Department of Educational Psychology school psychology faculty and students are leading 50 presentations at the annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), February 26 – March 1 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Presentations span the range of research in prevention, intervention, assessment, and policy to address students’ academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and mental health needs through a variety of referred and invited paper representations, symposia, and poster presentations.
Researchers from the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program and Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) recently published three studies exploring the access, participation, and outcomes of young children with special need eligible to receive federally subsidized child care. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was led by school psychology faculty, Amanda Sullivan, with collaborators CEED’s Amy Susman-Stillman as well as school psychology lecturer Elyse Farnsworth and PhD student Jordan Thayer.
Amanda Sullivan, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, along with school psychology PhD student Jordan Thayer and alum Shanna Sadeh recently published a study on involvement of teens with disabilities in school, health, social service, and juvenile justice sectors.
The study appears in the journal Remedial and Special Education and shows the continued role of schools as the primary, and often sole, provider of services for these adolescents along with high rates of involvement with health, social services, and juvenile justice. The study points to the need for coordinated collaboration among systems and providers to support positive outcomes for these students.
Mollie Weeks, PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, recently published her master’s research in the journal, School Mental Health. The study, Discrimination Matters: Relations of Perceived Discrimination to Student Mental Health, indicated that discrimination is associated with a range of mental health difficulties among the more than 60,000 elementary and secondary students in the National Survey of Children’s Health.
Mollie is a DOVE Fellow and doctoral fellow of Project LEEP: Leaders Enhancing Evidence-based Practice, a federally funded project led by Drs. Robin Codding and Amanda Sullivan to prepare school psychology researchers to effectively support K-12 students in urban schools.
Department of Educational Psychology school psychology doctoral student, Tara Kulkarni, has published her master’s research in the journal Psychology in the Schools. Tara’s research explores the relations of early behavior to later special education identification. Tara is a third-year doctoral student and co-founder of the department’s new international student association.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a new national center for child maltreatment research that will be co-led by Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D., McKnight Presidential Chair and William Harris Professor of Child Development and Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development (ICD) and Sheree Toth, Ph.D., professor of psychology and psychiatry and executive director of Mt. Hope Family Center at the University of Rochester. Cicchetti and Toth are leaders in the field of child maltreatment, whose collaborative work spans over three decades.
The new Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment Prevention (TRANSFORM) Center will be launched by the University of Rochester’s Mt. Hope Family Center (MHFC) in conjunction with the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Translational Research in Children’s Mental Health (ITR). Cicchetti is the director of research at ITR.
NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) selected the multidisciplinary team to receive a grant from the “Capstone Center on Child Abuse and Neglect” program. The $8.39 million award over five years will support the center as a national resource for child maltreatment research and training. It is one of only three academic institutional partnerships in the United States to receive this prestigious award from the NIH.
According to Valerie Maholmes, Ph.D., chief of NICHD’s Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch, the new centers will help raise awareness and understanding about child abuse and neglect on a national level. “Understanding personal history and early exposure to maltreatment may help us provide more targeted responses and improve the long-term health of survivors,” Maholmes said.
Cicchetti, along with a team of researchers at the TRANSFORM Center, will focus on two areas: evaluating the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy, an intensive intervention that focuses on parent-infant relationships for families at risk for child maltreatment, and risk and resilience in school-aged children. Their risk and resilience research will examine psychological, immune, endocrine, physiological, and epigenetic processes linked to early deprivation, trauma, and chronic stress in relation to physical and mental health in adulthood. The center also will launch training programs for future researchers.
Below, Ertekin discusses how her work in the Gunnar Lab compliments her Ph.D. thesis work back home.
How did you become interested in the field of developmental psychology?
I realized my enthusiasm for developmental psychology and decided to become an academic during my undergraduate education. I took a variety of elective courses from different fields and participated in many projects, activities, and internships. For instance, I had a chance to work with institutional children in the scope of a field practice course and I spent one summer as an intern in the Child Institution. These experiences shaped my research interest too. I realized that I would be happy if I could have a chance to make even a small difference for children at risk. I believe that it would be most helpful in the long run to do so with scientific evidence.
How would you describe your educational background?
I am a Ph.D. candidate in developmental psychology at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. I earned my bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in developmental psychology at the same university. I came to ICD as a visiting student researcher with the Fulbright Scholarship.
How would you summarize your previous research experience?
Throughout my graduate education, I had a chance to conduct small studies and be involved in many research projects with my professors and colleagues at METU. Since 2013, I have been working as a research assistant in a longitudinal project called “Turkish Care Types Study” which was coordinated by my supervisor Sibel Kazak Berument. The project was about the development of infants and children under institutionalized care in different care types.
My master’s thesis was about the self-development and self-regulation skills of toddlers who were residing in institutions, group homes and foster care as a part of this project.
My PhD thesis is a combination of this longitudinal project with one further step on the findings, and aims to examine the role of early adversity on cortisol levels and cognitive development of infants. I gathered data from infants reared in low socio-economic environments. Their cognitive development will also be compared with the institutionalized infants. Currently, I am working on the data analysis.
How would you articulate your main research interests?
My research interests are the development of at-risk children; especially children who experience early adversity, such as institutionalized children or children from low socioeconomic status family environments.Besides the environmental effects, I am also interested in the temperamental characteristics of children, which may affect the level of environmental effects. As a developmental outcome, I am particularly interested in self-development in early years, and cognitive development.
What drew you to the University of Minnesota and the Institute of Child Development?
The Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota is one of the best departments in developmental psychology not only in the USA but also around the world. There are many leading researchers and distinguished professors here. Therefore, it was my dream school to improve myself in the field. I am really happy to be here.
What do you hope to accomplish during your time at the Gunnar Lab?
My research interests align with the research that is carried out in Gunnar Lab. I wanted to add psychobiological variables to my PhD thesis. For me, there is a lot to learn from Professor Megan Gunnar and lab colleagues here, since the Gunnar Lab is a pioneer of this area around the world.
Dr. Pauline Boss, Professor Emeritus of Family Social Science, U of M. Photo supplied.
Based on her groundbreaking research and practice, Dr. Pauline Boss, a Family Social Science professor emeritus, will outline her six guidelines for understanding ambiguous loss in a half-day workshop Thursday, May 3 in McNeal Hall on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus.
Ambiguous loss is an unclear loss and thus without resolution. Boss has developed a training framework for professionals that offer ways to help individuals, couples, and families build resiliency by finding meaning, adjusting mastery, reconstructing identity, normalizing ambivalence, revisiting attachment, and discovering new hope. She also addresses relational and contextual assessments and interventions, cultural differences regarding the need for closure, the psychological family, and self-of-the-therapist issues.
Boss’s work began with military families facing the trauma of receiving the report of a loved one “Missing in Action” during the Vietnam War and developed as she helped individuals, families and first responders cope with chronic disease and disabilities, and disasters both natural and manmade – including the Attacks of September 11th in New York City.
According to Boss, ambiguous loss represents a unique type of loss that is arguably more stressful and difficult to cope with. Situated within the context(s) of human relationships, it carries no verification of death and/or certainty that the person being lost will ever return (physically or psychologically).
These efforts have informed and continue to evolve in collaboration with other scholars and practitioners worldwide who are aligning what they do in therapy, community engagement, and research with Boss’s pioneering concepts. Boss has been among those challenging the concept of “closure” – instead she advocates family and community-based approaches that “walk alongside people in finding meaning in their experiences and pain.”
When loved ones disappear physically or suffer from an illness that takes away their memory, when families are separated by forced migrations, when loss makes no sense (suicide, homicide), or when youth are fostered, adopted, or experience parental divorce, the lens of ambiguous loss guides therapists to treat situations of loss that have no solutions and where traditional PTSD and grief therapies are insufficient.
More about the workshop
The training will be videotaped. Participants may appear in the final video as part of audience shots/or asking questions. Consent forms will be collected the day of workshop.
FSoS Professor Tai Mendenhall is among a team of editors of the new book, Clinical Methods in Medical Family Therapythat outlines research-informed practices and applications of Medical Family Therapy (MedFT) across a range environments and clinical populations. This comprehensive resource is for any behavioral health student, trainee, or professional seeking to understand and gain skills requisite for entering the healthcare workforce.
University of Minnesota faculty, alumni, students and community partners were among the collaborators for the book, including Professor Bill Doherty (Family Social Science) and Dr. Macaran Baird (Family Medicine & Community Health).
Family Social Science Alumni included:
Jerica Berge
Diego Garcia-Huidobro
Stephanie Trudeau
Lisa Trump
Katharine (“Kit”) Didericksen
Cigdem Yumbul
Max Zubatsky
University of Minnesota Community Partners included:
Jonathan Bundt
Rosanne Kassekert
Elizabeth (“Nan”) LittleWalker
Mendelhall also engaged two FSoS Undergrads in copy-editing and manuscript-prep: Therese Nichols (now an alumni) and Catherine Futoransky.
The book was written to be applicable for a wide variety of healthcare disciplines, including family therapy, counseling nursing, medicine, psychology and social work.
The Minnesota School Counselors Association held their annual Day on the Hill on March 15 at the state capital in St. Paul. Students and faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology’s counseling and student personnel psychology (CSPP) program met with legislators and senators to promote the important work that school counselors do for our students and school communities.
Drs. Carolyn Berger and Marguerite Ohrtman accompanied the students. The group met with several legislators, including Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents the Minneapolis community and the University of Minnesota.
CSPP students Gabriella Riley, Becky Mendoza, and Melinda Vogel met with Rep. Karen Clark who represents South Minneapolis. She offered to sign on as an author of Support our Students Bill after the meeting.
The event was held in San Diego, California on March 1-3 2018 and showcased new research on interventions for young children with disabilities or those at risk for developmental delays and their families. Posters from the event are on display throughout the Education Sciences Building.
Posters presentations
Integrating and Sustaining Evidence Based Practices in the Community: A LENA Start™ Example
*Marianne Elmquist, *Erin Lease, and Scott McConnell
Measuring and Evaluating Team-Based Problem Solving: A Means for Crossing the “Data Use” Chasm?
LeAnne Johnson, *Andrea Ford, *Maria Hugh, and *Brenna Rudolph
Developing a Prosocial Teacher Rating Scale for Universal Screening in Preschool and Kindergarten
Kristen Missall, Scott McConnell, Salloni Nanda, and Ellina Xiong
Investigating the Psychometric and Content Characteristics of Common Items Across Languages: Spanish and English Picture Naming Early Literacy Assessments
*Qinjun Wang, *Jose Palma, Alisha Wackerle-Hollman, and Michael Rodriquez
Investigating the Relationship between Performance Variation in an Early Comprehension Task and Student Demographic Background
*Kelsey Will, *Qinjun Wang, *Erin Lease, and Alisha Wackerle-Hollman
Measuring Child Engagement: What’s in a Definition?
Veronica Fleury, *Pang Xiong, *Maria Hugh, and *Andrea Ford
What’s in a Name: Exploring Children’s Alternate Responses to Picture Naming
Alisha Wackerle-Hollman, Robin Hojnoski, Kristen Missall, Scott McConnell, Elizabeth Boyd, and Sana Hussein
Translating Evidence-Based Practices into Routine Practices with Young Children with Autism
*Andrea Ford, LeAnne Johnson, and Veronica Fleury
Measuring and Defining Engagement for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities During Free Play: A Systematic Review.
*Maria Hugh, Veronica Fleury, and LeAnne Johnson
Online Learning Environments for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A statewide perspective on implications and issues for early identification and service delivery.
*Maci Spica and LeAnne Johnson
Progress Monitoring in Early Childhood Special Education: In Search of Current Trends & Future Needs
*Brenna Rudolph & *Maria Hugh
Panel presentations
Child Engagement: Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, and Other Issues of the Chicken and Egg Sort
LeAnne Johnson, Robin McWilliam, and Kevin Sutherland
Battling Pseudoscientific approaches to “Treating” Autism: The Role of the Research Scientist
Veronica Fleury, Ilene Schwartz, and Elizabeth Pokorski
How long Do We Have? Speeding Development and Deployment of Meaningful Solutions
Scott McConnell, Charles Greenwood, Jomella Thompson-Watson
Classroom Quality for Dual Language Learners and the Relationship to Growth in English and Spanish
Lillian Duran, Alisha Wackerle-Hollman, and Maria Cristina Limlingan
*Denotes current or past student
Bolded names denote Educational Psychology faculty, staff or researchers
Panayiota (Pani) Kendeou, Guy Bond Chair in Reading and associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program, traveled to the University of Padova, Italy from March 12-17 to present her research on reading comprehension.
Kendeou discusssed the development of technology language comprehension interventions (projects TeLCI/ELCII) as well as the science of debunking misconceptions and fake news. The talks took place in the Department of Developmental and Socialization Psychology and were hosted by Professors Lucia Mason (Director of the EdPsych Lab) and Barbara Arfe (Director of the Learning Lab for Deaf Children).
The University of Padova was established in 1222 and has been home to astronomers Copernicus and Galileo and the first woman in the world to receive a doctoral degree (1678, Elena Cornaro).
For more information on Kendeou’s research related to language and memory with a focus on understanding and improving learning during reading, visit her Reading + Language Lab site.
The fellowship recognizes emerging leaders capable of creating practice and policy initiatives that will enhance child development and improve the national ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment.
Frank will receive an annual stipend of $30,000 for up to two years to support her dissertation and related research with her advisor John W. and Nancy E. Peyton Faculty Fellow in Child and Adolescent Wellbeing and Associate Professor Clayton Cook.
Frank was one of only 15 doctoral students across the country to receive the fellowship.
Soo-hyun taught elementary school for five years before pursuing his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, specifically within the psychological foundations of education program. Soo-hyun’s teaching experience made him interested in how students learn and think. He plans to use his degree in Educational Psychology as a way to bridge the gap between laboratory research and authentic classroom practices—ultimately, between education and learning sciences.
We asked Soo-hyun a few questions about his experience as a psych foundations student and what insights he’d like to share with prospective students. Here’s what he said:
Q: What is most exciting about your work?
“Currently, I am working on my dissertation research. It builds on the cognitive science and mathematics education literature on efficient, flexible, and adaptive strategy use in arithmetic problem-solving. Its goal is to evaluate a new proposed theoretical construct—arithmetic sense. I define this as the adaptive use of various strategies when solving complex, novel problems—for predicting individual differences in mathematical achievement among elementary school students and college students. I hope that this research will inform the development of evidence-based instruction.”
Q: How have your professors helped you along the way?
“I owe a lot to my advisor and professors in Educational Psychology. They value and listen to students’ voices. With support and collaboration from them, I have been able to complete and be involved in several research projects: 1) investigating how people reason about the educational relevance of neuroscience findings; 2) improving the proportional reasoning skills of 7th graders; 3) improving the reading comprehension of struggling readers (K-2).”
Q: How has your cohort helped you along the way?
“Before entering graduate school, I had never been to the U.S. In my first year, my colleagues helped smooth my transition in terms of language and culture. Senior colleagues in our program also provided guidance in terms of taking courses and conducting research. Now, as a senior graduate student, I would like to give back and take on this role for other students.”
Q: What would you like prospective students to know?
“Do not be afraid of exploring and learning new topics in your research.You’ll uncover many opportunities, and faculty and colleagues in your program will support and value your research interests. There are ups and downs in graduate school and life. It is important to strike a balance between work and life. Time and stress management are key in graduate school.”
Q: What are you looking forward to with graduation?
“After graduation, I plan to pursue my research at the intersection of psychology and education in a tenure-track position at a research university. Building on my graduate work and propelled by my dissertation project, I will pursue a research program investigating children’s strategic thinking when solving mathematical problems and applying these results to develop evidence-based instruction.”
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
“I enjoy riding a bicycle or inline skating around Lake of the Isles and Lake Harriet. I look forward to the spring and summer to do these outdoor activities.”
Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., Regents Professor and Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development in the Institute of Child Development (ICD), was recently featured in an article appearing in the September 2017 issue of the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology.
The article, “Maximizing children’s resilience,” by Kirsten Weir, highlighted new research that examines how to foster resilience in children and adolescents and the importance of early intervention.
According to Masten, the field has shifted from focusing on traits of resilient individuals to looking at resilience from a systems perspective. For example, Masten, along with other researchers, have found that having supportive relationships, including with parents or primary caregivers, is important for healthy development.
“The resilience of an individual depends on drawing resources from many other systems,” Masten says. “A child is embedded in interactions with friends, family, community. The way those other systems are functioning plays a huge role in the capacity of that child to overcome adversity.”
Attendees visit in between sessions at Educational Equity in Action.
On June 20 and 21, roughly 500 of Minnesota’s education leaders, researchers, policy makers, and nonprofit organizations gathered at Educational Equity in Action II. This was the second convening hosted by the University of Minnesota. Its focus: improving educational equity by “Working across schools and communities to enhance social emotional learning.”
Opening keynote
Brokenleg leads a small group discussion following his keynote.
Dr. Martin Brokenleg, Co-author of the book Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future and co-developer of the Circle of Courage model,explained that trauma from oppression, like that experienced by the American Indian community, can span generations.
“Our culture is plagued by intergenerational trauma,” said Brokenleg, whose mother’s family was among those imprisoned at Fort Snelling. He cited the incredibly high suicide rate among Native people, especially in the 18-30 age group, and among people in Ireland and Scotland after generations of oppression by the British, whose methods not coincidentally were adopted by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. “We’ve had a normal human reaction to an abnormal history.”
Brokenleg described his Circle of Courage model which supports character building or “teaching the heart” through generosity, belonging, independence, and mastery. Brokenleg finished his talk with practical strategies from Circle of Courage attendees could take back to their schools and communities to help young people—especially those suffering from intergenerational trauma—learn and grow.
Members of Rodriguez’s Minnesota Youth Development (MYDRG)
Dr. Michael Rodriguez, professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, Jim and Carmen Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development, and co-director of the Educational Equity Resource Center and the covening, led a plenary discussion on the results of the Minnesota Student Survey (MSS).
Rodriguez explained, although at a high-level the MSS tells a positive story about the developmental skills and supports of Minnesota youth, a closer look at the data demonstrates the reality of the inequities some students experience in Minnesota’s education system. This is particularly apparent for students identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB); students who skip school; students who receive disciplinary action in school; and students who have experienced trauma.
“Ninety-nine percent of our youth say their goal is to graduate from high school—and 65 to 85 percent across demographic groups also want to go to college,” said Rodriguez. “That’s a lot higher than our state’s high school graduation goal for them, which is now about 90 percent by 2020!”
He emphasized that students’ own goals are higher than those we’ve set as a state.
Following the plenary, students in Rodriguez’s Minnesota Youth Development Research Group (MYDRG) led detailed discussions on the MSS results for some of these groups, including: American Indian students, Hmong students, students in special education, LGB students, and students experiencing trauma.
Throughout the convening, participants selected from 28 smaller group breakout sessions on social-emotional learning led by University of Minnesota researchers, youth engagement groups, school districts, the Minneapolis Department of Education, and more. Several sessions included youth as presenters and/or focused on youth participatory action research projects.
Small group discussions
Attendees share their educational equity challenges in small groups.
Before the final keynote, attendees participated in a process called TRIZ. They met in small groups—dividing themselves up based on the different developmental skills and supports students need to be successful (identified in Rodriguez’s work). Participants started with the unusual task of listing actions communities might take to destroy the skill being discussed in youth. Then, they shared opportunities they had to remove some of these destructive activities and developed action plans for their schools, communities, and organizations.
Khalifa gives the final keynote at Educational Equity in Action.
Dr. Muhammad Khalifa, associate professor in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, closed out the convening by challenging the group to practice culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL). He asked that school leaders promote schooling that addresses the specific cultural and learning needs of students by focusing on the perspectives of parents, students, and community members.
“Change in schools can be promoted and fostered by ‘leaders,’ but culturally responsive school leadership is practiced by all stakeholders,” said Khalifa. “Community-based based knowledge informs good leadership practice.”
In this statement, Khalifa connected his keynote to Rodriguez’ and Brokenleg’s work. Each of the speakers stressed the importance of listening to all members of our community to improve educational equity.
Khalifa ended his talk by sharing strategies to help attendees to achieve CRSL in their own schools, organizations, and communities.
Minnesota Youth Development Research Group (MYDRG) members. Top (L-R): Carlos Chavez, Wei Song, Jose Palma, Kory Vue, and Rik Lamm. Bottom (L-R): Mireya Smith, Michael Rodriguez, Youngsoon Kang and Özge Erşan
Recently, Elsevier Connect highlighted research conducted by students in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. The article, “The effects of participation in school sports on academic and social functioning,” was one of three featured in the piece, “Thriving or surviving? Taking a wide angle on mental health.”1 According to the Elsevier Connect, this free article collection explored what’s behind good mental health for Mental Health Awareness Week.
The study
The students examined 2010 Minnesota Student Survey data and found 12th graders who participated in sports had higher GPAs, more favorable perceptions of school safety, and increased perceptions of family and teacher/community support. Psychological foundations of education student (now alumni), Martin Van Boekel, led the project. Quantitative methods in education students, Luke Stanke, Jose R. Palma Zamora, Yoojeong Jang, Youngsoon Kang, and Kyle Nickodem collaborated with Van Boekel on the study. Okan Bulut, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and member of the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation (CRAME) at the University of Alberta, helped guide the students’ work.
The Minnesota Youth Development Research Group
The researchers met and began work on the project through the Minnesota Youth Development Research Group (MYDRG) which is led by Michael Rodriguez, Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. MYDRG explores methodological and substantive challenges in youth development through positive psychology, ecological perspectives of youth development, and the translation of research to practice.
Van Boekel, Martin, Bulut, Okan, Stanke, Luke, Palma Zamora, Jose R., Jang, Yoojeong, Kang, Youngsoon, Nickodem, Kyle. (2017). The effects of participation in school sports on academic and social functioning. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Volume 46, September–October 2016, 31–40. doi: /10.1016/j.appdev.2016.05.002
Despite the facts, people across the world hold different beliefs about what causes autism spectrum disorder (ASD). On March 31, faculty and researchers from the Department of Educational Psychology shared findings from a recent “glocal” (locally based with global components) study on the misinformation that surrounds ASD.
Panayiota Kendeou, Guy Bond Chair in Reading and associate professor in the psychological foundations of education program, kicked off the event with an introduction into the cognitive theory behind “Reducing the Impact of Misinformation around ASD.” She explained the misinformation effect and her Knowledge Revision Components Framework (KrEC) which examines the incremental steps of knowledge revision.1 Watch Kendeou’s presentation.
Gregory Trevors, post-doctoral fellow in the psychological foundations of education program, provided additional background, presenting local and global data from the study on “The Public’s Prior Knowledge about the Causes of ASD and its Relations to Treatment Recommendation.” Watch Trevor’s presentation.
Veronica Fleury, assistant professor and ASD licensure & M.Ed. coordinator in the special education program, presented findings from the local portion of the study conducted at the Minnesota State fair, specifically examining “The Impact of (source) Credibility on Treatment Recommendations.” Watch Fleury’s presentation.
Finally, Krista Muis, associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at McGill University, provided an outside perspective on why the Global Signature Program is important. Muis, who studies how individuals process complex, contradictory content on socio-scientific issues such as vaccinations, noted the strengths of the research project. She also posed a few questions about the local portion of study and provided recommendations for future global research on the topic. Watch Muis’ presentation.
The event ended with a discussion that will help inform the content for future coursework, including a study abroad course focused on understanding ASD with an emphasis on debunking global misinformation.
Kendeou, P., & O’Brien, E. J. (2014). The Knowledge Revision Components (KReC) Framework: Processes and Mechanisms. In D. Rapp, & J. Braasch (Eds.), Processing Inaccurate Information: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives from Cognitive Science and the Educational Sciences Cambridge: MIT.
In the talk, Kendeou discussed a series of studies that examine the incremental steps of knowledge revision, detailing its time course and mechanisms during reading comprehension in the context of the Knowledge Revision Components framework (KReC).1 She explained how KReC—which she developed with Professor Edward J O’Brien at the University of New Hampshire—aligns itself nicely with knowledge revision in the context of reading comprehension and has implications for research in text comprehension, conceptual change, persuasion, and the misinformation effect.
Kendeou, P., & O’Brien, E. J. (2014). The Knowledge Revision Components (KReC) Framework: Processes and Mechanisms. In D. Rapp, & J. Braasch (Eds.), Processing Inaccurate Information: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives from Cognitive Science and the Educational Sciences Cambridge: MIT.
Brenda Hartman (M.S.W. ’89), a St. Paul therapist who provides counseling to adolescents, adults, and couples, was named a 2017 Bush Fellow this week.
She and 23 other people were selected from nearly 650 applications for the fellowships. Applicants described their leadership vision and how a Bush Fellowship would both help them achieve their goals and make their community better. Each Fellow will receive up to $100,000 to pursue the education and experiences they believe will help them become more effective leaders.
With her Bush Fellowship, Hartman will study end-of-life practices from different cultures, religions, and spiritual traditions, and grow her leadership skills through coursework and consultation.
She has lived nearly three decades longer than expected after receiving a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Over those years, she has devoted herself to addressing the social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the cancer experience. She sees a strong need to promote a cultural shift in society’s response to death. She wants to introduce a narrative that counters fear and denial with a view of death as a healing process. She seeks new ways to incorporate end-of-life planning into training for healthcare professionals.
