
Dr. Bette S. Bergeron appointed as Dean of the School of Education
Dr. Bette S. Bergeron has been appointed as Dean of the School of Education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The appointment, pending Board of Trustees approval, is the result of a national search led by Search Committee Chair, Dr. Curt Lox, Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Education. Dr. Bergeron will bring her strength of experience in programmatic management, collaboration, team-building and commitment to development of faculty, staff and students to her new position at SIUE on July 1, 2007.
Prior to her SIUE appointment, Dr. Bergeron has been the Associate Dean and Professor of Education at the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation at the Polytechnic Campus of Arizona State University in Mesa, Arizona. Dr. Bergeron has served ASU since 2000 having been responsible for fiscal management, curriculum, personnel, strategic planning, accreditation, program review and development.
Prior to this current position, Dr. Bergeron was on the faculty of Purdue University Calumet from 1990-1999 rising to the rank of Professor and Chair of Teacher Education.
Dr. Bergeron received the M.S. and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University and the B.S. in Elementary Education at the University of Maine. Dr. Bergeron’s scholarly focus is on applied research, particularly in the development of quality teacher education programs and their evaluation. A second line of research is in the area of early literacy instruction and disseminating best practices to both preservice and inservice educators. Dr. Bergeron has published and presented over 75 papers during the last decade and has partnered with colleagues to obtain substantive external funding for numerous academic programs to support academic success of diverse populations, baccalaureate completion, collaborations with community colleges, and integrating technology with instruction.
03-07
Talking mathematics: Collaborative work across three institutions presented at Qualitative Research Conference
For the past 6 years, a group of five educators have been meeting informally to talk about how they can encourage their students to talk more fluently about mathematics. This group includes teachers from 2nd grade through college, and spans the Mississippi with a St Louis Public school teacher and a reading expert from Florissant Valley Community College joining with two SIUE School of Education professors and an Edwardsville public school teacher.
Drs. Ann Taylor and Barbara O’Donnell are mathematics teacher educators in SIUE's School of Education. Ms. Amanda Matthiesen and Ms. Carol Kohlfeld are 2nd grade public school teachers from St Louis Public Schools (MO) and Edwardsville School District (IL) respectively. Dr Margaret Powell is a literacy expert at Florissant Valley Community College.
Through their presentation “Voices Count, Counting Voices,” the group presented the evolving story of their informal collegial dialogue group turned formal at the recent 6th Annual Qualitative Research Conference at the University of Missouri, St Louis. They shared how five teaching practitioners met for dinner and discovered networking possibilities. They began visiting each other’s classrooms, observing the learning and dialogue, gathering data, then engaging in their own conversation about the mathematical talk they have heard. Their emerging research questions include: What role can a collegial dialogue group play in improving instruction and thus classroom learning in math classes and math education? Can we identify and trace connections between professional sharings through dialogue and changes in our teaching? How do the various settings in which we work (2nd grade suburban; 2nd grade inner city; community college, 4 year state university) focus the lenses through which we understand each other as fellow educators? What can we learn as we dialogue across the boundaries between our current roles as two elementary teachers, two mathematics teacher educators, and one developmental reading specialist? Their presentation embodied action research which supports the shifting responsiveness to the practitioners’ contexts and voices.
03-07
Dr. Anthony Traxler to Retire
Professor Anthony Traxler is retiring after what has truly been an illustrious career. His retirement comes after a distinguished 38-year career at SIUE as a Professor of Psychology and Program Director of the Gerontology Graduate Program. full story
03-07
Psychology Student Wins Third Prize at Paper Competition !
Erin Solomon, a psychology senior and Psychology Club President, was selected to receive the third prize in this year's Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Paper Competition. She will be recognized at the PKP Initiation and Awards Ceremony on March 23rd at the Morris University Center. Her paper was titled "Conservativism and Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help." Dr. Andy Pomerantz was her faculty mentor on this paper. Erin plan to pursue a Ph.D. in social psychology.
01-07
Student in Special Education Makes a Perfect Score on State Test!
Pam Tyler, a graduate student in Special Education, made a perfect score of 300 on the Illinois State Learning Behavior Specialist II (LBS II) test in curriculum adaptations. Pam completed the LBS II program designed to provide advanced training in the area of curriculum adaptations for certified special education teachers who currently hold a LBS I certificate and took the state test in November. The program was designed to meet the demand for experienced teachers trained to work collaboratively with the general education programs to include students with disabilities. The LBS II test consisted of a five hour essay test in which candidates responded to case studies involving adaptations that were made to educational programs for students with disabilities.
11-06
Children's Museum Makeover
Approximately 25 Psychology Club students devoted their time and energy on the evening of November 28 to transform the Edwardsville Children's Museum for its "Winter Celebrations" theme. The Club removed all of the museum's regular exhibits and set up nine exhibits featuring winter celebrations from all over the world. Examples of the winter celebrations include the Vietnamese Tet, English Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, and the Korean Daeborum.
11-06
24th Annual Hospice Conference
Over 300 people attended the 24th Annual Hospice Conference presented by the School of Education's Gerontology Program. The morning plenary session featured G. J. Westbrook, Clinical Director of Palliative Care, Pain Management & Bereavement Service at Valley Presbyterian Hospital, Van Nuys, California. The four afternoon workshop topics covered Methadone, Establishing and Maintaining a Peaceful Environment for the Actively Dying, Healing Touch, and Calming Difficulty Family Situations.
10-06
Research Colloquium
Over 100 students attended a research colloquium presented on October 31 by Dr. Michael Young. Dr. Young is the director of the Brain and Cognitive Science program in the Psychology Department at SIU Carbondale. He discussed his research on judgment and decision making. The talk was hosted by the Psychology Club, and Dr. Young was a guest of Dr. Jon Pettibone, and Assistant Professor at SIUE. Dr. Pettibone and Dr. Young both conducted research in the growing area of cognitive science.