This project is an extension of a larger initiative, Playful Learning Landscapes, which reimagines public spaces as hubs for play and learning. Previous work from this initiative transformed a bus-stop in West Philadelphia to provide playful learning opportunities to families as they wait for the bus.
The research team is also partnering with the Orange County Children and Families Commission, which collects data on Orange County children’s learning and development. This unique dataset will enable the researchers to examine the longitudinal impacts of a cluster of playful learning installations in a single neighborhood on children’s developmental outcomes compared to matched neighborhoods without these installations.
Distinguished Professors Greg Duncan (left), Jacquelynne Eccles (center), and Rubén Rumbaut (right) served as members of a mixed methods working group that issued a report presenting examples of exemplary mixed-methods research. The report - “Mixed Methods for Studies That Address Broad and Enduring Issues in Education Research” - presents recommendations on how empirical researchers can address important and enduring educational problems using research concepts, theories, designs, and methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines, intellectual traditions, and research paradigms. The report also details key features, challenges, ways to address the challenges, training, and issues of funding and publishing.
“Working group members shared an appreciation for the power of mixed methods to help answer a wide range of important educational research and policy questions,” Duncan said. “They also wanted to help spread the word.” The working group was sponsored by a Spencer Foundation small grant to Lois Weis (University at Buffalo), Margaret Eisenhart (University of Colorado Boulder), and Duncan. In total, 20 senior level scholars and funders contributed to the report. The report is available from Teachers College Record or for purchase: https://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=22741 and is summarized in the Mixed Methods Working Group Statement.
One of the long-term goals of the project is to build a replicable and scalable model, identifying the factors, including non-cognitive factors, that shape the success of this diverse population of students in higher education. LIFTED will, therefore, be both a support network and an engine of discovery, uncovering components of student success that will be key to building impactful programs for students in prisons and in classrooms on campus.
“We have designed the program specifically with sustainability and replicability in mind: to demonstrate a viable model that can be replicated across other UC campuses, effectively signaling a state-wide approach for California and the nation,” Gatlin-Nash said. LIFTED will also collaborate with the UCI student group, The Underground Scholars Initiative, which serves formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students. The organization works to create a prison-to-school pipeline through recruitment, retention, and advocacy and directly challenges stigmas associated with the students. Additional researchers on the project include:
LIFTED is one of 19 projects to be funded by UCI’s Advancing Equity in the Age of COVID-19 initiative. The initiative supports research that uses COVID-19 as a lens through which to explore “the uneven effects and realities of the pandemic on people, communities, societies, nation-states, state systems or global or planetary conditions.”
Kim directs the Language, Literacy, and Learning (L3) Lab. Her work has been supported by the Institute of Education Science, the U S. Department of Education, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
“My goal for the journal is to continue to solidify its leading impact and to contribute to the best science in the field of literacy, and to enhance dissemination to diverse audiences,” Kim said. Kim served as a reviewer for the journal and as a historian for the Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading. She also served as an associate editor for the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association, the Journal of Educational Psychology, for the past eight years. MAT Colloquium for Classroom Inquiry highlights student teaching experiences with distance learning8/10/2020
The UCI Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential held the program’s 2020 culminating activity, Colloquium for Classroom Inquiry, on July 27, via Zoom.
Multiple Subject Presentations
Single Subject Presentations Two Single Subject sessions focused on four topics: agency, knowing your students, rigor, and trauma.
"The MAT Class of 2020 demonstrated resilience, perseverance, and grit during an unprecedented year in education,” said Acacia Warren, single subject coordinator (right). “The panel topics offered an eclectic range of knowledge and expertise within each discipline. We are proud of the efforts made by each candidate to focus and finish their teacher preparation journey with informative and thought-provoking research presentations." About the School of Education’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)
The MAT program enables students to receive their master's in teaching degree and a single or multiple subject teacher credential in 14 months. Candidates experience a yearlong school site apprenticeship where they can apply the content-specific teaching practices and theories studied in their coursework. WRITE Center webinars provide latest information on hybrid and remote literacy instruction7/29/2020
Each of the four webinars featured a nationally recognized expert in their field.
Designing Purposeful and Engaging Arcs of Writing Instruction in an Era of Remote Learning Dr. Troy Hicks, Professor of English and Education at Central Michigan University Hicks engaged participants in discussing a series of specific guidelines to help teachers and students with digital writing. Topics included writing for multiple purposes and audiences, combining written words with multimedia, selecting topics that relate to material the students are learning, providing scaffolding and differentiated instruction where needed, using 21st century learning tools to assess student writing, and giving students multiple opportunities for low-stakes, ungraded writing. The webinar video, slides, and a follow-up blog are available here. Narrative Writing, Now More Than Ever Kelly Gallagher, Author, Teacher, Literacy Education Consultant Gallagher emphasized the importance of giving attention to student choice, student agency, and student voice. He recommended including assignments that allow students to write their memories and record their thoughts, feelings, and concerns in a journal. He included examples of writing assignments where students could build from large general topics to increasingly focused themes, use a story board to learn how components of a story could be reordered, then rewrite one of their stories by reordering the time frames. Resources from the webinar are available here. Writing Poetry to Read Poetry in Online Spaces Carol Jago, English Teacher, Author, Past-President of the National Council of Teachers of English Jago demonstrated techniques and provided lesson examples designed to engage students in reading, responding to, and analyzing poetry in online spaces. Teachers were encouraged to use children’s lived experiences during the current COVID-19 pandemic as inspiration for poetry writing assignments – “What did you do previously? What do you do now?” Jago provided poetry examples for each of her recommendations and emphasized the importance of students understanding the poet’s craft in order to develop intellectual stamina and fluency. Handouts, slides, video from the webinar, and poems subsequently submitted by webinar participants are available here. Designing Academic Writing Assignments for All Students, All Environments, All Classrooms Jim Burke, English teacher, Author Burke presented his model of design thinking for inclusive teaching of academic writing. Online or in-person, Burke recommended: develop an understanding of your students, observe where problems exist, generate ideas, build an assignment, test the assignment with feedback from students, and implement. He emphasized the importance of orienting students to the materials and methods they will be using. He reviewed numerous apps but cautioned against introducing new apps that require too much assistance. The webinar video, slides, and sample assignments are available here. This fall, the WRITE Center is offering three presentations in its fall Webinar Learning Series, A Time for Action: Centering Equity through Responsive Transformative, Healing Literacy Instruction. 9/14/2020 3:30-5:00 p.m. PST About More Than Words: Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Remote Writing Instruction David Kirkland, Distinguished Professor of English and Urban Education, New York University 9/21/2020 3:30-5:00 p.m. PST When Life Gives You Watermelons: Writing Communities, Race, and Transformative Justice Maisha T. Twinn, Chancellor’s Leadership Professor, School of Education, UC Davis 9/28/2020 3:30-5:00 p.m. (PST) Words as Balm: Civic Writing and Healing in Precarious Times Antero Garcia, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University Additional information and registration are available here. The WRITE Center is a national research center located at the University of California, Irvine dedicated to conducting research and sharing evidence-based practices for teaching writing in secondary classrooms. Directed by Professor Emerita Carol Booth Olson, the Center is supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Alumnus receives NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to research Latinx family influences on math motivation7/29/2020
“The most exciting part about this project for me is the opportunity to sit down and talk with local parents and learn more about how they see math as relevant in their kids’ everyday lives and the different ways that they support their kids’ math learning and motivation at home,” Tulagan said. “Our understanding of the culturally based ways that Latinx parents help their children in math, specifically, and academics more generally is still growing.” The project aims to strengthen Math CEO to better serve youth by understanding how Latinx families and organized afterschool activities can build mutually informative partnerships to foster students’ math motivation and achievement. Findings are expected to guide efforts to improve Math CEO curricula as well as to develop practical, cost-effective resources aimed at enhancing parents’ math support at home.
While a doctoral student, Tulagan received a 2015 Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship, a 2015 Provost Ph.D. Fellowship, a 2016 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the 2019 Associated Doctoral Students in Education Outstanding Service Award, and the 2020 Keith Curry Graduate Scholarship.
The UCI School of Education awarded Assistant Professor Brandy Gatlin-Nash and Professor Rossella Santagata Faculty Mentorship Awards for Inclusive Excellence. The award recognizes selected faculty for their mentorship and their significant impact in supporting the success of underrepresented minorities (URM) in the School’s academic programs and research mission. “Brandy and Rossella are fantastic mentors and colleagues,” said Professor Elizbeth Peña, associate dean of faculty development and diversity. “They exemplify what it is to be a mentor-- working with both undergraduate and graduate students to support their growth and intellectual curiosity. For students from URM backgrounds and first-generation students who may not have the generational knowledge, Brandy and Rossella work to make what is often a hidden curriculum less obscure. I am thrilled that their efforts are being recognized.” Brandy Gatlin-Nash
“I am honored to be recognized by the School for something that I love to do and feel so passionate about,” Gatlin-Nash said. “So many students from underrepresented minority backgrounds have the talent and vigor to conduct research and pursue graduate studies; however, they often just don’t know where to start in the process and may not have family members or friends who can provide resources for them. I’m happy to give the brilliant students I work with the experience, knowledge, and mentorship that they might need in order to take the next steps in their academic careers.” Rossella Santagata
To date, the project has also involved four School of Education doctoral students and more than 100 UCI undergraduate interns as research assistants and co-facilitators of educational activities.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this award,” Santagata said. “The truth is that every student and faculty of color I have worked with have enriched immensely my understanding of inequities that permeate U.S. education institutions. This award is dedicated to them, to their passion, and relentless persistence to fight for a more just society.” About the Faculty Mentorship Award for Inclusive Excellence Established in 2019, the UCI School of Education Faculty Mentorship Award for Inclusive Excellence honors the contributions of faculty in both the formal and informal work of mentorship that promotes an inclusive climate by advancing students’ academic pursuits and promoting their identities as education researchers and scholars.
Dowell’s research foci include learning analytics, computer-mediated collaborative interaction, and computational linguistics. She is the director of the School of Education’s LA-Lab, which includes researchers with backgrounds in cognitive science, information, psychology, and statistics. The lab takes a multi-disciplinary approach that builds on theories and methods in the learning sciences, cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, and computational social sciences. The team has recently started to explore issues around inclusivity and equity in online STEM collaborative interactions.
“The learning engineers post-doctoral fellows will work on a project that is focused on improving learning outcomes for students who are under-represented in STEM,” Dowell said. “In particular, the fellow will engage in the next stage of this research, which will use artificial intelligence approaches to provide real-time, personalized feedback to students to mitigate these issues.” |