Education

Around the College: Sept. 30, 2020

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Katerina Bodovski, associate professor of education (educational theory and policy), has a new article, “Parenting, Social Class, and the College Admissions Scandal,” which argues that the college admissions scandal of 2019 is more about parenting than the institution of higher education.

Maithreyi Gopalan, assistant professor of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies, was awarded a $25,000 fellowship from the American Education Research Association – Study of Deeper Learning (AERA-SDL). She will be funded for her proposed study: "Teacher Mindsets and Instructional Practices for Supporting Deeper Learning in High School Students."

David Guthrie, associate professor of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies, has a new book, "Dreaming Dreams for Christian higher education,” that was recently published through Falls City Press.

— This September, Charlie Hughes, professor emeritus of education, and Courtney Dexter, a Penn State special education graduate and currently an inclusion teacher in Dallas Independent School District and an adjunct faculty member at Southern Methodist University, developed and presented two webinars offered through the International Council for Exceptional Children, the largest special education professional organization in the world. These webinars are part of a new series focusing on identified “High Leverage Practices” considered critical for all teachers providing instruction for individuals with disabilities.

— A group of Penn State researchers led by Swaroop Ghosh, Joseph R. and Janice M. Monkowski Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, has been awarded the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division Best Paper award by the American Society for Engineering Education at the 2020 annual conference. Ghosh and his College of Engineering students and colleagues also collaborated with researchers in the College of Education, including Taylor Wood, graduate student; Matthew Johnson, assistant professor and research associate of education; Kathleen Mitchell Hill, assistant professor of education and director of the Penn State Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS); and Annmarie Ward, emerita director of CSATS. Learn more here.

— Andii Layton, a doctoral candidate in educational leadership, received the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center Research Award to Reduce Racism and Promote Antiracism to support her research on the connection between institutional racism, mental health and academic efficacy. The project is “The Link Between Institutional Racism, Mental Health, and Academic Efficacy.” Layton will also be presenting about the relationship between culturally relevant pedagogy and social justice at the Curriculum and Pedagogy Groups Annual Conference in October. In addition, she was recognized by the Critical Race Studies in Education Association for her paper, “Led by the Spirit: Being A Black Woman at A Predominantly White Institution.”

David McNaughton, professor of special education in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE), serves as the director of Training and Dissemination for the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (RERC on AAC), a national collaboration of researchers and engineers who conceptualize, research, develop and train people to use new technologies to support communication. RERC on AAC was recently granted a five-year, $4.6 million award from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) that will fund research, technology development, training and dissemination to assist people who cannot communicate through speech or writing. Learn more here. In addition, McNaughton, along with Salena Babb, a recent EPCSE doctoral graduate, Tracy Raulston, assistant professor of education in the Department of EPCSE, Joo-Young Lee, a doctoral candidate in special education, and Rachel Weintraub, a speech language pathologist in New York City who received her bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from Penn State, have a new paper, “The Effects of Social Skill Interventions for Adolescents With Autism: A Meta-Analysis,” in Remedial and Special Education.

Paul Morgan, professor of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies, and the rest of his team at the Center for Educational Disparities Research (CEDR) recently had their research cited in the Learning Disabilities Association of America’s (LDA) recent policy statement, “Core Principles: Disproportionality in Identification for Special Education.” The policy statement cites CEDR’s research finding that students of color are less likely than their white peers to be identified and to receive special education services.

— New research led by Hyung Joon Yoon, assistant professor of education (workforce education and development), reveals nine future-oriented Organization Development (OD) values and related behavioral indicators in the paper, “Organization Development Values From a Future-Oriented Perspective: An International Delphi Study” that was first published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (JABS) on Sept. 18. JABS is considered a premier journal in the OD field. The study involved an international group of 42 OD practitioners who practice in 58 countries. Yoon’s co-authors on the paper were Sasha Farley, who works for REI Systems Inc. in Sterling, Virginia, and Cesar Padilla, a doctoral candidate in workforce education and development.

Carlos Zalaquett, professor of education (counselor education), co-hosted and did the opening presentation for a conference, titled "The Intentional Responses to the COVID and Racism Pandemics and the Role of the Listening Skills Conference," sponsored by Coherent Digital. All the presentations are now available free as a professional service on Coherent Digital’s website. In addition, Zalaquett interviewed Martin La Roche, director of Mental Health Training in the Boston Children's Hospital at Martha Eliot and an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, about the treatment of children using a three-phases, cultural psychotherapy model. The interview is available to view here.

"Around the College" highlights accomplishments by faculty, staff and students in the College of Education, including publications; research presentations at conferences and workshops; and awards, grants and fellowships. Please share your news with us and your colleagues by emailing edrelations@psu.edu.

Last Updated October 7, 2020

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