Educational Psychology’s Visiting Professor, Dr. Kevin McGrew, made an invited presentation at the Richard Woodcock Institute for Advancement of Cognitive Assessment at the University of Texas-Austin on October 25, 2014.

Contemporary Gf-Gc theory, which originates in the work of Cattell, Horn, and Carroll, and a series of activities from circa 1990 to 2005 resulted in what is now known as CHC theory (v1.0). In his presentation, Advances in CHC theory, Dr. McGrew summarized a recent fine-tuning of CHC theory (v2.0) by Schneider and McGrew (2012) and suggested additional refinements based on new exploratory and confirmatory structural research. Because no theory remains static, Dr. McGrew suggested ways of integrating advanced CHC theory with neuropsychological constructs and contemporary neurocognitive research as a means of gathering more meaningful subject data.

Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman has been elected to serve as President-Elect for the Lakes Area Counseling Association (LACA) for the 2014-2015 school year. In this role, Marguerite will work with school counselors in the Lakes Area region to improve professional development and advocacy for the school counseling profession. Dr. Ohrtman has previously served as Membership Chair and Treasurer for the organization. Last year, LACA was in charge of the annual Minnesota School Counselors Association Conference with over 450 participants.

Jonathan C. Penny joins the College of Education and Human Development’s community as the new program coordinator for the American Sign Language Program.

Jonathan, a third generation deaf and native ASL signer, was raised in a simultaneous bilingual environment where both ASL and English were used on a daily basis. Jonathan received his B.A. in psychology and English and M.A. in ASL education from Gallaudet University in 2008 and 2013, respectively.

Jonathan has been teaching ASL collegiately since 2010 and strives to accumulate resources in methodology and assessment in the field of ASL education through continued research and training. In his spare time, Jonathan enjoys reading, playing sports, traveling, and can usually be found outside jogging or spending time with his friends and family.

The College of Education and Human Development is excited to have Jonathan join the the college and ASL program with his extensive knowledge and varied experiences. 

Educational Psychology’s Panayiota (Pani) Kendeou presented at the 9th International Conference on Conceptual Change that was organized by the Special Interest Group “Conceptual Change” of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in Bologna, Italy. The aim of this international meeting that takes place biannually is to bring together researchers from the fields of education, cognitive and developmental psychology and several others with the purpose of investigating the problem of conceptual change in development, learning, and instruction. Kendeou presented her recently published Knowledge Revision Components framework (KReC; Kendeou & O’Brien, 2014), which explains how knowledge revision is accomplished over the course of reading. Her travel was partially funded by an International Travel Grant from the University’s Global Programs and Strategy Alliance.

Educational Psychology’s Panayiota (Pani) Kendeou organized and chaired a symposium on Text Comprehension and Epistemic Cognition at the international meeting of the Special Interest Group “Comprehension of Text and Graphics” of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The aim of this international meeting that takes place biannually is to share and exchange ideas about the latest research on learning with text and/or with graphical representations like pictures, diagrams, or animations. The symposium organized by Kendeou brought together researchers from the US, Canada, Germany, Norway, and Cyprus to discuss their latest findings on the role of epistemological beliefs on text comprehension, with an emphasis on the integration of conflicting representations. Her travel was partially funded by an International Travel Grant from the University’s Global Programs and Strategy Alliance.

First-year Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology program graduate student Tracy Buettner (below left) was one of seven students to receive the Graduate Student Award of the Women’s Philanthropic Leadership Circle (WPLC) at its annual awards celebration in June. Tracy was recommended for the award by her adviser, Dr. Marguerite Ohrtman. Because of her academic achievements, leadership, and passion for education, WPLC is awarding her a $1000 grant to be used for expenses while attending the Minnesota School Counselor Association annual conference held in May of this year in Brainerd, MN. Tracy has recently finished her first year of the graduate program, is working towards a master’s in counseling with a focus on school counseling, and plans to pursue a doctoral degree in the future.

Dr. Kevin McGrew, visiting professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, is coauthor of the recently published fourth edition of Woodcock-Johnson Battery (WJ IV) of intelligence, language, and achievement abilities.

The battery consists of three batteries that measure intelligence, oral language, and achievement abilities. Dr. McGrew is a coauthor of the battery and the first author of the technical manual. He was primarily responsible for revisions in the intelligence battery and supervising and completing all data analysis and statistical work. The fourth edition of the Woodcock-Johnson Battery (WJ IV) was just published by Riverside Publishing.