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Message from Dean Kenneth Teitelbaum Nine months. I know that length of time can be significant for a more important reason (see “Good News” below) but that’s how long I have been Dean of the College. So what have I been doing during this time?
Of course I’m not going to try to answer that here in great detail – and I did try to provide some sense of it at our Friday, April 25 College-wide meeting. (For the many folks who were at the meeting, it was the part that occurred before the door prizes!) But I will point out four things that I’ve tried to do. First, I tried to learn as much as I could about the College (and the University). Of course this is a never-ending responsibility for me but a particularly important one during my first year, when the learning curve for someone new to the position and to Carbondale is particularly steep. I’ve tried to talk with as many different people as possible during these nine months and of course I’ve been helped in particular by the Dean’s Office staff and members of the Executive Council. Second, I sought to increase within the College a sense of trust in and support for/from the Dean’s Office. This has involved me trying to keep an “open door” policy, meeting with as many groups as possible (as I did last week with the Kinesiology department), serving as a strong advocate of our College across campus, working to more efficiently process paperwork and make decisions, and so forth. Third, I sought to increase the resources of the College. This is of course a long-term process involving fundraising, discussions (negotiations) with campus administrators, etc. One positive development, however, was the approval of 12 faculty searches, for which we hired 10 new faculty colleagues for next year (see “New Colleagues” below). And fourth, I sought to enhance our identity as a productive, vibrant, scholarly College community. This has been addressed by continuing some wonderful traditions, e.g., the welcome picnic, winter holiday luncheon, breakfast before and brunch after Commencement, and new faculty mentoring program, and starting some new ones, e.g., this newsletter, the scholarship brown bag series, ice cream social, student life and faculty life committees, special interest groups, college website redesign, college magazine, and PhD graduates dinner. (By the way the approximate number of faculty, staff and students who stopped by our ice cream social on April 30 was 300! Thanks so much to Natalie Branca for organizing the event, and to Natalie and other staff members Susan Wills, Angie Randolph, and Linda Clendenin, as well as student worker Alisha Blackstone, for working as our scoopers.)
I know there is more to do on all four of these initiatives and there are other projects that need to be considered. With your continued help and positive energies, we can create together the kind of College community of which most of us seek to be a part. I wish you a very relaxing, productive and stimulating summer, in whatever proportions you seek. Take good care. (COEHS UPDATE will be on hiatus during the summer and will start up again in September.)
On Tuesday, April 22, 13 people joined Peter Fadde, Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, for his presentation on “Intuition as Learned Behavior.” Actually, as Peter made clear at the outset, he was particularly interested in intuition as trained (or trainable) behavior. He discussed intuition as a kind of expertise that comprises several characteristics. It is domain specific, performance based, rapid, automatic, implicitly learned, and involves mysterious mechanisms. While much his own research has been in sports, Peter is very interested in how his work might apply to other areas that involve performance (e.g., classroom teaching and social service interviewing). While experience is helpful in one’s work, how can we also train people to be more intuitive, that is, to be able to quickly recognize, assess and categorize patterns and then act (referred to as recognition-primed decision making)? It was a wonderful, thought-provoking hour, with good questions from attendees that added to our critical understanding of the nature of intuitive expertise. Thanks to Peter! If you would like to sign up to facilitate a COEHS Scholarship Brown Bag Seminar next year (2008-2009), now is the time to let the Dean know. Provide (a) a tentative title; (b) your preferred semester; and (c) the best days of the week for you to be able to do so. So far one person has signed up, so there’s space for five others during the year (assuming we do three a semester). No doubt there is lots of “good news” to share – and most of it we typically include in the section on “Did You Know . . . ?“ But this news is, dare I say, just a bit more special: Assistant Professor Tracy Stinchfield of the Department of Educational Psychology of Special Education gave birth to Liam Stinchfield on April 28 at 1:31 a.m. in Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces. Tracy and Liam, as well as husband Bryan and big sister Emily, are doing great. (I guess Tracy and I have something in common with regard to the importance of the last “nine months.”) Congratulations to Tracy and her family!
Brown Bag Luncheon on Mentoring – April 30, 2008 The newly organized Student Life Committee sponsored a lunch-time discussion that focused on the mentoring of students. The following report was submitted by Associate Professor Ruth Anne Rehfeldt (RI) and Assistant Professor Morgan Chitiyo (EPSE), who are members of the committee: Approximately 25 COEHS faculty from across the College attended the brown bag mentoring luncheon that was held on April 30. The discussion initially focused on an operational definition of effective mentoring, and subsequently centered on what faculty can do to enhance the quality of their students’ educational experiences. Mentoring was discussed as comprising different activities at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels. The ambiguity in defining effective mentoring was noted, as the mentoring demands are different in every situation. In some departments professional advisement (i.e. encouraging student participation in conferences and professional organizations) was identified as an important component of mentoring, while others commented that the mentoring role may at times involve acting in a parental role for students. Much of the discussion pertained to the mentoring of undergraduate students. Some faculty commented that in working with undergraduates, faculty must treat students as adults and trust them to do their best. Techniques utilized in the classroom that were shared included asking students to state their strengths and challenges on unit evaluations, encouraging students to own their educational experience, and facilitate student program solving. A variety of instructional strategies for inducing creative, generative behavior in students (as opposed to expecting them to merely respond to our template) were shared. Some departments utilize portfolios to track and provide feedback on student progress over the course of their college experience. One of the faculty commented that an effective mentor is someone who is present beyond established office hour times. Other important instructional strategies for facilitating student accomplishments included the assignment of projects requiring contact with community sites, inviting guest speakers to class, and assigning weekly reading questions. The following approaches to mentoring graduate students were shared with the group: Having closer personal relationships with students than one might with undergraduates (i.e. inviting graduate students over for dinner), allowing students to see the human life of faculty outside the walls of academia, and celebrating each small accomplishment that graduate students might make en route to the completion of a large project, thesis, or dissertation. [End of report] So – what’s next for the Student Life Committee? If you’re interested in being part of the answer, please contact Ruth Anne at rehfeldt@siu.edu.
Qualitative Research Special Interest Group
We are very pleased to have a wonderful group of new faculty colleagues joining us next year. Here are brief descriptions to help you to get to know them better: Paul Asunda will be an assistant professor in the Department of Workforce Education and Development. He received his doctoral degree in Workforce Education from the University of Georgia and is currently an assistant professor of Educational Research and Foundations in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee. His program of research focuses on investigating best practices in teacher education, specifically in Career/Technical Education. Paul is also interested in ways to integrate mathematics, science and technology activities in the workforce education curriculum as it relates to preparing a workforce that is response to 21st century work environments. He is a member of Omicron Tau Theta, Association of Career and Technical Educators, American Society of Engineering Education, and International Technology Education Association. Lingguo Bu will be an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He expects to receive his Ph.D. from Florida State University in August 2008. He has a major in Mathematics Education with a concentration in the use of interactive technology in promoting student learning and teacher education. His dissertation title is Primes in Context Using Technology: Building a Didactical Model for the Teaching and Learning of Prime Numbers in the Middle Grades. In accordance with the major principles of the Theory of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), Lingguo developed a web-based instructional sequence (www.primesincontext.org), which situates primality-related mathematics in the contemporary context of public key cryptography. He has a multidisciplinary background, exploring the fascinating world of mathematical learning and cognition, especially the interconnections between language, mathematics, and technology in the context of mathematics education. Julia Champe will be an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from Idaho State University in 2004. She began her university teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Stout after completing her dissertation, where she received the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award in 2005 and was promoted to the associate professor rank in 2008. Julia research interests are focused on education and training in counselor education. Her current agenda is to investigate trainee’s cognitive processes and structuring, and the impact these have on two components of live supervision: the counseling process itself and later feedback interactions. Muthoni Kimemia will be an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2006. Since completing her dissertation, she has held the position of Assistant to the Chair and Adjunct Professor at UCF. Her research interests to date have focused on culturally responsive counseling with an interest in the communities in Sub-Sahara Africa. Muthoni developed a research project in rural Kenya that involved working with primary school teachers to equip them with counseling micro-skills as well as group facilitation skills in order to foster the delivery of a government-mandated HIV/AIDS curriculum. Her other line of research has focused on the burden among females who are the primary caregiver for a family member that is living with HIV/AIDS. She is interested in expanding her caregiver research to other rural areas with HIV/AIDS populations. Christina McIntyre will be an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She earned her Ph.D. from Georgia State University in May 2007, with a major in Early Childhood Education. Her dissertation was entitled Outcomes of Standard-Based Portfolios for Elementary Teacher Candidates. She has been at SIUC for the last several years, working as a Center Coordinator, coordinating technical support and workshops for faculty and students as our LiveText Coordinator, and more recently as a term faculty member in our Early Childhood Education program. She was recently named the recipient of the College Outstanding Term Faculty Teaching Award and then the University Outstanding Term Faculty Teaching Award. Her research includes work on the use of portfolios in teacher education. Thomas Parry will be an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. He is expecting to earn his Ph.D. from Indiana University (IU) in August 2008. His major concentration for his doctoral program is in the area of Motor Skill Learning, with a minor in Educational Psychology. He has been a Lecturer and Laboratory Instruction at IU since 2003, teaching courses in Motor Skill Learning and Weight Management and Exercise. Thomas’s research interest is in the area of motor skill learning, with a particular focus on practice schedules and knowledge of results. He will be working in the Pedagogy and Physical Education Teacher Education areas in the department. Jared Porter will be an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. He is completing his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (LSU) this month, with a major concentration in Motor Behavior and a minor in Cognitive Psychology. He has been an Instructor and Graduate Teacher Assistant at LSU since 2001, teaching courses in Motor Learning and Tests and Measurements. Jared’s research interests include the role of contextual interferences in the learning of motor skills. He has published articles in the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology and the International Journal of Sport Sciences and Coaching. He will be working in the Pedagogy and Motor Behavior areas in the department. Dhitnut Ratnapradipa will be an assistant professor of in the Department of Health Education and Recreation. He received his Ph.D. in health promotion and education from the University of Utah. He comes to SIUC from the Rhode Island Department of Health where he has served as the Supervisor of the Office of Environmental Health Risk Assessment. He also served as a clinical assistant professor of community health in the master’s in public health program in the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Dhitnut’s primary research interests are environmental health education interventions for underserved populations and interventions designed to increase public understanding of toxic chemical and pollution prevention programs. Dona Reese will be an assistant professor in the School of Social Work. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1994 and has taught across the curriculum during 14 years of social work teaching experience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of North Dakota, and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (where she was a tenured associate professor). This fall she will be teaching undergraduate research and advanced social work practice with children, youth, and families. She has focused her research on hospice social work practice, specifically psychosocial and spiritual issues in counseling with dying patients, work with families and interdisciplinary teams, and addressing organizational barriers to culturally competent hospice services. Dona is currently planning a local project to increase access to hospice for diverse cultural groups. She also has an interest in international relations and conducted a local study this past year on immigration with an interdisciplinary group of colleagues on the SIUC campus. Deborah Seltzer-Kelly will be an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She earned her Ph.D. in May 2006 from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), with a major in Curriculum and Instruction and concentrations in curriculum studies, philosophy of education, and reading and writing across the curriculum. Her dissertation was entitled Dewey, Darwinism, and Teaching Democracy: The Importance of Evolutionary Thought for Citizenship Education. At UNR Deborah has been a graduate teaching assistant and adjunct faculty member in the Department of History; a lecturer and director of forensics for the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre; and a graduate teaching assistant and lecturer for the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, responsible for courses in General Secondary Teaching Methods, the Sociocultural Context of Schooling, Teaching Secondary Social Studies, and Special Problems in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. She also coached the University’s debate team in national competitions.
Angela Cummings-Hunter has joined the staff of our Academic Advising Center and is scheduled to start on May 12. Kim Glazier joined the office staff in the Department of Kinesiology in March. She serves as the Graduate Program and Scheduling Assistant. Rose Moroz, who recently earned her Ph.D. in our Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been serving as Assistant to the Chair in that department since January 1. Andrea Restoff has joined the staff of our Academic Advising Center and is scheduled to start on May 12. Kristin White is serving as the advisor for off-campus undergraduate programs for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Saying Best Wishes to Other Colleagues At the same time that it is a pleasure to welcome new faculty and staff to our College, we must also say farewell to several colleagues who are retiring, wishing them all the best in their future endeavors and thanking them for their many contributions to our College and to the profession. Again, this listing may not include everyone who should be highlighted in this way, but there are three that I can readily identify. William C. Coscarelli holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems from Indiana University and has been a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction since 1986. He has served as a visiting scholar in the National Center for Vocational Education at Ohio State University as well as a lecturer in Holland, England, Ireland and most recently in Bonn, Cologne, and Cairo. He is Professor and former Co-Director of the Hewlett Packard World Wide Test Development Center. Bill has been elected President of the Association for Educational Communication and Technology’s (AECT) Division for Instructional Development, appointed as founding Director of Performance Improvement Quarterly, and as the first Vice-President of Publications for the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). He also served as President of ISPI. He is the author of the Decision Making Inventory, which is has been translated for publication in several other countries. His work on decision-making has been used extensively in Ohio State’s freshmen career development program as well as in corporate sales training programs. He is also co-author of the Guided Design Guidebook and Criterion-Referenced Test Development for Corporate Training: Technical and Legal Issues. He has over 100 presentations in his career and more than 60 articles. In 1991, Bill received the Outstanding Book Award for Criterion-Referenced Test Development from both ISPI and AECT’s Division of Instructional Development. In 1992, he was co-recipient of the L.C. Larson Indiana University Alumni Award for “outstanding leadership in instructional systems.” In 1996, he received ISPI’s Distinguished Service Award. Norma Ewing has served Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) in a variety of roles. She is a three degree graduate (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.) of SIUC . She has distinguished herself as a faculty member committed to teaching, research, and service, focused in particular on the education of underachieving students and topics related to social justice. Her current research project is focused on developing a historical account of “one-room schoolhouses in Southern Illinois,” including oral accounts from teachers and students. She has served in administrative roles in the College for almost 20 years, including Chair of the Department of Special Education for about nine years and about 10 years as Associate Dean for Academics. Norma has received a number of honors during her professional career. She was selected from a national pool of applicants to spend a year in Washington, D.C. as an Education Policy Fellow; attended the well-known summer administrative training program for women held at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia; selected to participate in a National Forum sponsored by the American Council on Education/Office of Women in Higher Education; served a consultant for the United States Department of Education; invited to provide testimony on teacher education-related topics before the Committee on Education and Labor of the United States House of Representatives; and was recognized as a Woman of Distinction at SIUC. She has dedicated her entire career to developing and expanding a philosophy and behavior that embody a “servant leader.” She cares deeply about our wider society and global culture and believes strongly that authentic changes happen only when it begins in the inner solitude of individuals. Norma is a lifetime member of the SIUC Alumni Association and a strong supporter of the University’s athletic programs, WSIU, and the Public Policy Institute. Her dedication to the mission of our College is enduring. Karen Prichard is a long-time member of the Counselor Education faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wichita State University with a major in Journalism and a minor in English and her Master’s degree in Student Personnel and Guidance also from at Wichita State. She completed her doctorate in Counseling at Kent State University in 1980 and joined the SIUC faculty the following year as an assistant professor in Counselor Education and School Psychology. Karen has held numerous leadership positions both on campus and in national organizations. She served several terms on the SIUC Faculty Senate and was elected its President for the 2000-2001 year term. She held a variety of leadership positions within the American Counseling Association (ACA) and its affiliated divisions including: Chair of the ACA Ethnics Committee, President of the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, President of the Illinois Association for Counseling and Development, and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Karen has guided many graduate students through their degrees as an instructor, clinical supervisor, thesis and dissertation chair, and mentor. In 2000, she received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the National Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Her faculty colleagues will miss her program leadership and sage advice.
Please continue to submit “good news” to the Dean’s Office (via your department chair or school director) . . . and look for more “Did you know that?” in the next issue of the COEHS UPDATE. Have a great summer! |
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COEHS Scholarship Brown Bag Series
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