February 2012
Art C. Graesser to lead Meadows Distinguished Lecture
Art C. Graesser, professor of psychology and co-director of the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis, will present a Meadows Distinguished Lecture from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on February 23 in the Dean's Lounge, with a reception to follow. Graesser's research interests include questioning, text comprehension, reading, artificial intelligence, and learning technologies, and he has helped design, develop, and test software integrating learning, language, and psychology for tutoring and other instructional applications. He is a recipient of the American Psychological Association's 2011 Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award, and this month the University of Memphis will present him with the its highest research recognition: the first Presidential Award for Lifetime Achievement in Research. To RSVP, please send an e-mail with "Graesser" in the subject line to rsvp@meadowscenter.org.
January 2012
English/Language Arts Faculty Collaborative forms Disciplinary Literacy Task Force
The College and Career Readiness Initiative (CCRI) English/Language Arts Faculty Collaborative has pulled together teacher education representatives from 10 different institutes of higher education to form a Disciplinary Literacy Task Force. The task force will get right to work, developing six to eight modules for use in teacher education courses. The modules will emphasize methods to support students as they read rigorous texts.
The task force met in January for its first training session, which explored metacognitive reading strategies for English/language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics texts. Future task force initiatives will include site visits to universities, a meeting in May to discuss strategy integration, and an online course for faculty members. Upon completion, the online course and literacy modules will be available on the English/Language Arts Faculty Collaborative external website.
RTI Institute Director Pamela Bell presents at teacher preparation seminar
Pamela Bell, director of MCPER's Response to Intervention Institute, delivered a presentation titled "Implementing Response to Intervention: Challenges for Secondary Campuses" at the College and Career Readiness Initiative seminar "Preparing Teachers for 21st Century Teaching" on September 15 in Austin. For the talk, Bell represented the Building Capacity for Response to Intervention Implementation project, of which she is principal investigator.
Eric Oslund to speak on predictive validity of curriculum-embedded measures for kindergarteners
Eric Oslund, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University, will lead a MCPER Brown Bag event on Jan. 17 titled "Examining the Predictive Validity of Curriculum-Embedded Progress-Monitoring Measures for Students in Kindergarten." The event will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Pittenger Room (SZB 418). Send an e-mail to rsvp@meadowscenter.org to RSVP.
Oslund will describe two studies of kindergarten students in a tier 2 reading intervention. The first study examined the ability of measures taken throughout kindergarten to predict end-of-kindergarten outcomes. The second study examined the longitudinal (i.e., end of first grade and end of second grade) predictive validity of the measures. The outcome variables for both studies were latent factors composed of measures of early reading skills. Findings indicate that curriculum-embedded measures can predict end-of-kindergarten and longitudinal reading outcomes.
UT Austin special education researchers ranked third in nation for scholarly articles
The University of Texas at Austin was ranked third in the nation for special education articles published by faculty researchers from 2005 to 2009. According to ScienceWatch, UT researchers—primarily faculty members of the Department of Special Education, including MCPER Executive Director Sharon Vaughn and several other MCPER researchers and board members—contributed 95 papers to Thomson Reuters-indexed special education journals, or 2.25% of all papers published in those journals during that time period.
December 2011
Gareth Morgan to discuss study findings in "Measurement Development With Item Difficulty Modeling"
Gareth Morgan, MCPER's 2010 postdoctoral fellow, will present "Measurement Development With Item Difficulty Modeling" from noon to 1 p.m. on December 20 in the Pittenger Room (SZB 418). To RSVP, send an e-mail with Modeling in the subject line to rsvp@meadowscenter.org.
The study employs item difficulty modeling procedures to evaluate the feasibility of potential generative item features for nonword repetition tasks. Specifically, the study uses multiple regression and explanatory item response modeling techniques (e.g., linear logistic test model; Fischer, 1973) to estimate the extent to which the manipulated item features correspond to the theoretical mechanisms that underlie nonword repetition accuracy and their impact on item difficulty. The study discusses findings in terms of validity evidence in support of using the phonological loop component of Baddeley's model (2000) as a cognitive processing model for nonword repetition items and the feasibility of using the proposed radical structure as an item blueprint for the future generation of nonword repetition items.
Bill Tunmer to lead Meadows Distinguished Lecture on vocabulary knowledge in early literacy development
Bill Tunmer, a professor of educational psychology at Massey University in New Zealand, will lead a Meadows Distinguished Lecture titled "The Simple View of Reading Redux: The Dual Role of Vocabulary Knowledge in Early Literacy Development" from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on December 7 in the Dean's Conference Room (SZB 238). To RSVP, send an e-mail with "Tunmer" in the subject line to rsvp@meadowscenter.org.
New Zealand scholar to lead Meadows Distinguished Lecture on parent involvement
Garry Hornby—a professor in the College of Education at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand—will lead a Meadows Distinguished Lecture titled "Parent Involvement in Children's Education" from 10 a.m. to noon on December 2 in the Pittenger Room (SZB 418). To RSVP, send an e-mail to rsvp@meadowscenter.org.
Hornby has previously worked in special education, at the Auckland Teacher’s College, and as a researcher of children with Down syndrome and their parents at the University of Manchester. After lecturing on educational psychology, special education, and counseling for 12 years at the University of Hull, Hornby served as a government consultant in Barbados for 2 years, offering teacher training for students with special needs. Hornby then returned to the University of Hull as the director of research in the Education Department, before being appointed as professor of education at the University of Canterbury in 2002. His latest book, Parent Involvement in Children’s Education, has just been published by Springer. The topic is his major research interest.
New Zealand scholar to lead postdoctoral and graduate student interactive
Garry Hornby of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, will lead a postdoctoral and graduate student interactive from 1 to 2 p.m. on December 2 in the Pittenger Room (SZB 418).