2002 UGA COE EDUCATION magazine

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F G E O R G I A

College of

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Studies Abroad

A World ofKnowledgeA World ofKnowledge

Faculty, Students Expand Horizons In Studies Abroad

Greetings from the College ofEducation at the University ofGeorgia...

The 2000-2001 school year wasa year of hard work and dedication by faculty,staff and students that has reflected itself inmajor successes for the College. Our externalfunding from grants and contracts surpassed$17 million—a record year for the College.We have attracted and recruited talented newfaculty members to join our outstandingexisting faculty. The academic and test scoreprofile of our entering students is the mostimpressive in the history of the College. Andour faculty are engaged in exemplary projectsfrom local communities in Georgia to the farreaches of the world, as symbolized by thecover of our magazine this year.

The tremendous diversity of scholarshipand research by our faculty is making news – from spinal injury rehabilitation, toreducing violence and bullying in middle schools, to the use of brain imaging in diag-nosing learning disabilities, to determining best practices in reading and mathematicseducation. Our many activities and accomplishments have resulted in expandednational and international recognition and a rise in our standing among colleges ofeducation, with five of our graduate programs ranked among the Top 10 in the nation(U.S. News and World Report).

The College is pioneering a break-through model to radically transform the wayschools, communities and universities work together to advance children’s learning.Our groundbreaking partnership with the Clarke County School District is beginningto take shape with two pilot elementary schools – envisioned as community learningcenters – scheduled to re-open their doors to a new future in educational achievementin fall 2002.

We are joined in these efforts by the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Family andConsumer Sciences, and the School of Social Work. We are developing similar partner-ships with school districts in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties in metro Atlanta and otherdistricts around the state.

But our vision for improving education goes beyond state boundaries. Our facultyand students are pursuing research, service and instruction throughout the nation andaround the world. We have recently signed two new university-wide internationalcooperative agreements to work with universities in Korea and the Netherlands, inaddition to the dozens of projects already underway by our faculty in England, Mexico,Japan, New Zealand, Italy, Peru, Russia and the Philippines, to name but a few.

Educators face challenging but exciting opportunities today. By rethinking the waysin which we work together, we can make a tremendous difference in the professionaldevelopment of teachers, administrators and other educators – a difference that willpositively impact education throughout Georgia.

Your support of the College of Education is appreciated by each of us here.We welcome your ideas for improving the College and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

[email protected]

Louis A. Castenell, Jr.Dean

Jeri BensonAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs

George HyndAssociate Dean for Research Development and Outreach

Michael PadillaAssociate Dean for Educator Partnerships

EDUCATION is published annually by the Universityof Georgia College of Education, Office of ResearchDevelopment and Outreach and is produced by theOffice of Communications and Publications.

MAGAZINE STAFFEditor Michael Childs Contributing editor Charles Connor Copy editor Julie Patton Editorial assistant Angela ShihDesign A.W. BlalockContributing writers Heather Edelblute,Kathleen Folkerth,Sharron HannonContributing photographers Wingate Downs,Peter Frey, Rick O’Quinn

CONTACTMichael Childs Public Information Director University of Georgia College of Education G-9 Aderhold HallAthens, GA 30602 706/[email protected]

College Website:www.coe.uga.eduCOE News Online:www.coe.uga.edu/coenews

ABOUT THE COVER The cover design was created by A.W. Blalock.Photos taken by Norm Thomson, assistant profes-sor of science education and director of theCollege’s Study Abroad in Kenya program,showrhinoceroses feeding on grassland as thousands ofpink flamingoes dot Lake Nakuru, and biologymajor Marcie Sellers, of Brunswick,Ga.,learninghow to grind millet, a traditional African grain. Thephoto of a young elementary school student ring-ing a bell in Xalapa, Mexico, was shot by JimMcLaughlin,associate professor of elementary edu-cation during one of the classes he developed inthe UGA/Veracruz Partnership. On the back cover,photos show Paige Putnam, a 2000 COE graduateworking with Mexican students in Xalapa and thetemple at El Tajin,an important archaelogical sitein northern Veracruz.

Maps: National Geographic Society Used by Permission

D E A N ’ S M E S S A G E

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EDUCATION 2002 ■ 1

COVER STORY14 Students Going GlobalFour faculty members write about experiences they and their students had during Study Abroad programs in Italy,Kenya and Mexico.by David Reinking, Beverly Payne, Norman Thomson and Jim McLaughlin

FEATURES4 Fast Track to TeachingThe College’s successful Business to Teaching program for fast-track preparation of teachers for certification isexpanding to two new subject areas.by Michael Childs

7 Catalyst for ChangeThe College launches a support program for Northeast Georg i ateachers seeking National Board Certification this year.by Michael Childs

8 School InnovationsTwo Clarke County elementary schools will be transformedinto community learning centers as the College leads UGA ina historic partnership with the local school district to raisestudent achievement.by Kathleen Folkerth

10 Making Our Students the BestEducation researcher Joe Wisenbaker describes a small-groupinstruction strategy that is profoundly effective in raising student achievement, and standardized test scores prove it.by Michael Childs

12 Stopping the ViolenceA UGA research team joins three other universities in designing and implementing a pilot national CDC programdesigned to prevent and reduce violence and bullying in middle schools.by Michael Childs

20 Another Fulbright ScholarDeborah Tippins is the College’s latest Fulbright Scholar –but not its first to pursue research in science education in thePhilippines. Tippins follows in the steps of her mentor toSoutheast Asia to study how others teach and learn.by Michael Childs

24 New Biomedical InitiativeExercise science researcher Gary Dudley forges a new education and research agreement between UGA and theShepherd Center in Atlanta, the nation’s largest hospital forbrain and spinal cord injuries.by Sharron Hannon

26 Better Calls on ConcussionExercise science researcher Mike Ferrara is using moderntechnology to develop new medical standards for decidingwhen to allow an athlete to return to play after suffering aconcussion.by Michael Childs

I N S I D E

DEPARTMENTS2 Administration3 National Rankings, Facts & Figures

28 Honor Roll of Donors30 Faculty, Staff Recognition32 Student Honors33 Alumni Honors

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2 ■ EDUCATION 2002

Three New School Directors AppointedOver the past year, three new school directors were namedin the College. Here’s a brief look at the new leadership:

Karen WatkinsLeadership and Lifelong Learning

Karen Watkins, professor of adulteducation, was named director of theSchool of Leadership and LifelongLearning.A member of the faculty since1993, Watkins served as interim direc-tor of the school for several months

prior to her appointment and directed graduate programs inhuman resource and organizational development.She wasnamed the 1998 Outstanding Scholar of the Year by theAcademy of Human Resource Development for her signifi-cant contributions to the field of human resource develop-ment, including her work on organizational and workplacelearning. Watkins was selected last fall as a DistinguishedGraduate by the University of Texas College of Education inrecognition for her success in a number of major leadershiproles and responsibilities.

Doug Kleiber Health and Human Performance

Doug Kleiber, professor and head ofthe recreation and leisure studiesdepartment, took over leadership ofthe School of Health and HumanPerformance from Jack Razor, whostepped down after 15 years of distin-

guished service in that position. Kleiber served as depart-ment head since joining the UGA faculty in 1989.Previously, he was an associate professor of leisure studiesat the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where hewas his department’s director of graduate studies and direc-tor of the Leisure Behavior Research Laboratory. He was anassistant professor in the psychology department at St.Cloud State University from 1974-77.Kleiber received hisPhD in educational psychology from the University of Texasat Austin in 1972.

Cheri Hoy School of Professional Studies

Cheri Hoy, professor of special edu-cation, was named director of theSchool of Professional Studies. Hoyhad been on administrative assign -ment in the Dean’s Office for the past

two years as faculty administrator. She served as departmenthead of special education from 1989 to 1998 and actingdepartment head for two years prior to that.Hoy’s researchinterests and expertise in the area of learning disabilitiesinclude assessment,adult issues, social/emotional/behavioraladjustment and mathematics. She came to UGA in 1982from Northwestern University where she received her PhD incommunication disorders and learning disabilities.

College Undergoes NCATE Review

College of Education administrators anticipate a positive report this fall from asite review earlier this year by a joint team of evaluators from the Georgia

Professional Standards Commission (PSC) and the National Council for Accreditationof Teacher Education (NCATE).

NCATE is the nation’s top accrediting organization for schools , colleges anddepartments of education and includes more than 500 institutions. Meeting its stan-dards is crucial to national rankings.

The College was one of only 20 institutions across the country to pilot an elec-tronic review in addition to the on-site visit. The resulting website(http://ncate.coe.uga.edu/) allows visitors to easily review the College’s programsand initiatives.

It was also the first joint PSC/NCATE review in Georgia and among only a handfulof such joint reviews by state and national accrediting organizations in the nation.

To meet new “outcome-based”NCATE assessment standards, faculty throughoutthe College studied the curriculums of its 18 undergraduate programs and the capa-bilities of their students.

Led by faculty members Kathleen de Marrais and Ron Butchart,outcome-basedassessment plans were created at the College and department levels to define whatstudents are expected to be able to do upon graduation.

When the College was last reviewed five years ago, NCATE standards focusedmore on input:number of courses, hours of field experience, and internships.

This year’s 10-member PSC/NCATE evaluation team along with six additionalobservers visited classes and computer labs in each of the College’s four schools. Theteam met with many groups of faculty, administrators and students and with topUGA administrators, including President Michael Adams and Provost Karen Holbrook.

Evaluators visited four Clarke County schools (two elementary, a middle and ahigh school) to talk with supervising classroom teachers and administrators to learnhow well COE students are being trained.

“This was really a College-wide effort. We could not have done this without thecooperation of our faculty, department heads and school directors,” said Jeri Benson,associate dean for academic affairs.

Benson cited de Marrais and Butchart for their leadership, several of the staff inthe Office of Technology, including Darrell Golliher and Kristi Leonard, for their workon the NCATE website, and Jamie Lewis, a graduate student in social foundationswho worked behind the scenes to make the evaluation a success.

A D M I N I S T R A T I O N

Kristi Leonard (L), management information specialist and Kathleen de Marrais, professor of educational psychology


GRADUATE PROGRAMSRANK WITH NATION’S BESTFive UGA Programs Rated in Top 10

UGA’s College of Education is listed amongthe nation’s top graduate schools in U.S. News& World Report’s 2002 edition of “America’sBest Graduate Schools.” The magazine uses acombination of factorssuch as reputation, stu-dent selectivity, place-ment success, facultyresources and researchactivity to rank gradu-ate schools.

Overall UGAEducationRankings• 15th among public schoolsin the nation• 4th among education colleges in the South• 22nd overall nationally

Additional UGA Program RankingsEducational Psycology 16thSpecial Education 18thAdministration/Supervision 18thHigher Education Administration 20thEducation Policy 22nd

For full details on the U.S. News and WorldReport Best Graduate Schools ranking index,visit their site on the Web at:www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/gradrank/gdedunf.htmComplete program specialty and departmentrankings can be found at:www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/bced.htm

POINTS OF PRIDEFaculty• 11 Fulbright Scholars• 2 University Professors• 7 Distinguished Research Professors• 1 Regents Professor• 6 Meigs Award winners for teaching

excellence• 4 Walter B. Hill Award winners for service

Alumni• National Teacher of the Year in 1999• 12 Georgia Teachers of the Year• 4 Named to USA Today’s All-USA

Teacher 1st Team

Student Quality• Median GPA:3.62• Median SAT: 1163• COE teacher education graduates have a 94%

pass rate on the national PRAXIS II teacher exam.

N A T I O N A L R A N K I N G S

UGA TOP 10 RANKINGSSecondary Education

Michigan State UniversityOhio State UniversityUniversity of WisconsinUniversity of GeorgiaIndiana University Stanford University;University of IllinoisColumbia UniversityVanderbilt UniversityUniversity of Virginia

Vocational/TechnicalOhio State UniversityPenn State UniversityUniversity of MinnesotaUniversity of IllinoisUniversity of GeorgiaVirginia Tech InstituteOklahoma State UniversityUniversity of MissouriUniversity of WisconsinColorado State University

Elementary EducationMichigan State UniversityUniversity of WisconsinOhio State UniversityUniversity of IllinoisVanderbilt UniversityUniversity of Georgia;Columbia UniversityIndiana University;University of MichiganUniversity of Virginia

Counseling/Personnel ServiceUniversity of MarylandOhio State University;University of MinnesotaUniversity of FloridaIndiana UniversityPenn State UniversityUniversity of North CarolinaUniversity of WisconsinUniversity of MissouriUniversity of Georgia

Curriculum/InstructionUniversity of WisconsinColumbia UniversityMichigan State UniversityStanford UniversityOhio State UniversityUniversity of MichiganUniversity of IllinoisIndiana University Vanderbilt UniversityUniversity of Georgia;Harvard University

1.2.3.4.5.6.

8.9.

10.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.

10.

1.2.3.4.5.6.

8.

10.

1.2.

4.5.6.7.8.9.

10.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.

10.

FACTS & FIGURESEnrollment: 4,697(43% graduate students)

Faculty: 227 full-time,258 graduate assistants

Degrees & Programs: 90 graduate,18 undergraduate

Diplomas (2000): 620 graduate,679 undergraduate

Living Alumni: Over 40,000

External Funds:• Research: $10,333,20211

(3% of UGA total)• Instruction:$ 3,320,29022

(8% of UGA total)• Outreach: $3,549,338

(12.3% of UGA total)• Total:$17,202.830

(12.8% of UGA total)


The College’s rigorous fast-trackBusiness to Teaching (B2T)a l t e rnative teacher cert i f i c a t i o np rogram was so successful in

its first year that two new subject are a sa re being added.

The five critical need areas of thep rogram—science, mathematics, spe-cial education, occupational studies(business, marketing, technical educa-tion), and English as a second lan-guage (ESOL) in grades 7-12—will beexpanded this fall by the addition of anew social science education fasttrack, followed in the spring semesterof 2002 by a fast track ine l e m e n t a ry / P re-K education.

The B2T program was created forp rofessionals and re t i rees who alre a d yhold a degree in some field outside ofeducation and aspire to teach withouthaving to re t u rn to college for an addi-

To Teaching

On The

After Successful FirstYear, B2T AlternativeTeacher CertificationProgram Is Adding TwoNew Subject Areas

The College’s Business to TeachingProgram drew more than 160 participantsin its first year, and 200 more wereexpected to enroll fall 2001. The programplans to open an alternative certificationprogram for elementary/pre-kindergartenteacher hopefuls in 2002, providing anoption for those with degrees who wouldlike to teach but do not want to have toget a second degree in education.

tional degree in education, saidMichael Padilla, associate dean foreducator part n e r s h i p s .

The program normally takes threesemesters to complete, which undersome circumstances can be done withina period of twelve months. Each candi-date will have his/her transcript ana-lyzed and an individual program ofstudy developed.

Half of the program involves classesonline. The other half is spent in thec l a s s room or in real-world work settings.Weekend seminars and evening classes,many held at the new UGA GwinnettCenter campus in Lawrenceville, make iteasier for students who are balancingcourse work with job and family re s p o n-sibilities. Business to Teaching drew 160aspiring teachers in its first year. Another200 began the program fall 2001.

Tw e n t y - s i x - y e a r-old Ashley Bentleyreceived her B.S. degree in biology fro mUGA in 1996 and hoped to work in are s e a rch lab. But after graduation shed i s c o v e red that in order to get the typelab job she wanted, she would have tore t u rn to school and serve as an internfor several years.

“Since I was newly married, that re a l l yw a s n ’t an option,” she said.

Bentley began working and eventuallybecame a licensed real estate agent.Making a career change to teachingc rossed her mind several times, she said,but each program she looked intore q u i red that she enter as an underg r a d-uate and obtain a bachelor’s degree ineducation. In addition, she had a longdrive to and from work and did not seehow school could fit into her schedule.But in September 2000, her husbandtook a job with a construction companyin Thomson and that prompted Bentleyagain to think about a career change.

“I just happened on UGA’s College ofEducation website and found inform a-tion about the PACSS program (Pro g r a mfor Alternative Certification in SecondaryScience),” she said. “It was just what Iwas looking for – a program that wouldaccommodate my schedule and allow meto enter as a graduate student workingt o w a rd my master’s degre e . ”

Bentley said she also likes the factthat the program is mentor basedbecause it allows for interaction withexperienced teachers.

“Having classmates with diverseb a c k g rounds and teaching experiences

has also been helpful. We have dis-cussed classroom issues that I neverwould’ve considered, such as how cul-tural background affects classro o mbehavior and learn i n g . ”

Another aspiring teacher, Tina Davisof Smyrna, received her Ph.D. in bio-c h e m i s t ry from Georgia Tech. She serv e da three-year post-doctoral re s e a rch assist-antship in the chemistry department atG e o rgia State University, taught a semes-ter of Honors Physics at the LovettSchool in Atlanta as a permanent substi-tute, and taught organic chemistry atG e o rgia Tech as an adjunct pro f e s s o r.

Davis resigned her post-doctoralposition to begin teaching in the fall of2001 at the new medical magnet pro-gram at South Cobb High School inAustell while pursuing coursework inthe B2T program. She began the pro-gram this summer because, she said, itis a direct and practical route to ateaching certificate that focuses on sec-o n d a ry science education.

“ B e f o re I began this program,” Davissaid, “many of my friends and fellowteachers said I’d be wasting my timebecause most education courses don’tp rovide practical strategies for today’sc l a s s rooms and students. However, I’vefound that the classes I am taking havep rovided a lot of useful and applicablei n f o rmation. I have learned new strate-gies for teaching science and incorporat-ing technology into the classroom.”

The UGA College of Education is thes t a t e ’s largest producer of teachers, prin-cipals, and other school personnel, grad-uating about 300 new teachers each year.N o rm a l l y, the undergraduate UGAteacher education program takes twoyears to complete, during which stu-dents must take 30-45 credit hours ofcourses and spend two semesters orm o re teaching in area schools. The B2Tp rogram re q u i res 30 credit hours ofcourses and two semesters of workingwith a mentor teacher in a classroom 20hours per week.

“ Traditional student teaching helpsstudents practice what they’ve learned inthe textbooks and in the classroom andget a feel for what works and what d o e s n ’t,” said Sherry Field, an associatep rofessor of social science education andd i rector of the B2T program in its firsty e a r. “That’s why the program has madementoring a key part of helping pre p a rethese aspiring teachers, with in-school

and university-level mentors support i n gtheir work.”

Most educators recognize that theideal training for a new teacher is the in-depth course work, student teaching andmentoring provided by the traditionalu n d e rgraduate program in teacher edu-cation, but the growing teacher short a g edemands additional options for the rapidtraining of qualified teachers. Last year,10,200 teachers were hired in Georg i a ,a c c o rding to the Georgia Teaching Forc eC e n t e r, an arm of the Pro f e s s i o n a lS t a n d a rds Commission that tracks edu-cation employment trends. That figure isexpected to rise to 25,000 in 2010.

Meanwhile, only 4,090 teachers gradu-ated from Georg i a ’s 35 public and privatecolleges last year, down from 5,189 in1996. The shortage, a product of boominge n rollments in suburban public schoolsystems and a decline in the number ofnew teachers graduating from Georg i acolleges, is projected to worsen. ■

For more information on the Business toTeaching program, visit:h t t p : / / w w w. c o e. u g a . e d u / b i z t o t e a c h /


“I’ve found that the classes I am takinghave provided a lot ofuseful and applicableinformation. I havelearned new strategiesfor teaching scienceand incorporatingtechnology into the classroom.” Tina Davis, Smyrna

What should all good teach-ers know and be able todo? What impact shouldthey have on their stu-

dents? What attitudes should they havet o w a rd their pro f e s s i o n ?

These are some of the questionsbeing asked by educators involved inthe Georgia Systemic Teacher EducationProgram (GSTEP), a dynamic partner-ship led by the UGA College ofEducation which links UGA with twoother state universities, 11 school dis-tricts, two business partners and variousstate education agencies.

Entering the second year of a five-year,$6.5 million grant from the U.S.D e p a rtment of Education, GSTEP is re i n-venting teacher education in Georg i awith a focus on impacting studentachievement. Ty p i c a l l y, student achieve-ment is measured with a single, standard-ized test, but GSTEP will provide a widea rray of new measurements to assesswhat students are learning and how itconnects to teachers’ actions.

“ We are developing our own set of stan-d a rds for teaching and learning,” saidFrances Hensley, director of the collabora-tive statewide project. “And what is goingto diff e rentiate the standards we are devel-oping from others is that we’re going to tiethem directly to student impact. What dif-f e rence does it make if we pre p a re teachersin a certain way? What kind of effect doesit have on student achievement?”

The GSTEP approach is based onre s e a rch that shows the keys to impro v i n gteacher quality are better preparation, bet-ter transition into the profession, and bet-ter professional development. GSTEP isredefining the “beginning teacher” experi-ence into a seamless, six-year process fro me n t ry into college through the second yearof teaching.

“Say our English teachers are expectedto teach Shakespeare,” said Hensley. “Dothey have adequate opportunities to learn

that material? Is the curriculum ade-quate? Are they learning how to teach it– in light of what national standards saythey should know?”

One of GSTEP’s top goals is to buildbetter connections between subject con-tent and classroom experience. A commoncomplaint voiced by beginning teachers isthe “disconnect” they feel between whatthey learned in college and the reality theyface in today’s classrooms. In the pro j e c t ’sfirst year, teams of UGA faculty and publicschool teachers have looked at ways tobetter align methods of teaching withc l a s s room re a l i t y.

These collaborative teams are lookingat curricula in content areas of teachereducation programs in science, English,mathematics, and social studies to see ifthey align with national board cert i f i c a-tion standards. The teams are also devel-oping ways to better pre p a re teachers insubject content.

“For instance, there is a botany courset h a t ’s taught by Arts and Sciences (facul-ty),” said Hensley. “However, it doesn’tshow you how to teach it. Our scienceeducation faculty are looking at pairing aone-unit, one-credit course with thebotany course that would focus on how toteach botany. ”

Another idea UGA science educatorsa re considering is having science educa-tion majors teach science labs in Arts and

Sciences so they can introduce diff e re n tstrategies of teaching than are curre n t l yused in these labs.

“Those are the kind of re c i p ro c a la rrangements we are trying to make. Ithink it presents some incredible possibili-ties,” said Hensley. “Having a teacher whois trained in this way will complement,extend and enhance what it is that stu-dents are learning. That’s very cutting-edge. Nobody else is doing this.” ■

For more information on GSTEP, visit:h t t p : / / w w w. c o e. u g a . e d u / e d p a r t n e r /


One GSTEPAt A Ti m e

REINVENTING TEACHER EDUCATION

GSTEP aims to better prepareteachers and provide more sup-port for them in their first yearsin the classroom.

GSTEP Goals • Improving teachers’ content knowledge,teaching skill, technological expertise andunderstanding of schools and students;• Increasing the amount and quality ofteachers’ clinical/community experiences;• Creating a network – both real and vir-tual – for supporting new teachers;• Increasing the number of prospectiveteachers, especially those from under-rep-resented groups and those committed toteaching in high-need areas;• Assisting beginning teachers in design -ing effective instruction and classroomassessment;• Designing and implementing policy thatfacilitates GSTEP activities;and• Supporting professional growth for allparticipants.


Peg Graham knows what it takesto be a good teacher. She should.She spent 17 years “in thet renches” as a high school

English teacher followed by years ofre s e a rch on teacher preparation and pro-fessional development as a UGA associatep rofessor in language education.

This fall she is using that experienceand knowledge to help the Collegelaunch a model program, called ProjectSupport, for 30 northeast Georgia teach-ers seeking National Board Certification(NBC). The NBC candidates are fromseven different school systems: Clarke(14), Commerce City (2), Gwinnett (3),Jackson (5), Morgan (2), Oconee (3)and Rockdale (1).

“These National Board Cert i f i e dTeachers (NBCTs) become the changeagents in schools. I’ve seen it. I’m sold onit. It’s raising the standards and bringingalong others by example,” Graham said.

With study after study finding thatteaching quality is the strongest pre d i c t o rof student success, Gov. Roy Barnes hascalled for Georgia to have 1,000 NBCTsby 2003. But there ’s a lot of ground tomake up – there were only 111 NBCTs inG e o rgia schools in 2000. Encouraged bystate incentives, there are 776 candidatesthis year. Despite this encouragingi n c rease, the number pales in comparisonto 2,017 North Carolina applicants and

2,002 in South Carolina. Florida leads thenation with 2,349.

Founded in 1987, the National Board ofP rofessional Teaching Standards (NBPTS),has established high standards for whataccomplished teachers should know andbe able to do. It developed a national vol-u n t a ry system to assess and certify teach-ers who meet these standards. The first 86N B C Ts were named in 1995. In 2000, theNational Board awarded NBC to 4,727teachers, bringing the total number ofN B C Ts to 9,531 nationwide.

Incentives for Georgia teachers to par-ticipate in this voluntary pro f e s s i o n a ldevelopment program include a 10 per-cent annual salary increase, $2,000 of theapplication fee paid by the state, re l e a s etime for engaging in certification pro c e s s-es, and license port a b i l i t y.

The nationwide pass rate forNational Board candidates is aro u n d40 percent. But candidates who haves u p p o rt networks re p o rt a muchhigher pass rate. A University ofCincinnati re s e a rcher recently re p o rt-ed an 80 percent pass rate amongthose NBC candidates who part i c i p a t-ed in on-going workshops led bytrained facilitators.

With that in mind, the College collab-orated with area Regional EducationalS e rvice Agencies (RESAs) and localschool districts to sponsor a Facilitator

Institute at UGA last Febru a ry. TheInstitute – conducted by NBPTS person-nel – trained Graham and 40 other UGAf a c u l t y, area school district personnel andN B C Ts to serve as facilitators to new can-didates. Graham’s goal is to have theUGA support project run entirely byN B C Ts in the next several years.

The first year of UGA’s ProjectSupport will be a pilot study with NBCcandidates being asked to be co-researchers in the process of facilitation,according to Graham.

“ We will be collecting data about everyfacet of this process to refine our supportsystem and expand the program in thef u t u re and align our graduate pro g r a m swith NBPTS principles and standard s , ”said Graham. “Ideally, NBCTs wouldfunction exclusively as facilitators sincethey know the most about the pro c e s s ,but until we have more certified teachersin Georgia, we will seek dedicated facili-tators wherever we can.”

She and her COE colleague, SallyHudson-Ross, are no strangers toNational Board Certification. They haveassisted nine teachers from Clarke andOconee counties through the NBCp rocess over the past three years via theirt e a c h e r-mentor group known as theUniversity of Georgia Network of EnglishTeachers and Students (UGA-NETS).UGA-NETS links the College and 12 are aschools, matching undergraduate stu-dents with teacher mentors. In the UGA-NETS program, teacher education stu-dents serve in area classrooms for a fully e a r, rather than the traditional semesterof clinical practice. The network also pro-vides an essential support system and aconducive collaborative setting for men-tor teachers to seek certification. ■

Sharing insights: (L-R) The COE’s PegGraham, three Cedar Shoals High Schoolstudents, their English teacher, PattiMcWhorter, who serves as mentor teacherfor a UGA student-teacher, and the COE’sSally Hudson-Ross.

College of Education Launches Program Support For 30 Northeast Georgia Teachers Seeking National Board Certification


Two Clarke County elementaryschools will open their doorsnext fall to a completely newexperience in education.

It could mean longer school days oryears, diff e rent instructional and learn i n ga p p roaches, more technology and moreinvolvement by parents and communitymembers. Whatever it takes to raise student achievement.

Chase Street and Gaines School Roadelementaries are the first part n e r s h i pschools selected in a gro u n d b reaking col-laboration between the Clarke CountySchool District, the University of Georg i aand the local community that grew out ofa vision shared by Education Dean LouisCastenell and Clarke County SchoolSuperintendent Lewis Holloway.

The partnership initiative, the mostc o m p rehensive of its kind, is a five-yeara g reement spearheaded by a 28-memberdesign team composed of local schoolfaculty and administrators, UGA facultymembers from the College of Educationand the School of Social Work, pare n t s ,and leaders in business and the commu-n i t y. The design team is led by Jenny

O l i v e r, director of academic initiatives forthe College of Education, JoBeth Allen, afaculty member in the College, andN o rma McNair, the Clarke school dis-t r i c t ’s director of instructional serv i c e s .

“Chase and Gaines School were select-ed after looking at a wide range of com-parative characteristics,” said Jenny Oliver.“Among those were students’ test score s ,the number of second-language learners inthose schools, and the number of studentson free and reduced lunches.”

In addition, Oliver and McNair said,s t a n d a rdized test scores indicated thata l t e rnate teaching approaches might pro v em o re beneficial for students in thoseschools. It was also noted that part i c i p a-tion in the initiative will bring neededtechnology upgrades to the schools.

Over the next five years, the designteam will examine other schools acrossthe country to assess which programsand teaching methods best promote stu-dent achievement. They will investigatethe impact of possible innovations, suchas extended school days and schoolyears, evening adult programs, andsocial programs.

■ By Kathleen Folkerth

“The Clarke CountySchool District is excitedabout the possibilities to

tie research and bestteaching practices into

real life opportunities forstudents. This broad

spectrum approach willallow many major

initiatives to operatetogether with a focus on

improving students’learning.”

Dr. Lewis Holloway,Clarke County School District

Superintendent


This fall, “action teams” are beingf o rmed around issues the part n e r s h i pplans to address: the school calendar, cur-r i c u l u m / a s s e s s m e n t / i n s t ruction, pare n tand community involvement, technology,s t a ff development and personnel, leader-s h i p / g o v e rn a n c e / p o l i c y, health, social sci-ences, and educator preparation.

Over the summer of 2001, one actionteam re s e a rched how modified calendars,like year- round schooling, affect students’achievement levels. The action teamsre p o rt to the design team in October. Thedesign team then reviews the pro p o s a land makes recommendations to ClarkeSchool Superintendent Lewis Hollowayin preparation for the November schoolb o a rd meeting.

Also this summer, some design teammembers traveled to Boston to see how asimilar partnership is working there .Other communities with university/school district relationships include SanDiego and Houston, according to Oliver.

“The 2001-2002 school year will be aplanning year,” McNair said.

Principals of the two schools – PhyllisS t e w a rt of Gaines School and Jerr i - Ly n n

Williams of Chase Street – say they andtheir teachers are excited about theo p p o rtunity before them, but some areanxious about the unknown.

“ T h e y ’ re nervous, they’re excited,t h e y ’ re scared, they’ve got questions,’’Williams said of her teachers. “It’s scaryfor a teacher who has been teaching oneyear; it’s scary for a teacher who has beenteaching 30 years.”

Williams said the partnership re p re-sents “the opposite of the way we tradi-tionally do business in education inwhich control trickles down through theh i e r a rc h y. Norm a l l y, guidelines are givento teachers from up top, and those guide-lines say this is what you need to do andthis is how you need to do it. Now, con-t rol is starting at the school level, and it’sgoing up.”

S t e w a rt, who has been at Gaines Schoolfor nine years, said the partnership is instep with her plans for the school.

‘’When I first became principal here, Ithought about my vision of what theschool should be and my dream of whatthe school should look like. This newdesign process falls in line with that,’’

S t e w a rt said. “This will give us more flexibility in curriculum development,p rogramming and community re s o u rces –and the university re s o u rces, of course wehave those, but there will be more of acommitment on all of those areas tomake the school what it should be.’’ ■

For more information on the partnership or tocontribute ideas and/or suggestions, visit theClarke County School District Web site at:h t t p : / / w w w. c l a r k e. k 1 2 . g a . u s .

From far left: Clarke County SchoolSuperintendent Lewis Holloway; NormaMcNair (L), director of instructional servicesfor Clarke Schools talks with Janna Dresdan,a Gaines Elementary School teacher; DeanLouis Castenell answers questions from thepress about the innovative partnership at aFebruary news conference; Bettye Johnson(L) talks with Kati Haycock, director of TheEducation Trust, a Washington, D.C.-basededucation organization during a June meet-ing; Clarke County School Board MemberWalt Denero (L) talks with Phyllis Stewart,principal at Gaines Elementary School.

College Leading Partnership BetweenUGA, Clarke Schools Aimed at RaisingStudent Achievement


If all students learned the same sub-jects, the same way, at the same pace,developing a plan to teach themwould be a snap.

But as any teacher – or parent – can tellyou, kids don’t come with uniform, one-size-fits-all abilities. Neither should theirc l a s s room instruction, says Dr. JosephWi s e n b a k e r, an associate professor of edu-cational psychology and director of UGA’sAcademic Computing Center.

T h a t ’s why Wisenbaker is praising aninnovative program, known as “FlexibleSmall Group Instruction,” that dramatical-ly increases the effectiveness of classro o mteaching. Wisenbaker minces no word swhen he discusses its potential.

“This is the one approach to teachingI’ve seen over the past 30 years that clear-ly enhances students’ educational out-comes in profound ways,” saidWi s e n b a k e r. “The effects of the pro g r a mon standardized test perf o rmance werenearly as large as an extra year of instru c-tion for every year taught, depending ongrade level and content are a . ”

The Flexible Small Group Instructionapproach was developed four years agoby two Gwinnett County elementaryteachers, April Cooper and DeniseVandament, with a Georgia Departmentof Education grant to pilot it at JacksonElementary. Wisenbaker, who served asevaluator of that pilot project, observed

the dramatic rise in stu-dent achievement.

“I kept trying to put intoperspective just how eff e c-tive this approach was,”Wisenbaker said. “I becameconvinced that if it wereimplemented in grades onet h rough five statewide, itwould make Georg i a ’s stu-dents among the very bestin the entire nation.”

The approach involvesteachers working inteams of three and exten-sive pre- and post-testingto determine each stu-d e n t ’s developing needs. Based on testresults, students rotate through a seriesof small group modules directed byteachers, paraprofessionals and trainedp a rent volunteers.

This collaborative model keeps stu-dents focused on areas in which they needto invest their energies, avoids exposingthem to tasks for which they are unpre-p a red and frees them from unpro d u c t i v erepetition on tasks they have already mas-t e red. The creative use of shared instru c-tional responsibilities vastly increases theability of teachers to individualize eachs t u d e n t ’s education. Thus, the pro g r a mi n c reases learning for students at all levelsof achievement.

“ Take almost any third -grade classroom and look atstudents’ reading levels,”Wisenbaker said. “While theaverage for the class may benearly on grade level, there arelikely to be some students whoa re reading several grade levelsbeyond their peers and othersseveral grade levels behind.

“Using (traditional)whole-group instruction insuch settings creates difficul-ties for both teachers andstudents. If a teacher directsher instruction to the middle,students at the upper end

will have to endure the repetition ofwhat they already know. At the sametime, students at the lower end will beexposed to instruction for which theyare not yet prepared. Students in bothsituations are, in effect, neglected.”

But while the highly successful pilotp roject in Gwinnett was able to drawupon a large base of parent volunteers insuburban metro Atlanta, its implementa-tion in Clarke County faced a diff e re n te n v i ronment. Clarke first-grade teachersAnn Mauldin, Sandra Lumpkin, Mary a n nSteele and Frances Wa rd decided to trythe program this past year at FowlerDrive Elementary.

“The teachers and I knew that we

UGA Researcher Says NewTeaching Approach ProfoundlyEffective, Could Make TheDifference In Georgia

S t u d e n t s ?

Joe Wisenbaker, directorof UGA’s AcademicComputing Center saystest scores prove small-group teaching raises student achievement.

B e s tN a t i o n ’s


April Cooper, one of the two teachers who developed the flexible small groupinstruction approach, now teaches first

grade at Chattahoochee Elementary School inGwinnett County. Cooper has taught for 20 yearsin Georgia – including first, s e c o n d , t h i r d , a n dfourth grades as well as special education. H e r e,she talks about the flexible small group instruc-tion approach she developed with her colleague,teacher Denise Va n d a m e n t .

“I taught at Jackson Elementary for five years.When we opened, we were a new school,and afterour first year our test scores were lower thanschools around us. We talked at grade level andfelt something needed to be done. Could we indi-vidualize more? Could we take the kids where theyare and continue forward?

Three teachers including me piloted the pro-g r a m , and we, as well as the parents, found itvery successful.

The benefits are tremendous:• A c a d e m i c a l l y, students really progress when you

teach at their level. As of now, all my first-graders areon or above grade level. I have 12 on grade level and10 above grade level. Many are reading and compre-hending third-grade chapter books. In math, m a n ystudents need challenging, so we have a basic groupand an enrichment group.

• Emotionally, all the students think they’re thebest. There’s not one student always standing out.They’re all successful in their group. And thegroups are flexible, so they are always beingtaught on their level.

• You have other teachers with whom to work.More ideas, more hands, more groups for students.They love going to another teacher. It also givesthe teacher help with materials.

• Parents love the idea that they can help. Everyday we have someone who helps the studentsafter I have taught the skill. I provide the activity,but the parent is there for help. Parents actuallyget to see how much the students progress.

• It also fosters independence. Our studentsknow what to do every day. Anyone could take myplace, and the kids could go on.

I still use this approach and feel I should aslong as I teach.I feel students should be taught attheir level and move ahead as they are ready. Theynot only grow academically but love school.Why?Because they are successful! I think all studentscould benefit from this program.

I do believe, however, when you have teachersworking together closely, they should choose to doit. You can’t make two or three teachers worktogether if they don’t share the same philosophy.It’s not fair to the teachers or the students.

needed to do more for the childre nbecause everyone was not learning toread,” said Sandy Mitchell, principal ofFowler Drive.

Fowler Drive Elementary, where 91p e rcent of the students qualify forreduced or free lunch and almost 25p e rcent of the students are Hispanic,draws from a population with few, if any,p a rents available for volunteer work.The teachers had to look elsewhere tofind sufficient adult re s o u rces to imple-ment small group instru c t i o n .

Help arrived in the form of morethan 200 UGA early childhood educa-tion and educational psychology stu-dents who served as volunteers insmall-group instruction for the projectover the past year while fulfillingdegree requirements for internshipsand classroom experiences.

The results at Fowler Drive werestunning. Student gains on standard i z e dtests were 130 to 150 percent gre a t e rthan what might otherwise be expected.M o re import a n t l y, benefits from the pro-gram were shared equally by students –both high achievers and low perf o rm e r s .

“Having seen their students’ perf o rm-ance on the Stanford-9 tests and seeingwhat is actually happening in their class-rooms, I am blown away by what isgoing on there,” Wisenbaker said. “Nexty e a r, the teachers will be more familiarwith the program, and we should seee n o rmous impact.”

The program was so successful atFowler Drive that the school’s second-grade teachers are also using thea p p roach in their classes this fall.

“Small group instruction should beused statewide to maximize learningfor all children,” Mitchell said.“Having more adults in the classroom

to help is very important. Thisapproach can have amazing results, iforganized very carefully.”

The teaching approach has nowshown solid results in raising studentachievement at two very diff e rent ele-m e n t a ry schools, and Wi s e n b a k e rbelieves it deserves consideration forstatewide application. At the very least,it merits a wider study, he said.

“The program allows schools to deliv-er effective instruction using a 6-to-1student/teacher ratio – without hiringanother teacher or building an extrac l a s s room,” said Wi s e n b a k e r. “We re thep rogram expanded statewide, it couldreach every elementary school inG e o rgia for about 10 percent more thanis currently spent. In effect, this pro g r a mcould be worth nearly $2 billion peryear in savings and benefit to the state.”

For more than a year, Wisenbaker hasworked tirelessly to bring the re m a r k-able success of the program to the atten-tion of state policy makers. And it hasdrawn the attention of key state legisla-tors, members of the Georg i aD e p a rtment of Education, state schoolb o a rd and the Govern o r ’s EducationR e f o rm Commission.

There now appears to be supportfor a larger pilot implementation,Wisenbaker said. Discussions havefocused upon possible appropriationof funds for pilot implementation atfour more schools in the 2002-2003school year.

“If the money becomes available,w e ’ re going to be on a clear path to re v-olutionize what happens in our publicschools,” said Wi s e n b a k e r. ■

Joe Wisenbaker can be reached atj o e @ c o e. u g a . e d u

Kristen Hunt, a junior inearly childhood education,works with two FowlerDrive first graders on theirreading. The teachingapproach, which allows stu-dents to learn at their ownpace, encourages confidenceand interest in learning.

e s t Gwinnett TeacherTalks About ProgramShe Began

tatistics recently re p o rt e dby the Centers for Disease

C o n t rol (CDC) confirmwhat many students, pare n t s

and educators know from their own expe-rience: School violence remains a majorp roblem. The CDC data show:• 1 out of every 20 high school students isinvolved in a physical fight every month• 8% of students were threatened ori n j u red with a weapon• 11% of boys and 3% of girls carried aw e a p o n• 25% of students were victims of a vio-lent act at school

A team of University of Georg i are s e a rchers is testing a unique nationalviolence prevention model in Nort h e a s tG e o rgia middle schools this fall thatcould provide definitive answers on howto reduce the bullying and aggre s s i v ebehavior that is the predominant sourc eof student violence.

The re s e a rch project combines thework of UGA faculty members AndyH o rne, Pamela Orpinas, Bill Quinn andCarl Huberty with that of educationre s e a rchers at the University of Illinois atChicago, Vi rginia CommonwealthUniversity (VCU), and Duke University. Itis funded by a five-year, $12.8 millionCenters for Disease Control grant.

The multi-site project is one of thel a rgest and most complex programs evertested nationally, with multiple interv e n-tions aimed at students, teachers, andfamilies and is one of the most import a n tschool violence prevention pro g r a m sbeing evaluated in the United States, there s e a rchers say.

“What is the best strategy to reduce vio-lence? That’s a question that’s never beena n s w e red,” said Orpinas, an assistant pro-fessor of health promotion in the Collegeof Education. “Is the best approach towork with every student and everyt e a c h e r, trying to change the school cli-

mate? Or is it more eff i c i e n tto work with just the veryhighly aggressive students?Or do we need both? To date,the question has not beenstudied on a large scale.”

The CDC selected fouruniversities for the pro j e c tf rom hundreds of grant pro-posals they received after call-ing for a middle school vio-lence prevention pro g r a m .H o rne, a professor in counsel-ing and human developmentin the College of Education,and Quinn, a professor ofchild and family developmentin the College of Family andConsumer Sciences, proposed a teacherand family intervention strategy.C o n c u rre n t l y, VCU proposed a dynamicstudent intervention program. Duke pro-posed a school monitoring program. UI-Chicago, like UGA, emphasized a targ e t e di n t e rvention program for high-risk stu-dents and their families.

“Each site brought its own experienceand expertise,” said Tracy Elder, pro j e c td i rector for UGA.

The CDC put the pieces of the re s e a rc hpuzzle from the four universities togetherfor the national project. The goal is to usethe best re s e a rch available to develop amiddle school violence prevention pro-gram that will work nationally, whether inan inner city school or a rural school.

The universities worked together toc reate a re s e a rch design during the 1999-2000 school year, then pilot-tested it inlocal schools in 2000-01. Now, they areready to implement it. The program theydeveloped has three components:

• Collaboration and training for t e a c h e r s

• Violence prevention curriculum fors t u d e n t s

• Family intervention pro g r a m

C o l l a b o ration and training for teachers

The first component includes an ini-tial 12-hour session, followed by ongo-ing teacher support (twice-a-monthmeetings) to discuss problems related tothe reduction and prevention of aggres-sion. Participating teachers get threestaff development units (SDUs) credit.The training will help teachers to:

• Increase their awareness of aggres-sion, bullying and violence in school,

• Recognize students who are aggres-sors, targets of aggression, andbystanders,

• Develop interventions to controlaggressive behavior when it happens,

• Develop interventions to assist stu-dents who are targets of aggression, and

• Develop interventions to preventaggressive behaviors.

“We want teachers and students notto be complacent about bullying, look-ing the other way, or accepting it as partof the culture. It is NOT acceptable!”said Elder, a former Barrow Countymiddle school administrator. “That’s thechange in perspective we hope to bringabout in our schools.”

UGA EducatorsCo-Designing, Testing

National PreventionModel in Georgia


STOPPING THE VIOLENCE


Violence prevention curriculum for students

Specialists funded by the project willdeliver the second component. The sixth-grade curriculum consists of 20-22 les-sons (about 40 minutes each) taught oncea week. The seventh-grade curriculum iscomprised of 10 lessons (40 minuteseach) taught once a week. No curr i c u l u mwill be taught for eighth-graders.

Family intervention pro g ra mThe third component will be off e red to

families of sixth-grade students who areboth highly aggre s s i v e / d i s ruptive andinfluential on other students. The objec-tives of the family program are to incre a s epositive family relationships, impro v ep a rental monitoring, and increase pare n tinvolvement in child-rearing and educa-tion. Five to six families will meet once aweek for 15 weeks after school with atrained family therapist.

In Northeast Georgia this fall, thre eschools are receiving the family pro g r a m ,two schools are receiving the teacher andstudent intervention, two schools arereceiving the full program (teacher train-ing, student curriculum and family pro-gram) and two schools are receiving nop rogram, serving as a control group. Thec o n t rol group of schools will re c e i v ere s o u rces from the project to implementthe interventions subsequent to the evalu-ation, should it demonstrate eff e c t i v e n e s s ,said Horn e .

“Evaluation of these components isc rucial,” said Quinn, “because of the cur-rent pre s s u re felt by school administratorsand elected officials to bolster academica c c o u n t a b i l i t y. Devoting more time andre s o u rces to core curricula makes inter-ventions like these dispensable if they arenot proven to be effective. In this case,because we are talking about safety, theoutcome is crucial to school success.”

H u n d reds of teachers and several thou-sand students in 37 schools are part i c i p a t-ing in the program, including nine inG e o rgia, 12 in Illinois, eight in Vi rg i n i aand eight in North Carolina. ■

Tracy Elder can be reached att e l d e r @ c o e . u g a . e d u

Brief bios of the co-principal investigators on UGA’s research team:

Arthur (Andy) Horneprofessor, counseling and human development

Andy Horne is principal investigator in Project A.C.T. Early:Advancing theCompetencies of Teachers for Early Behavioral Interventions of At-Risk Children,which has won national attention over the last several years. He was the principalinvestigator for National Institute of Mental Health grants investigating develop-mental aspects of behavior problems in children,and for 10 years was director ofthe Family Research Program, a project that examined collaborative methods ofassisting families, schools, and juvenile justice systems to address problems ofconduct and oppositional defiant disordered children. He is the author or editorof eight books including his most recent, “Bully Busters.”

Education: PhD in counseling and educational psychology, Southern Illinois University; ME in counseling,University of Florida; BA in English/Journalism Education,University of Florida.

William (Bill) Quinnprofessor, child and family development

Bill Quinn’s expertise lies in multiple family group intervention for at-riskyouth,treatment effectiveness, program evaluation,adolescent substance abuseand family treatment, and violence prevention in middle schools. Quinn developedthe Family Solutions Program, a multiple family group intervention with juvenilefirst-time offenders that is now used exclusively in several northeast Georgia court districts.

Education: PhD in child and family studies, family therapy, VirginiaPolytechnic Institute;MS in counselor education, University of Oregon;BS educa-tion/psychology, SUNY College-Oswego.

Pamela Orpinasassistant professor, health promotion and behavior

Orpinas has worked both in prevention of violence among adolescents inschools and in prevention of domestic violence. Before coming to UGA,asresearcher at the University of Texas-Houston,she was co-principal investigatorand project director of “Students for Peace,” a comprehensive violence preventionproject funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also workedwith the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in the evaluation of behaviors,attitudes, and cultural norms associated with social violence in selected cities inLatin America and Spain.

During the past few years, she has been invited by the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention to review grants in the area of violence prevention and to participate in a study group on youth violence prevention.

Education: PhD in public health,University of Texas-Houston;MS in psychology fromthe Catholic University of Chile;MPH from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Carl J. Hubertyprofessor, educational psychology

Carl Huberty is an expert in statistical analysis. He is a faculty member of theCollege of Education where he has taught for more than 32 years. He has alsotaught in UGA’s department of statistics. He is the author of numerous articles forprofessional journals and is a contributor to several books on applied statistics. Hehas also conducted numerous workshops on discriminant analysis in Australia,Belgium and the United States. His research interests include multivariate methodsand teaching statistical methods.

Education: PhD, educational statistics, University of Iowa;MS in mathematics,University of Wisconsin.

UGA Researchers Working on CDC Multisite Violence Prevention Project

The CDC’s multisite violence preventionproject, one of the most important evalua-tions ever, will involve several NortheastGeorgia middle schools.


From the Old World charm ofItaly to the vast natural beautyof Kenya to the diverse culturalhistory of Mexico, students in

the College of Education are takingadvantage of new opportunities to studyabroad in record numbers.

Eleven COE faculty members, withassistance from the University ofGeorgia’s Office of InternationalDevelopment, currently lead five studyabroad programs.UGA at Oxford University. Each springsemester, 23 education students haveexclusive use of UGA’s internationalstudy abroad facilities at OxfordUniversity in England. They study 12hours of core education courses, visitEnglish schools, and experience life inone of the world’s most prestigious cul-tural and educational centers. StuartFoster, associate professor of social sci-ence education and British native,founded this program in the spring of2000 with professor Tom Clees andassociate professor Cynthia Vail, bothfrom special education.Study A b road in Pe r u . David Gast, pro-fessor of special education, founded theCOE Study Abroad Program in Perusince 1995. Gast advises students inter-ested in the education of elementary andp reschool age children with mental re t a r-dation, autism and behavioral disord e r s .

Georgia/Veracruz Partnership forSocial, Educational and EconomicDevelopment. Three-week courses inXalapa, Mexico, are offered to UGA stu-dents in Maymester and the first sum-mer session. The summer program hasdrawn dozens of local schoolteacherswho earn professional developmentcredit while learning more about theculture of the increasing number ofHispanic immigrants in Georgiaschools. Summer courses began in thesummer of 1999 in cooperation withthe Universidad Veracruzana. Thiscross-college initiative was developedby Jim McLaughlin, associate professorand head of the middle school educa-tion program, Martha Allexsaht-Snider,head of the early childhood educationprogram and Julia Atiles, senior aca-demic professional in elementary educa-tion. Faculty from language educationhave also collaborated on teaching thecourses in Mexico.Study Abroad in Italy. About 20undergraduate education students livewith Italian host families, study Italian,work in and observe classes in Italianschools during Maymester in theCollege’s newest study abroad programin Carpi, Italy. The program was found-ed in spring 2001 and is co-directed byDavid Reinking, professor of readingeducation, and Beverly Payne, professor

of elementary education.Kenya Study Abroad Program. Inwhat may be UGA’s most exoticMaymester experience, about 20 UGAstudents, mostly from the College ofEducation, take a four-week African“safari” where they learn to interactboth socially and academically withKenyans, conduct independent researchstudies, and experience the Africancountry’s rich culture, biology and geog-raphy. The program was co-founded byNorman Thomson, associate professorof science education, and his wife, RoseChepyator-Thomson, associate profes-sor of physical education and sportsstudies and a native Kenyan.

On the following pages, faculty lead-ers in three Study Abroad programswrite about what they and their stu-dents experienced. ■

Arrington-TsaoHeads The COEOffice OfInternational Activities

Study abroad can provide a life-changingexperience for students and faculty. That’swhat happened to Betsy Arrington-Tsao,head of the College’s new Office ofInternational Activities (OIA).She took partin a study abroad program in 1976 that shesays changed the way she viewed the world.

“I’ve never had one, single experienceaffect me in such a positive way as study-ing abroad,” said A r r i n g t o n - T s a o, w h oearned her bachelor’s degree in fine artsfrom UGA in 1988.

For more information:www.coe.uga.edu/edpartner

Study Abroad Programs Offer Exciting New Ways To Learn And Teach

A lek of impala gather in thegrassy fields near LakeNakuru in northern Kenya.

GLOBALStudents Going

Ciao. Buon giorno. Come sta? These and a host of other Italian

phrases are now natural to the vocabu-laries of 20 UGA undergraduate educa-

tion majors who spent Maymester 2001 in Carpi,I t a l y. Thanks to a new College of Education studya b road program, each of the students had theo p p o rtunity to work four mornings a week with ateacher in an Italian elementary or preschool, livewith an Italian host family, study Italian, learnabout the teaching profession in Italy, and experi-ence Italian culture first-hand.

It took two years of planning, working closelywith the UGA Office of International Educationand making two site visits to Italy to launch thep rogram. But arranging for students to actually beinvolved in the instructional programs of Italianschools was the major challenge.

Imagine trying to deal with all the logistics ofplacing students in a field experience but doing it6,000 miles from the school sites and not speakingthe language. Collaboration with an English lan-guage center in Carpi, which mediated contacts withlocal school officials, teachers, community leaders,and host families, helped meet the challenge.

Language diff e rences, a major concern in plan-ning the program, proved to be less of a pro b l e mthan anticipated. The extent to which our studentsbecame actively involved in on-going instruction inthe schools was remarkable. In fact, it created ani n t e resting pedagogical dynamic for our students,the classroom teacher, and the childre n .

Student involvement ranged from helping stu-dents learn English (taught in Italian schoolsbeginning at the second grade) to teachingAmerican songs and games and helping studentscomplete math homework. Children also enjoyedteaching their new American teachers Italian.

Language was manageable in the Italian fami-lies, too, even though students only knew a fewItalian words and phrases. As one student said, “Iwas really worried about the language barr i e r, butit was not a problem at all. With the aid of a dic-t i o n a ry and gestures we were able to talk aboute v e rything – even religion and politics.”

In addition to working in the schools and takingItalian classes three afternoons a week, the UGAg roup made several excursions. A trip to theUniversity of Bologna, the oldest university in theworld, included participation in a “labortorio,” or

methods demonstration, led by a member ofB o l o g n a ’s teacher education faculty. The culturalhighlight of a group excursion to Florence wasviewing the Renaissance art of the famous UfizziG a l l e ry. Weekend travel, often with host families,included trips to nearby tourist sites such asVenice and Ve ro n a .

But, for many students, being “adopted” by a gra-cious and caring host family will be the most mem-orable experience. In many cases they formed close,on-going relationships. As student Lee Ann Callebssaid, “My mom e-mailed Paola, my Italiana mother,to thank her for taking such good care of me. Paolae-mailed back and said she thinks of me just likeher daughter and hopes that we will continue tostay in touch after I re t u rn to the U.S.”

Plans are under way for continuing the pro-gram in Carpi next year. Further, we have bothmade important professional contacts withnational, regional, and local school officials andwith teacher education faculty in Italy. Futurespinoffs of the study abroad program includepublished intercultural comparisons (e.g., com-paring how reading is taught in the U.S. and inItaly), collaborations with Italian researchers,and exchanges of graduate students. ■

David Reinking can be reached atd [email protected]. Beverly Payne can be reached atb p a y n e @ a rc h e s . u g a . e d u .


UGA Students Get Experience In Italian Classrooms

CIAO!

The whole group of UGA students pose for a picture.

■ By David Reinking and Beverly Payne


Twenty-one students from Georgia made af o u r-week safari to Kenya during thisy e a r ’s May session as participants in theCollege of Education’s second Kenya

Study Abroad Pro g r a m .Our safari begins with 17 hours of flying – not

including a five-hour stopover in Amsterdam – tak-ing us over the Alps, the Mediterranean, the SaharaD e s e rt – finally landing south of the equator inK e n y a ’s capital city, Nairobi (Maasai, meaning“ s t ream that is cold”) at 5,000 feet above sea level.

The pro g r a m ’s Kenyan nyubmani (Kiswahili,meaning “home,”) is Moi University, near Eldore t ,n o rthwest of Nairo b i .

The first morning is spent sleeping in, advancingour biological clocks to seven hours earlier than inG e o rgia. From that point on, life becomes hectic, asthe group attempts to maintain schedules in a partof the world that does not allow life to be deter-mined by a clock, but where there is always timefor tea.

Sunrise and sunset on the equator are constants,as day and night are always 12 hours in length. The

transition of dawn and dusk arerapid. Tropical alarm clocks canbe vervet monkeys calling out toeach other as they forage forf ruits, the raucous noise of ibisflying over, or the perpetual earlym o rning cooing of ring-neckeddoves that forms the backdro pfor every film set in Africa. Thenight belongs to the roars oflions and the whoops of hyenas,contrasted by the snorts ofmigrating gnus and zebra.

Students spend the first fewdays in Nairobi learning thenuances of life in a country that’sabout the size of Texas. Kenya,

whose official language is English, but whosenational language is Kiswahili, has more than 46indigenous languages. Speakers of Arabic, Hindu,Gujarat and Afrikaans provide insight to the coun-t ry ’s colonial past.

While walking in downtown Nairobi, one isinundated not only by the incessant honking ofvehicle horns and the whistles of taxi touts, butalso by a cacophony of diff e rent conversationalvowels and syllables.

Students tour the National Museum of Kenyain Nairobi as an introduction to the vast collec-tion of cultural artifacts that represent the fourmajor historical livelihoods found in Kenya: thehunter-gatherers, fishers, agriculturalists andshepherds. The museum also features JoyAdamson’s (best known for her work with lionsdescribed in “Elsa” and “Born Free”) classicwatercolor portraits of the people of Kenya, areplica of Ahmed (the largest elephant everfound in Kenya and one provided 24-hour armedescort in his old age), and East Africa’s famouscollection of hominoid fossils, dating back six

■ Photos and Story by J. Rose Chepyator-Thomson and Norman Thomson

Students Make ‘Safari’ To A Different World

KENYA

million years. It seems everyone’s rootscan be traced to Kenya.

Just outside the museum is Nairo b iSnake Park which provides downtownlodging for at least 40 species ofK e n y a ’s snakes, including pythons,mambas, cobras, vipers and a larg eopen snake pit in which any intru d e ris subject to poisoning.

We visit City Park to feed and interactwith blue monkeys, and an afternoon isspent at the Bomas of Kenya that feature sa range of traditional music and dances.An evening meal includes the intern a t i o n-ally famous restaurant, The Carn i v o re ,w h e re the cuisine features ostrich, cro c o-dile, eland, zebra and many kinds ofgazelle. Most students give the eland,zebra and gazelle a thumbs-up, but cro c o-dile and ostrich muster only mixedreviews, although everyone agrees theyessentially taste “just like chicken.”

One early safari includes a day trip toAmboseli National Park to view the vastelephant herds found atthe base of MountK i l i m a n j a ro, Africa’shighest peak at 19,000feet, made famoust h rough the writings ofE rnest Hemingway. Toreach Kilimanjaro onemust travel thro u g hMaasai land where war-riors wear red and carrylong spears, always pre-p a red to shed blood fortheir people. A mixtureof cow’s blood and milkp rovides the Maasaiwith one of the world’srichest protein diets.

Traveling up country to MoiU n i v e r s i t y, we traverse the Great RiftVa l l e y, lined by ancient volcanoes form e don the largest fault line in the Eart h ’sc rust where Africa is slowly splittinga p a rt. Along the undulating route, risingand falling several thousand feet, onepasses by soda lakes lined with tens ofthousands of pink flamingos.

Moi University is located on the UasinGishu plateau at 7,000 feet above sea level.The next two weeks are spent there work-ing on a re s e a rch project of the student’schoice. Topics include documentation ofindigenous science knowledge, educationin unwritten languages, animal behavior,conversations with Kenya’s world-classrunners on their training methods, thecontradictions and congruencies of cus-t o m a ry and “western” systems of law,issues concerning health, poverty andhomelessness, challenges in operatingsmall-scale businesses, and cattle-raising.

Moi University professors pro v i d einsight into Kenya’s past, present andf u t u re and also provide students withindividualized re s e a rch consultation. Fieldtrips to various sites and schools pro v i d ef u rther dimensions to knowing Kenya.Kenya? Hakuna matata! (No problem!)

Kenya provides an unrivaled combina-tion of opportunities for any traveler. Thec o u n t ry lies astride the equator and

unfolds into a diverse topography with avariety of flora and fauna. From thew a rm, blue water of the Indian Oceanwith miles of sandy white, palm-linedbeaches and coral reefs, the countryextends inland to the world’s second-l a rgest body of fresh water, Lake Vi c t o r i a ,noted for its cichlid fish (not to mentionH u m p h rey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn ,and The African Queen). In between is gla-c i e r-capped Mount Kenya, the Great RiftValley and the shimmering, vast savannasteeming with wildlife. ■

N o rman Thomson can be reached at n t h o m s o n @ c o e . u g a . e d u


(Clockwise from far left): Thousands offlamingos dot the waters of Lake Nakuru; an Agama agama lizard; UGAstudents pose;a giraffe in the wild; all Kenyan studentswear uniforms.


The Georgia/Veracruz Partnership forSocial, Educational and EconomicDevelopment is everything an interna-tional cooperative agreement between

two major universities in two distinctly differentcountries should be.

A cross-college initiative within the Universityof Georgia that combines aspects of teaching,service and research, the partnership began witha formal agreement of cooperation between UGAand the Universidad Veracruzana (UV) in 1992.

Over the next few years, College of Educationfaculty worked with UV faculty to create coursesfor UGA students at the Mexican university’smain campus in Xalapa. The courses were ini-tially offered in the summer of 1999, drawingundergraduate students as well as a dozenNortheast Georgia school teachers, who are see-ing rising numbers of Mexican immigrants intheir student populations.

By the summer of 2000, students and facultyfrom Education, Social Work, Agriculture,Environmental Sciences, and Family andConsumer Sciences were all working in Xalapa.This past spring, several anthropology studentsdid a research internship there.

Within just a few years, Xalapa has becomethe third-largest study abroad site for UGA.

Faculty members involved in the partnershipwork in four areas:Professional development: College ofEducation faculty have created courses forMaymester and the first summer session(EDEC/EDMS/ELAN 5180/7180), which areopen to UGA undergraduate and graduate stu-dents and practicing educators.

These courses are taught on-site in Mexico,and they provide a cultural immersion experi-ence that increases participants’ knowledge oflife in Mexico, deepens their understanding ofcultural issues in Georgia and enhances theirSpanish language skills.

■ By Jim McLaughlin

Students And Teachers Learning From Georgia/Veracruz Partnership

MEXICO


During the mornings, we visit diverseschool settings to talk with students andteachers, and we incorporate trips tohistorical and cultural sites. Mexicanuniversity faculty at the School forForeign Students in Xalapa teach aSpanish class every day for the partici-pants. Pairs of participants stay with aMexican host family, a highlight of theexperience because so much is learnedabout Mexican family life.

In the last three summers, 43 under-graduate students, eight graduate studentsand 41 practicing educators in Nort h e a s tG e o rgia have participated in the “XalapaExperience.” Each course is co-taught byfaculty from elementary education andlanguage education. Altogether, five facul-ty members and two graduate studentshave taught the pro g r a m .Professional exchanges: In addition toour trips to Mexico, 15 Mexican col-leagues (professors, university studentsand school teachers) have come toAthens for one to three weeks, visitingUGA classes and local public schools,meeting people in their field of studyand spending time in the community.

Research: Facultyin the College ofEducation and theSchool of SocialWork are jointlydeveloping a majorresearch project totake place inMexico andGeorgia. We will becollaborating withour Mexican col-leagues and involv-ing UGA graduate students in our work.Community Outreach: We work witheducators in Athens and Gainesville toenhance staff development related toworking with Latino students and fami-lies. In Mexico, for the past two sum-mers, UGA faculty have conductedresearch workshops and helped toorganize mini-conferences on issuesrelated to social work and education.Looking Ahead: Our major goal is tohelp prospective and practicing educa-tors in Georgia teach students and workwith families who come from othercountries. Because so many Mexican

immigrants are now coming to Georgia,living and learning in Mexico is a vitalexperience for educators today.

To take advantage of the growinginterest in international experiencesamong students and citizens, we wantto expand our educational programs:

• To create semester-long educationalexperiences for UGA undergraduatesand expand opportunities for semester-long or year-long study in Mexico forUGA graduate students.

• To offer three-course blocks ofcourses as part of the regular six-weeksummer school program offered at UV

that could be used to meet professional certification in edu-cation, a foreign languagerequirement, or for an ESOL(English as a Second Language)endorsement. These could be co-taught by faculty from UGAand Xalapa and might enroll students from both countries. ■

Jim McLaughlin can be reached [email protected]

John Bishop (L), a master’s studentin middle school education, workswith Mexican students outside. DellTaylor (above), a fifth-grade teacherat Fair Street Elementary School inGainesville, is one of dozens ofGeorgia teachers who have studiedcultural and educational differencesby spending time in Mexican class-rooms and visiting historical siteslike the temple at El Tajin in northern Veracruz.


Deborah Tippins’ research intocommunity-based scienceeducation has led herhalfway around the world –

to the island of Panay in thePhilippines. Friends and colleagues willonly be able to reach her via e-mail orinternational long distance calls,because that’s where she’ll be workingfor the next academic year.

Tippins, an associate professor inscience and elementary education, is thelatest of 11 Fulbright Scholars in theCollege over the last decade. She’ll becollaborating with science teacher edu-cators at West Visayas State Universityin Iloilo City, and with classroom teach-ers and student teachers in ruralbarangay (community) elementaryschools. The research team also includes

Sharon Nichols, an East CarolinaUniversity professor.

In recent years, educators in thePhilippines and other Southeast Asiancountries have emphasized the use oflocal knowledge and resources in thebarangays to develop relevant sciencecurriculum. In line with this emphasis,the researchers are focusing on thedevelopment of science education basedon local needs, including environmentaland health issues. Because of the rapideconomic and cultural change takingplace in the Philippines, teachers facemany dilemmas related to the environ-ment and health.

“In the elementary school we areworking with, science educators areteaching children about the problems ofdeforestation and how that relates to the

ozone layer,” Tippins said. “Yet, afterschool, children go home to accompanytheir parents on the farms to cut downtrees. These trees are burned to makecharcoal which is then sold to buy foodfor the next day. So there’s an issue ofshort-term versus long-term benefits.This issue is a challenge for the scienceteacher as it creates tension betweenhome and school values.”

Other immediate issues the researchteam (both science teacher educatorsand classroom teachers) are trying toaddress include: water quality, man-grove protection, fishing techniques,and disposal of wastes.

Fulbright ScholarCollaborating OnScience EducationResearch In ThePhilippines

L e a rn i n gH o wO t h e r s LO t h e r s


"For example, fishermen catch ban-gus fry in nets. However, the fingerlingsof many fish are also caught in the netsand are thrown away on the shoreline aswaste products, thus affecting the fish-ing stock," she said. "We hope toengage these young children in scienceinquiry – using design technology toinvestigate different net sizes and howthis might affect the bangus fry fishing."

Another aspect of Tippins’ researchfocuses on second-language sciencelearning. There are many distinct lan-guages in the Philippines. The nationallanguage is Tagalog (Filipino). However,many regional languages are prominent.In the Iloilo province, languages such asIlonggo or Kinaray-a are spoken as firstlanguages. In school it is required thatall science and mathematics be taughtin English. This triple linguistic conven-tion creates challenging dilemmas forscience teachers.

“In Georgia, where we have anincreasing immigrant population, teach-ers also face dilemmas in addressing theneeds of second-language learners,” saidTippins. “Our research in thePhilippines can inform science teachereducation at UGA by internationalizingour science education curriculum andbetter understanding issues related tosecond-language science learning.”

Tippins is developing a link to theCOE science education department’sweb site that will feature internationalcase narratives of science teaching. Inaddition, she wants to develop an inter-national science casebook to broadenand internalize UGA’s science educationcurriculum. Last year, the departmenttook a first step toward this goal bydeveloping a new course titled,“International Science Education.”

Tippins hopes her research will ledto a better understand of the differences

between American and Filipino teach-ing and learning.

“One diff e rence is the age of col-lege students. Tenth grade is the finalyear of high school in the Philippines,so college freshmen are a few yearsyounger than those in the U.S.,” shesaid. “The language is also a big diff e r-ence. As I mentioned, many Filipinosa re tri-lingual.”

Even though this research collabora-tion is fairly new, the group has alreadypublished articles in the Journal ofResearch in Science Teaching (May2001), and Research in Science Education(April 2001). Tippins and her col-leagues have also presented theirresearch at several national and interna-tional teacher education conferences.

Tippins first visited the Philippinesthrough UGA’s International Fellowsprogram in 1997, its inaugural year. Shecredits her mentor Joe Riley, a professorof science education, for her interest inthe Philippines. Riley was a Peace Corpsvolunteer and later, a Fulbright Fellowin the Philippines. ■

Deborah Tippins can be reached at [email protected]

Clockwise from left: Philippine/AmericanFriendship Day at the elementary schoolon the WVSU campus; Students andteachers outside the Julian Pueyo PrimarySchool in Cabutuan, Iloilo; Elementarystudents perform an historical play on the WVSU campus.

e r s L e a rn e r s


For the more than 125,000G e o rgia schoolteachers who facea new state-mandated technolo-gy re q u i rement for re c e rt i f i c a t i o n

over the next five years, the College ofEducation offers several options in thec l a s s room and over the Intern e t .

Teachers can take a course over sevendays at one of two UGA EducationalTechnology Training Centers (ETTC) orenroll in a regular UGA instructionaltechnology (IT) graduate course offeredonline beginning this fall.

Test-out options are available throughboth programs. Holding National Boardfor Professional Teaching Standards(NBPTS) certification will also satisfythe computer skill competency require-ment as defined in the Georgia A+Education Reform Act.

The UGA Educational Te c h n o l o g yTraining Center, with locations in Athensand Gwinnett County, offers a pro f e s s i o n-al development course called InTech thatnot only satisfies the new re q u i re m e n t ,but serves as a model course for meetingit. Teachers attend training for 50 hours(3 semester credits). The cost of thecourse is $50 per teacher.

One of 13 such facilities scatteredthroughout the state, the UGA ETTC

has provided technology training tomore than 2,200 Northeast Georgiateachers since 1998. Two more centers– in Dalton and Brunswick – werescheduled to open this fall.

“We provide this class to more than800 teachers a year, about 20 peopleper class,” said John Wiggins, directorof UGA’s ETTC. “Teachers attend inteams of five from their schools sothey can work together, help and sup-port each other.” In anticipation ofmore teachers seeking technologytraining, the center is adding an addi-tional instructor this fall.

If you’d rather meet the requirementonline, the College’s instructionaltechnology department is offering acourse (EDIT 6150) that satisfies thetechnology requirement. The cost ofthe course will be $375 for 3 graduatecredits and requires that teacherswishing to take the course becomeadmitted to the Graduate School priorto enrolling. The cost for the test-outoption is the same as for the regularcourse and also requires admission tothe Graduate School.

The EDIT 6150 course may be usedtoward completion of the IT depart-ment certificate program called

Technology Use and Integration in K-12 Schools for Educators with two-course (computer-using teacher) andfour-course (technology coordinating)options. The second course, EDIT7500, offered online, requires teachersto design, implement and evaluate alarge-scale technology integration proj-ect in their classrooms over six weeks.

“While EDIT 6150 will fulfill thetechnology requirement, we as a facul-ty did not feel that a single-course wassufficient,” said Michael Orey, associateprofessor of instructional technology.“This is not part of the A+ bill. It ispart of our effort to have a greaterimpact on teaching and learning in thestate. The first course covers technicalskills and integration concepts. Thesecond course is only about integra-tion. This is the most difficult part ofgetting teachers to use technology intheir classrooms. Technical skills areone thing but giving them sound mod-els for integration is more important.”

In addition to the two coursesmentioned above, the four-course ITc e rtificate re q u i res a technology plan-ning course (EDIT 6320) and an elec-tive. EDIT 6320 is off e red online. Theelective can be any course the ITd e p a rtment offers. ■

More information on InTech at:http://ttc.coe.uga.edu

More information on IT courses at:http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/psframe-set.htm

UGA Offers

UGA ETTC instructors Diane Carr (L) andChrista Harrelson work at a conference inSavannah.

Technology Training OptionsFor Teacher Recertification

Online


Fall 2001 saw the enrollment ofthe first class of students into anew College of Education on-line program giving educators

throughout the state, nation and worldthe opportunity to earn a master’sdegree in adult education from theUniversity of Georgia.

The program is designed to meetthe needs of working pro f e s s i o n a l swho are unable to attend classes in atraditional university setting. Allcourses re q u i red for the program willbe delivered electro n i c a l l y.

“With WebCT, e-mail and othertelecommunication methods, classes areconducted with the same high degree ofinstruction as found in traditional class-rooms,” said Ron Cervero, professorand graduate coordinator in adult edu-cation. “With the use of technology, thisprogram is delivered to students’ com-puters, allowing them to study andlearn at a time and at a pace that isright for them.”

Students in the program’s first cohortthis fall are from the cooperative exten-sion service, hospital and health educa-tion, the corporate sector and post-sec-ondary institutions. The first two cours-

es will be taught by adult education fac-ulty members Talmadge Guy and JanetTruluk. New cycles will commence eachfall semester with the admission of 20new students into the program.

“We started this program because webelieve that adult education is increas-ingly important in society, and thus,there is great need for adult educatorsto be prepared at the graduate level,”said Cervero.

The requirements for the degree ofMaster of Education are met by thecompletion of an approved program of aminimum of 33 hours (11 courses) ofgraduate coursework. In addition, stu-dents must complete an applied project,prepare an M.Ed. Student Portfolio, andcomplete a final oral exam.

The School of Leadership andLifelong Learning, located in River’sCrossing, offers extensive outreach aca-demic programs.

• A cooperative doctoral program withF o rt Valley State University, delivered on

the campus of Macon State College, grad-uated its first cohort last winter.

• Master’s degree programs areoffered by all three departments – adulteducation, educational leadership andoccupational studies – at the UniversitySystem of Georgia’s Gwinnett Center,just northeast of Atlanta.

• Other major off-campus sitesinclude a cooperative doctoral programin educational leadership with WestGeorgia State University in Carrolltonand graduate offerings in Fayetteville.

• The school also delivers muchcourse work through some form ofdistance learning. Currently underdevelopment is an Ed.D. pro g r a mbeing designed to pre p a re executiveleaders for Georg i a ’s post-secondarytechnical institutes. ■

For more information on the online master’sin adult education, visit: www.coe.uga.edu/adulted/onlinemasters.html

College Launches Online Adult Education M.Ed.

Pictured L-R are: Ron Cervero, professor ofadult education; Karen Watkins, director ofthe School of Leadership and LifelongLearning; and Brad Courtenay, professor ofadult education. Twenty professionals beganthe online master’s degree program in adulteducation this fall.

College of Education researcher Gary Dudley isnot an easily excitable man, but these days hecan hardly contain his enthusiasm about a newbiomedical research and education initiative

between the University of Georgia and the ShepherdCenter, the nation’s largest hospital for brain and spinalcord injuries.

The initiative announced in April formalizes a relation-ship that has been growing over several years, according toDudley, director of the Muscle Biology Laboratory in theSchool of Health and Human Performance.

“This is a good thing getting better,” Dudley said. “Wehave collaborated with the scientists and doctors in theCrawford Research Institute since it was founded fiveyears ago at Shepherd Center, and this opens the door todo more with them.”

Dudley, a professor of exercise science, has collaboratedwith Shepherd Center doctors on research focusing prima-rily on the influence of spinal cord injury on neuromuscu-lar function. Recent research involved body-weight sup-ported ambulation, studying the likelihood that peoplewho have incomplete spinal cord injuries might walkagain. Using a support harness, therapists help patientswalk on a treadmill, assessing the possibility of “teaching”the damaged spinal cord and its sensory networks toregain their function.

In his re s e a rch, Dudley uses magnetic re s o n a n c eimaging and structural and biochemical measures fro mbiopsy samples to quantify muscle adaptations to physi-cal activity, inactivity and disease states. He also uses aKin-Com dynamometer, equipment for muscle histo-c h e m i s t ry and biochemistry, and a computerized imageanalysis system.

The goals of the alliance between UGA and theShepherd Center are:

• To increase scientific collaboration in the study, pre-vention and treatment of disease and disability;

• To expand funding opportunities for UGA and theShepherd Center to ensure their growth and prominencein these fields; and

• To capitalize on opportunities to combine research,clinical practice and advanced training in order to preparea new generation of biomedical scientists and health pro-fessionals.

“This partnership creates a wide range of opportunitiesfor both organizations,” said Karen Holbrook, UGAprovost and senior vice president for academic affairs.“The beneficiaries will be people with spinal cord injuries,head trauma, multiple sclerosis and other neurologicalconditions.”

A steering committee with re p resentatives from thetwo institutions will develop and implement a plan forthe initiative. Discussion is under way to create an intra-mural seed-funding program for collaborative re s e a rc h .A longer- t e rm goal will be to identify external re s o u rc e sfor re s e a rch support .

The Shepherd Center in Atlanta is the country ’sl a rgest catastrophic care hospital specializing in thet reatment of people with spinal cord injury and disease,a c q u i red brain injury, multiple sclerosis and other neu-romuscular disorders, and urological problems. TheS h e p h e rd Center is a Model Center in both brain andspinal cord injury, and an official Multiple Sclero s i sC e n t e r, designated by the National Multiple Sclero s i sS o c i e t y. Founded 25 years ago, the 100-bed not-for- p ro f-it hospital offers a continuum of health care serv i c e s ,f rom intensive care through inpatient medical surg i c a lc a re, rehabilitation, day program, and outpatient andresidential services. ■

Gary Dudley can be reached at [email protected]


New Biomedical InitiativeLaunched Between UGA And

The Shepherd Center

Dudley studies computer images of spinal cord injury.

■ By Sharron Hannon


Children with disabilities oftenface difficulty interactingsocially with other children,but a College of Education

researcher is successfully using comput-er games to help these kids learn socialskills and develop a sense of control.

John Dattilo, professor and head ofrecreation and leisure studies, andRichard Williams, a former doctoral stu-dent, have designed computerizedgames that teach children with disabili-ties how to act assertively and to inter-act with other children.

“We’re trying to improve the knowl-edge and skills of individuals with dis-abilities so they can have more mean-ingful and enjoyable experiences duringtheir free time,” says Dattilo.

He has found from his re s e a rch overseveral years that computer- b a s e di n s t ruction improves student knowl-edge and skills by providing childre nwith examples of concepts and issuesto which they can relate. Using this

basic knowledge and following consul-tation with the College’s instru c t i o n a ltechnology department, Dattilo andWilliams developed computerizedl e i s u re game software .

The game features the adventures ofcavewoman and caveman, Beebee andOg, as they journey through a cave, gla-cier and jungle. The Og game isdesigned to teach children how to makeproper choices in their leisure. TheBeebee game teaches social skills usedduring play. Along the way, Beebee andOg are confronted with different socialsituations in which the player mustmake choices for the cavepeople. If theplayer chooses the correct option, thenBeebee and Og can continue on theirjourney until they arrive at the end – ahomecoming party. If the player choosesthe wrong option, then a hint is givenabout the correct option and the cavepeople remain at that social situationuntil the right response is chosen.

Dattilo, with the help of Lynne Cory,

a doctoral student in recreation andleisure studies, has examined the effectsof his computer games on children withdisabilities attending an Athens-areasummer day camp. Participants weretested throughout the past three sum-mers and for two months after thestudy ended to assess their knowledgeof social skills and self-determination inleisure. The scores on the test improvedafter the children played the Og andBeebee games.

The findings from the first year of thestudy, published in the Journal of SpecialEducation Technology, reconfirm thepower of computers as a teaching toolfor those who have difficulty learning intraditional settings. ■

John Dattilo can be reached [email protected]

Computers Help Kids WithDisabilities Bridge Social Gap

NOT JUST PLAYING GAMES...

John Dattilo (background) watches as twoyoung students play the computer game hehelped design.

■ By Heather Edelblute


When an athlete is knockedunconscious or left dazedby a blow to the head,doctors and athletic train-

ers use basic tests to determine the sever-ity of the injury. They may ask the athleteto visually track their finger, describetheir location, balance on one leg, andremember plays.

Such simple, time-honored tests arehelpful for on-the-field assessments, butathletic trainers and medical pro f e s s i o n a l sneed better evaluation tools for some-thing as serious as a head injury.

A UGA research team consisting offaculty from the College of Education’sdepartment of exercise science, physi-cians from the university health center,athletic trainers from the athletic associ-ation, and local physicians are nowusing state-of-the-art computerizedimaging models called posturographsand a battery of Web-based neuropsy-chological tests for injured UGA ath-letes to improve the evaluation of headinjuries and define better criteria forreturn-to-play decisions.

The re s e a rch focuses on one of themost common head injuries suff e red inathletics – cerebral concussion – a traumaoften identified by impaired neuro l o g i c a lfunction, including loss of consciousness,dizziness, impaired memory and disori-entation, says Michael Ferrara, associatep rofessor of exercise science and dire c t o r

of UGA’s athletic training pro g r a m .Concussions account for as many as 9%of athletic injuries in high school footballplayers and 5% of injuries in college play-ers. Even though these percentages aresmall in terms of overall injuries, theirc a t a s t rophic potential warrants furt h e rattention, says Ferr a r a .

“Of great concern is the process bywhich athletes are evaluated and deci-sions made concerning re t u rn - t o - p l a y, ”he says. “Impaired cognitive abilitiesd e c rease an athlete’s ability to evadepotentially dangerous situations, thusi n c reasing their risk of further injury. ”

Concussion has gotten more atten-tion in the sports world recently withthe retirements of star pro football quar-terbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Youngafter each suffered repeated concus-sions. And that, says Ferrara, is why themedical community is paying moreattention to concussions these days –second impact syndrome.

“ R e s e a rch shows that once you have aconcussion, you’re five times more likelyto have a second concussion. And forthose who suffer multiple injuries, ittakes longer and longer to recover fro meach subsequent concussion.”

UGA re s e a rchers say that by pro v i d i n gm o re accurate data to those makingre t u rn-to-play decisions, the incidence ofsecond impact syndrome can be re d u c e d .C u rre n t l y, athletes sustaining a concus-

sion are treated with rest until symptomsresolve. This could be within minutes fora very minor injury or up to 7-10 daysfor moderate to severe concussions.

“ We found that most concussions toUGA athletes resolve within three days,”F e rrara said.

The standard criterion for return-to-play decisions is that the athlete mustbe asymptomatic for seven days – at rest

Research Setting New Standards For Evaluation Of Concussions

Mike Ferrara is investigating whether new,more accurate standards need to be set forreturning athletes to play after they suffer aconcussion. At top, UGA athletic trainersattend to an injured Bulldog football playerduring a game at Sanford Stadium. An ath-lete (opposite page) takes a balance test onthe NeuroCom.

Making Better DecisionsMaking Better Decisions


Taking another step toward becoming anational leader in sports medicine, the

University of Georgia’s athletic training programhas earned full accreditation just 18 months afteropening the program.

The UGA program earned a five-year certifi-cation from the Commission on Accreditation ofAllied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)after proving that it meets the organization’shigh standards in providing superior clinicaland classroom experiences. U G A’s program isone of only two accredited in Georgia and fouramong Southeastern Conference universitieswith A l a b a m a , Florida and South Carolina. It isamong 125 accredited athletic training pro-grams nationwide.

The program offers a BSEd in exercise science with an emphasis in athletic training.M i ke Ferrara directs the UGA athletic trainingp r o g r a m .

The program provides students an in-depthexposure to the scientific basis of physical activi-ty, exercise and sport.Knowledge and skills relat-ed to exercise and sport biomechanics, physiolo-gy, psychology, epidemiology; athletic training;physical fitness and conditioning; and statisticsand measurement theory are gained throughcourse work, independent study, laboratory activ-ities and field experience.

Students gain clinical experience with UGAmale and female sports, in-season and out-of-season sports, contact and non-contact sports;and every student does at least one semester offootball. Ten full-time UGA certified athletic train-ers supervise the clinical experiences of student

athletic trainers who mayreceive clinical experiencesin a variety of medical andallied medical settings, plussurgical observation.Uponcompletion of the academicand clinical requirements,students sit for the NationalAthletic Trainers AssociationBoard of CertificationExamination.

Admission to the exercise science major

with athletic training emphasis is selective.Students should apply for the program duringtheir sophomore year. Admission is based on aminimum 2.75 GPA and satisfactory comple-tion of undergraduate core classes. Ty p i c a l l y,the athletic training program accepts about 15 students per year.

and during exertion. No headaches. Nodizziness. No changes in balance. If theathlete shows any of these symptoms,the clock is reset, and the seven-daywait starts over.

“In terms of re t u rn - t o - p l a y, there arev e ry few criteria out there, and most ofthem are subjective. ‘How do you feel?Do you have a headache? Do you feelsick, or are you sleepy?’ Those types ofthings. And the athlete may or may notalways be truthful,” Ferrara says.

Now UGA re s e a rchers are usinghigh-tech equipment called aN e u roCom to measure balance and aWeb-based neuropsychological testb a t t e ry, rather than the standard pen-and-pencil version, to detect moresubtle changes in the athlete’s memory,l e a rning, attention and reaction time.They have gathered baseline data onUGA athletes in football, men’s andw o m e n ’s basketball, baseball, women’ss o c c e r, softball and cheerleading. Theyhave tracked more than 30 concus-sions over three years.

F o rmer doctoral student Mart yMrazik recently validated a mathe-matical model for re t u rn-to-play deci-sions through the neuro p s y c h o l o g i c a ltests. The Reliable Change Index(RCI) that Mrazik investigated takesinto account a number of factorsrelated to each test and determines aminimum acceptable score. If this

s c o re is not achieved, the athlete isclassified as impaire d .

“ We had a 90% success rate in accu-rately predicting impairment for the firstcouple of days following injury,” Ferr a r asays. “That’s really exciting because itp rovides further objective evidence formaking re t u rn-to-play decisions.”

R e s e a rchers say that superior testingand clinical care are provided to UGAathletes who suffer such injuries, butthey have more concern about decisionsbeing made for high school athletes.

“The high school athlete who suffersa concussion may go to an ER (emer-gency room),” saidFerrara, “sit therefor a couple ofhours, then the ERphysician examineshim, asks him howhe’s feeling andsays ‘We’ll see youin two weeks.’ So,the athlete goesback to school, andthe coach doesn’tknow what to do. He has to make somedecisions. And how does he make thosedecisions? What we’re trying to do isassist physicians in making goodreturn-to-play decisions.” ■

Michael Ferrara may be contacted at m f e rr a r a @ c o e . u g a . e d u

Athletic TrainingProgram ReceivesAccreditation


The College of Education Honor Roll of Donors 2000-2001The Honor Roll of Donors re c o g n i z e sgifts made to the College of Educationt h rough the University of Georg i aFoundation from July 1, 2000 thro u g hJune 30, 2001.

C o rp o ra t eAction Based Learning in EducationBellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.Columbus Medical Center FoundationConrad Construction Co.Design Interactive, Inc.E rnst & Young Foundation Family Behavioral Care of

Central Georg i aF reedom of MovementGeneral Motors FoundationGuinness UDV North

America FoundationH i s t o ry of Education SocietyH o m e p l a c eIBM CorporationThe Jane and Jack Goldfrank FamilyThe Ayco Charitable FoundationJohnson Controls FoundationThe K (Kindness) ClubK a rolinska InstitutetL e a rning in Retire m e n tThe McGraw-Hill Foundation. Inc.M e rrill Lynch & Co. Foundation, Inc.N o v a C a reN S S L H AThe Rayonier FoundationScholastic Testing Service, Inc.State Farm Companies FoundationUSX Foundation, Inc.

Dean's Club – recognizing donorswho have given a minimum of $1000during the year. Gifts atthis level also qualify for the Universityof Georgia Annual President's Club.

D r. Ira E. Aaro nJanice Puder Agro nM a rtha Nell AllmanM r. and Mrs. Gene M. BarberBrian Christopher Bru c eBob and Maxine Burt o nVi rginia M. Carv e rEthel Tison Chaff i nD r. Bernice Louise CooperD r. Carolyn Carson DahlThelma Bray Dorsey EstateBeverly Smith Fultz and

Melvin L. FultzSara O. Glickman and

D r. Carl D. GlickmanD r. George Olin HallmanRyan HammerD r. Charles Thomas Holmes and

Roselle Massey HolmesCharles H. Jarv i sVi rginia Stewart Jarv i sD r. Denise Spangler MewbornColumbus Red Stixx

P rofessional BaseballJoyce E. Morw a yPatricia Taylor and Doyle K. MoteDavid John Mullen, Jr. and

Cynthia Shields MullenSuzanne M. MullerBoyd R. ParkerMichael E. and Michele A. PriceD r. and Mrs. William O. ScottD r. William Walter SwanD r. E. Paul To rr a n c eS h a ron Green Webber and

M. Thomas We b b e r, Jr.Drs. John T. and Patricia S. Wi l s o nLois Cason Wooten and

Frank L. Wooten, Jr.D r. Russell H. Yeany Jr. and

Mrs. Brenda Ye a n y

College Club – recognizing donorswho have given a minimum of $500during the year.

D r. Louis A. Castenell, Jr.K e rry M. CenterWilliam M. CommentJonathan Clark R. Fort s o nDawn Michele Harr i l lH i l d e g a rd K. HolmesMark Allan and Joanie Kenny HoytRandall and Rita ManningM r. and Mrs. Lloyd C. McNally, Jr.Linda L. and David H. Tu rn e r

Century Club – recognizing donorswho have given a minimum of $100during the year.

Livy Beck AbeleD r. Stephen Kwasi AgyekumNaomi Shearouse Alderm a nDrs. Jo Beth E. and Lewis Ray AllenD r. Mary E. AndersPatricia Humphrey Arn o l dDianne Lee BakerDaniel Lee & Kimberly Y. BallD r. Ian Courtney Barre t tKevin L. & Glenda M. BerryD r. Joan D. Berry m a nRuth Mitchell BilbroG reg S. & Theresa A. BlackCharles Elbert BowenMaria Spence and Thomas L. Bower IIIS t e w a rt V. Bowers, Jr. and

Jane Pro b e rt BowersD r. James S. BradshawC u rtis L. BraggD r. Martha Clarkson Braswell and

James A. BraswellLesley Martine Bro a d w e l lKeith L. Bro w nPatricia Condon Burch and

D r. Charles B. Burch, Jr.Hunter Joyce BurtJoan M. Buttram

Joe B. ButtramJoyce Bennett and Kevin F. CallahanD r. Frank John CarboRita M. Carf a g n aR o b e rt T. Carmichael, Sr.H. Banks Carroll, M.D.Ruby L. CarsonRoss J. and Sherry G. CentanniD r. Billie Jean ChambersR o b e rt R. Chrz a n o w s k iElizabeth Walker ColeJ e ff rey E. and Karin M. CollinsD r. Mary Jim Combs and

C u rtis E. Tate, Jr.D r. Charles Carter Connor, Jr. and

Beverly H. ConnorCharlotte Dasher CookDiane L. CooperR o b e rt Lee and Betty Te rry CoxC l a i re C. CrawfordJames Patrick CrimminsHelen Lewis Cro s l a n dWalter Te rry CulliferM a ry Nunn Domingos and

R i c h a rd DomingosMark William Dorgan and

Stephanie Frye Dorg a nD r. Beverly Joan Dry d e nD r. Thomas G. and Anna B. DyerDennis M. Edmonds and

Patricia McBride EdmondsCharlotte Hitchcock EfurdD r. Carolyn Kathryn EhrJudy Mathes FalettiD r. Mary Kathryn FloydKay Shearer and Stuart W. ForsWilliam C. & Jane Hardy FowlerD r. Mary M. FrasierCharles Vi rgil FrazierLewis Samuel Fre e d m a nJohn D. FullerWilliam Michael Gable, Sr. and

Sue Ellen Daniel GableD r. LaRetta Matthews GarlandD r. George M. GazdaM a rc Elliot Goldenberg and

Ellen Sue GoldenbergD r. Lynda Thomas GoodfellowD r. and Mrs. Samuel M. GoodrichJoy T. Elder Gorm a nS h e ryle M. and Nile H. GoukerAnita GrahamD r. June We h rt GrayJohnny Leonard Griff i t hKenneth Edward GrinerMrs. Leon R. Gro s sD r. David Hayne HaiglerJanis L. HallD r. Michael J. HannafinSteve Harr i sPeggy Barg e ron and

Thomas Y. Harris IIIR o b e rt Charles Hart and

D r. Nancy Coleman HartR i c h a rd E. and Phyllis M. Hart z e l lD r. Harold Lee HayesD r. Jishen He and

D r. Peihua ShengD r. Sara Frances Hensley and

D r. James R. OkeySusan Highsmith-Graveline and

Dan GravelineDolly Bentley HoganDrs. Arthur M. and Sharon G. Horn eD r. Carl J. Hubert yB u f o rd D. and

Victoria Wilson HunnicuttAnne Kelley Huppert zGwendolyn Norris Hutcheson and

D r. Kermit HutchesonJune Thomas HyderD r. George W. HyndJoseph Gledhill ImpinkK a t h ryn Ann IsaacsM r. and Mrs. Stephen Durell JessupD r. Ann E. JewettCeleste Coley and

Wi l l a rd Calhoun Johns Jr.A. Belle JonesC. Mark and Sheila Wo ff o rd JonesD r. Jeremy KilpatrickD r. and Mrs. Daniel J. KingDrs. Pamela Bradley and

Douglas A. KleiberD r. Susan Maraia LaFaveDrs. James F. and

Judith Winters Lanfre yStacy Faust and Jeff rey W. LaskyD r. Gene Rolf LayserD r. Chester William LeathersG e o rge D. & Barbara Jean LennonD r. Awanna Lowe LeslieD r. Jimmy Doyle LindseyB rock LongC o rneille Rylander LucadoDrs. Janet Stillman and Roy P. Mart i nD r. Michael Allen Martin and

D r. Sarah Hanvey Mart i nM a ry Davidson and Daniel W. MaxhamKathleen P. McIntireJoan Hawkins McMullanAngela D. Meltzer and

D r. Richard S. MeltzerD r. George Brown Miller, Jr.D r. Editha Barnes MillsM a ry K. MillsSamuel E. MokhiberDonald G. and Susan F. MyersD r. Whitney Lee MyersMaxine Conner NaborsRyan Anson and

Nora Dale Lanier NesbitDrs. Jenny and Steven OliverKashmira D. Parekh, M.D., P. C .Gail Leverett Pare n t iG e o rgia Part h e m o sF e rn Byrd PattersonJohn S. and Jane F. Piro gD r. Jesse Preston Prather and

M a ry T. PratherD r. Judith Pre i s s l eD r. William F. Prokasy and

Pamela P. Pro k a s yD r. Amy Meltzer Rady

C O N T R I B U T I O N S A N D G I F T S


D r. Cecil Randy ReynoldsD r. Mikel Freeman Richard s o nTed James RikardJanet G. Robert s o nD r. Vida V. Rogers and

Joseph Carroll RogersJane Canipe RooksAllen Lloyd RowellJames Wells and Doris Hunt RudisillJudy A. and Michael P. Ry a nD r. Jacqueline J. Saindon and

D r. Stephen A. KowalewskiM a rvin A. Satterf i e l dD r. Neil Boydston Satterf i e l dJodi Holtzman SelveyD r. Edward Lewis Shaw, Jr.Cecile Berret ShetlerJane Fulghum and

Cecil R. Simpson, Jr.

M r. and Mrs. E. Bruce SlomanD r. Lynn Clare Schroeder SmithM r. and Mrs. Thomas W. SmithD r. Steven A. StahlD r. Martha Stephens StaplesShirley Pendley and Joe Michael SteppD r. Patricia Pratt SummersD r. Beverly Bradford SwansonD r. Julie I. Ta l l m a nKathleen Gay ThompsonJames D. and Sara J. To l b e rtR i c h a rd M. Toucey and

(Rick, Shannon and Michelle)Donna Cone Tro t t e rJane Nagle and W. Hubert Tu c k e r, Jr.T h e rese Pace Tu l e yD r. Craig Ellsworth UllomG i l b e rt Hanson and

N o rma Junkins Underw o o d

Joseph M. and Leigh M. UnitesSusan Hall and David N. Vaughan, Jr.D r. Karen E. Wa t k i n sGene Guthrie and Julien D. We e k sM r. and Mrs. Gilmer G. Weston, Jr.D r. Mark F. Wheeler and

Jan Bates WheelerM a ry Carter WhittenNancy Gunter and

G e o rge Hamilton Wi l l i a m sM a rg a ret A. and Randall C. Wi l l i a m sMrs. Leroy M. Wi l l s o nD r. Te rri M. Wi l s o nD r. Roger Bradley Winston, Jr.Lee Talmadge Wo o d a l lRod R. Wright and

Barbara A. Johnson Wr i g h tBarbara Bowen Wy l e

COE 2001-02ScholarshipRecipients

Thanks to Every Donor!

Hello! I’m Jennifer Nash. I am excit-ed to introduce myself as the newDevelopment Director at theCollege of Education. It is an

honor to be working at the University ofG e o rgia for the programs and students of theCollege of Education. As an alumna of UGA, Iam especially appreciative of the qualities andtraditions of our fine institution and theimpact it can have on one’s life. I look forw a rdto meeting you and hearing what UGA and theCollege of Education have meant to you.

As you may know, the College recentlycompleted a strategic plan that will enable usto focus on reform in education and connect-ing with professionals in the state through partnerships among the College, organi-zations and school districts, and the communities they serve. These goals cannot beachieved without your help! I hope you will consider a gift to the College ofEducation. Your contribution is an investment in students who will become teach-ers and professionals of the future.

Find out how you can make a difference! Call me at 706/542-2267 or email me [email protected]. I look forward to talking with you soon.

The UGA College ofEducation awarded atotal of $68,500 to 26students for a variety ofscholarships, most ofwhich are funded by private donations to the College.

Ruby Maude AndersonScholarshipTheodore MacMillan Victoria Elaine Pettis

Del Jones Scholarship(undergraduate)Kacy Campbell Stephanie Adam Crawley Ashlee Pou DrakeLora Elizabeth Porter Margaret Robbins Laura Story

Del Jones Scholarship(graduate)Jennifer Barnes Angelia M.Bruce Stephanie M. ComptonAmanda R. FischerPamela Susan Roach Keri Lynn Valentine

Mary Murphy RobinsonScholarshipKathryn Norton Emily Nelson

Rachel Sibley SuttonScholarshipTiffany Nicole Hughes Stephanie Marie Warren

State Normal SchoolScholarshipJanet Elaine Martin Amy Terressa Scott

Student TeachingScholarshipLaura Atkins Joseph Daniell Branscomb Lawrence Finocchi Laveda Pullens Kelly Chitwood Purcell Melissa A. Womack

Your contribution is an investment in tomorrow’steachers, education professionals

Jennifer Nash


National and International

Derrick P. Alridge, assistant professor ofsocial foundations of education, was awarded a$50,000 National Academy of Education/SpencerPostdoctoral Fellowship for the 2001-2002 aca-demic year to pursue work on an ongoing intel-lectual history project which examines the edu-cational thought of W. E. B. Du Bois.

Donna Alvermann, research professor ofreading education,and David Reinking, pro-fessor and department head of reading educa-tion,were named co-editors of Reading ResearchQuarterly, one of the most important and widelycirculated international research journals in thefield of education. They accepted a six-yearappointment as co-editors of the 12,000-circula-

tion,peer-reviewed professional journal commit-ted to scholarship on questions of literacyamong learners of all ages.

Jay Bernhard t , assistant professor of healthpromotion and behavior and director of the PublicHealth Information Technology Laboratory in theCollege of Education, is one of only two scholars inthe nation receiving the Early Career A ward fromthe American Public Health A s s o c i a t i o n , given foroutstanding and promising contributions to theprofession from a scholar in the field less than 10years since receiving a terminal degree.

Stan Brassie, associate professor of physicaleducation and sport studies, received the 2001Sport Management Council Award from theNational Association for Sport and PhysicalEducation for outstanding contribution and lead-ership in the field of sport management.

Ron Butchart, professor of social foundationsof education, received an award from the RadcliffeInstitute for A d vanced Study at Harvard Universityto conduct research at the Schlesinger Library inC a m b r i d g e, M A , on the teachers who taughtamong freed slaves from the beginning of the CivilWar to the end of Reconstruction (1861-75).

Louis A.Castenell, Jr., dean of the Collegeof Education, was elected chair of the board ofdirectors of the American Association of Collegesfor Teacher Education (AACTE) and is one of 10individuals on the nationalfaculty for AACTE’s NewDeans Institute.

Diane L. Cooper, asso-ciate professor of counselingand human developmentservices and coordinator ofthe College Student AffairsAdministration master’s pro-gram at UGA, was awardedthe Melvene DraheimHardee Award,the highestaward given by the SouthernAssociation of CollegeStudent Affairs, for excep-tional research, scholarshipand leadership in studentpersonnel work.

Carl Glickman, profes-sor of social foundations of

education,received the 2001 Quality EducationalLeadership Award given by the GeorgiaAssociation for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment in recognition of his cumulativeaccomplishments. Glickman was also recognizedby the Instructional Supervision Special InterestGroup of the American Educational ResearchAssociation with their Distinguished ResearchAward for a history of contributions to research.

Thomas P. Hebert, assistant professor ofeducational psychology, received the EarlyScholar Award from the National Association forGifted Children,given annually for cumulativeoutstanding research contributions to the profes-sion from a scholar in the field less than 10 yearssince receiving a terminal degree.

Steve Stahl, professor of reading educationand director of the College’s Reading Clinic,received the 2001 Research into Practice Awardfrom the American Educational ResearchAssociation (AERA) for his article about researchon different learning styles.

Karen Watkins, professor of adult educa-tion and director of the School of Leadership andLifelong Learning, was selected as aDistinguished Graduate by the University ofTexas College of Education.

Robert C.Wicklein, associate professorand graduate coordinator of occupational stud-

F A C U L T Y • S T A F F

ExcellenceFaculty Earn Recognition

Alridge

ButchartP H O T O B Y D O T P A U L / A T H E N S B A N N E R - H E R A L D

ies, was selected as one of six national fellowsby the Technical Foundation of America. In addi-tion to being designated a fellow, Wickleinreceived a discretionary scholarship of $10,000to be awarded to students preparing to be tech-nology teachers.

Jim Wilson, professor of mathematics edu-cation,received the Lifetime Achievement Awardfor Distinguished Service to MathematicsEducation from the National Council of Teachersof Mathematics.

University Awards and Honors

Dean Louis Castenell was appointedActing Associate Provost for InstitutionalDiversity, a senior administrative position report-ing directly to Senior Vice President for AcademicAffairs and Provost Karen Holbrook. In that role,he will provide leadership in developing a coor-dinated campus-wide program to support equityand diversity in UGA’s student body and work-force. He will direct efforts to improve existingprograms and institute new strategies and initia-tives for the recruitment and retention of minori-ty students, faculty and staff.

Elizabeth Pate, associate professor of ele-mentary education, was one of five UGA facultymembers receiving the 2001 Walter Barnard HillAward for Distinguished Achievement in PublicService and Outreach at the annual PublicService and Outreach Conference.

College Awards and Honors

Julia de Atiles, academic professional inelementary education, received the Donald O.Schneider Mentoring Award.

Lynn Bryan, assistant professor of sciencee d u c a t i o n , and David Ja c k s o n , associate profes-sor of science education, received Keith OsbornFaculty Senate Teaching Excellence A wa r d s.

Sherry Field, associate professor of socialscience education, received the COE FacultySupport Faculty Fellow Award.

Carl Glickman, professor of social founda-tions of education, was named OutstandingFaculty Member of the College of Education forthe year 2000-2001 by the UGA chapter ofKappa Delta Epsilon, an education student honor society.

Judith Pre i s s l e, professor and departmenthead of social foundations of education, was rec-ognized as the 2001 Aderhold DistinguishedProfessor at the UGA Honors Day and also receivedthe 2001 Russell H. Yeany Research A wa r d .

Dorothy White, assistant professor ofmathematics education, Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, assistant professor of elementaryeducation,and Jack V. Powell, associate pro-fessor of elementary education, received theCollege’s Outstanding Teaching Faculty Awardsat the UGA Honors Day this past spring.


Angela Callaway, office manager for the department ofspecial education,received the College of Education 2001 StaffAward for Excellence.

U G A’s First Lady Mary L. Adams presented a plaque and a$1,200 cash award April 18 at the State Botanical Gardens.The first runner- u p, Deborah Rogers, budget analyst for the School of Leadership andLifelong Learning, was awarded $750; and the second runner- u p, Anita Miller, s e n i o radministrative secretary for the School of Teacher Education, received $300.

A COE staff member for more than a dozen years, Callaway is primarily responsible for allbudgetary matters within her department,all graduate records, and is the front-line persondealing with current and prospective students. She also serves as secretary to departmenthead John Langone and graduate coordinator David Gast.

Faculty members praised Callaway for her handling of budgets for on-campus depart-mental programs and for several large distance-education initiatives. She developed the firstdepartmental computer-based system for day-to-day management of the budget and a data-tracking system for the development of reports the department is required to complete.

Callaway was also lauded for her interaction with students. “During this past year, ourdepartment began a new Internet-based alternative certification program for teachers. Thefirst cohort enrolled last summer included more than 80 teachers from all over Georgia,tripling the size of our graduate program.All of these students were non-degree candidatesand required a significant amount of assistance to navigate the complex system of theGraduate School.Angie spent many hours on the phone talking these students through theapplication and enrollment process. Without her, this highly regarded program would not bethe success it is today,” John Langone said.

The winners were selected from among 13 nominees that included Paula Alexander,Brenda Arnold, Troy Bassett, Mary Ann Godwin, Rene Hammond, Pamela LaSalle, Dedra Minor, Thomas Stanulis, Freita Strickland, and Tony Stringer. TheCollege also recognized more than a dozen staff members for their years of dedication,hardwork and commitment to excellence.

The annual Staff Award for Excellence program is under overall coordination of the StaffRepresentative Group of the College, Betty Disharoon Prickett,president.Judging was by ajoint panel of College faculty and staff coordinated by Charles Connor, director of the officeof communications and publications. Cash awards and other financial support were providedby the College.

F A C U L T Y • S T A F F

UGA’s First Lady MaryAdams presents plaqueto Angela Callaway.

Callaway Receives2001 Staff Award For

Excellence


Doctoral Students ReceiveNational AERA/SpencerFellowships

Two College of Education graduate students wereamong only 14 student scholars nationwide to receiveAmerican Educational Research Association/SpencerFoundation pre-dissertation fellowships this year.Michael S. Matthews and Kirsten C.Crowder,both seeking doctorates in educational psychology,received the prestigious awards that include a stipendof up to $16,000,plus additional support for travel toprofessional meetings and development courses.

Matthews is interested in the assessment ofSpanish/English bilingual students. He is studyingdevelopment and evaluation of assessment methodsthat are less affected by linguistic and cultural differ-ences than are the measures commonly used.Crowder, a student in the applied cognition and devel-opment program,is interested in qualitative researchmethods and the education of students with emotion-al disturbance. She is developing a program ofresearch investigating the intersections of emotionsand education.

Judith Pre i s s l e, professor and head of socialfoundations of education, was named one of the Fa l l2000 AERA/Spencer Institute cohorts to work withthe fellows.

Kennebrew Selected AAHE Future Leader

Sigrid Kennebrew, a doctoral candidate in coun-seling psychology, was selected as one of seven K.Patricia Cross Future Leaders by the AmericanAssociation of Higher Education (AAHE) for 2001.Winners are selected for demonstrated leadershipability, particularly in the development of leaders,scholars, and citizens.

Sabatini Honored by GASCDEllen Sabatini, a doctoral student in educational

leadership and a third-grade teacher, was recognizedby the Georgia Association for Supervision andCurriculum Development as an outstanding individualwho is currently enrolled in a graduate program ineducational leadership.

Honors DaySeveral graduate teaching assistants in the

College of Education were cited for their accom-plishments at the 2001 Honors Day. Those receiving2001 Graduate School Outstanding Teaching A wa r d si n c l u d e : Alecia Y. Ja c k s o n , language education;C o rey W. Jo h n s o n , recreation and leisure studies;Keith Rigby Leatham, mathematics education;Judy Milton, adult education; Melissa Mullis,physical education and sport studies; A n d e rson H.Norton III, mathematics education; Connie L.Pe t e rs o n , exercise science; Rob Po r t e r, r e c r e a t i o nand leisure studies; Ja red Russell, physical educa-tion and sport studies; Ilse Sannen, physical edu-cation and sport studies; and Stacy L. S c h w a r t z ,elementary education.

Susan Collins, a teacher at South Hall Middle School and a doctoral candidate inscience education, was one of two Georgia recipients of the Christa McAuliffe Fellowshipfor the 2001-02 school year.

The national award,named for Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died in the spaceshuttle Challenger explosion in January 1986, is administered by the federally fundedCouncil of Chief State School Officers.

The program enables and encourages outstanding teachers to continue their educa-tion,develop innovative programs and engage in educational activities that will improvetheir knowledge and skills and students’ education.

“I was given a choice to implement a program or take a sabbatical.I chose to do theprogram.I’ve been trying to get technology into the classroom, and this was a way to doit,” she said.

Collins has developed a project,“Using Sensors to Apply Mathematics in Science,” toexplore such life-affecting topics as water quality and weather through integrating math-ematics, science and technology. The award includes $14,000 to buy equipment and payfor training to implement the project. She said she plans to buy a high-tech projector andsix laptop computers.

Training will include learning how to use hand-held sensors. Her students will collectdata using sensors in the areas of meteorology, geology and hydrology.

“When students are working as teams in hands-on activities that involve solving real-world problems, they will be able to see the relevance of tasks and be more motivated toperform in math and science,” she said.

Collins says she is a proponent of interactive teaching,especially when it’s combinedwith technology and students working in teams. “It will help students later when they goout in the work force and have those kinds of experiences,” she said.

Collins, who has spent 10 of her 18 years teaching in Hall County, received NationalBoard Certification in 1997.

Excerpts reprinted by permission. The Gainesville Times

S T U D E N T H O N O R S

Gainesvilleteacher Susan

Collins isworking on

her doctorate at UGA.

CollinsReceives

The ChristaMcAuliffeFellowship


Rutter On USA Today’sAll-USA Teacher First Team

Karen Lord Rutter, who created and teaches aninnovative Early Childhood Education program atLoganville High School, was one of 20 educators namedto USA Today’s third annual All-USA Teacher First Teamin 2000.

Rutter, who earned three degrees from UGA – an EdD in occupational studies in 1998,an EdS in homeeconomics in 1983,and an MEd in occupational studiesin 1982 – was among the 17 teachers and three teamshonored by the national newspaper for their vision,cre-ativity and ability to inspire the best in their students.Rutter’s program features students running an on-cam-pus preschool,observing classrooms and holding publicschool internships.

Stachura Named Georgia STAR Teacher for 2001

Jeff Stachura, an English teacher at A t l a n t a ’sLovett School, was named Georgia STAR teacher for2 0 0 1 . S t a c h u r a , who received his MEd in languageeducation from UGA in 1995, was chosen for thehonor by Lovett senior Victor “ S k i p ” Pe r r y, G e o r g i a ’sS TAR student of the year.

Galland Named Georgia Media Specialist of Year

Paula Galland, a media specialist at BrunswickHigh School, was named Georgia Media Specialist ofthe Year for 2000. G a l l a n d , who has been at BrunswickHigh since 1997, received the honor from the 800-member Georgia Library Media Association and the500-member Georgia Association for InstructionalTe c h n o l o g y. She received her MEd in educationalmedia from UGA in 1973.

Bacchus Receives Presidential Award

Hilsman Middle School math teacher S h a re e fB a c c h u s was one of only two teachers in the UnitedStates receiving the Presidential A ward for Excellencein Mathematics and Science in 2001. The awa r d ,sponsored by the National Science Foundation and cre-ated by former President Jimmy Carter in 1983, is then a t i o n ’s highest honor for K-12 math and sciencet e a c h e r s. He received his MEd in mathematics educa-tion from UGA in 1993.

Strickland’s Student WritesWinning National Essay

An essay written about COE graduate and fourth-gradeteacher Lori Strickland by her student Aniston Fr a n k l i nwas chosen as best essay in the entire United States in theBi-Lo Washington Apple Commission. Essays had to be100 words or less about why a particular teacher is thes t u d e n t ’s favorite teacher. Both Franklin and Stricklandreceived checks for $500 along with an I-Mac computerfor Strickland’s classroom and apples, pencils and T- s h i r t sfor Fr a n k l i n ’s classmates. Strickland received her BSEd inspecial education in 1999.

A L U M N I H O N O R S

Native of: Born inLafayette, IN, but lived inAthens since 5 years old.Current residence:Athens, GAExperience: 16 yearsteaching – three inkindergarten at WinderElementary inBarrow County, ninein kindergarten atFowler Drive in ClarkeCounty, three in firstgrade at FowlerDrive.Education: BSEd,1984,UGA;MEd, 1992,UGA.What drew you to teaching? I knew I wanted to work with children. Iwanted to be a pediatrician,but the thought of giving children shots and otherpainful modes of healing scared me away from that field. I got a part-time jobin a day care center to see if I was cut out to work with children.Educating chil-dren and motivating them to reach their full potential came naturally. Findingways to overcome difficulties students have learning has offered me a lifetimechallenge. To me, breaking the code and finding effective strategies is half thefun.Nothing thrills me more than watching the wheels turn when a child isthinking and learning.What were your biggest surprises? My first day of teaching I had visionsof being the next Miss Landers from “Leave it to Beaver.” I told the studentswe were going to make a line and asked if anyone knew what that was. Finally,a little boy raised his hand and replied,“It’s a tiger!” I knew then and therethat teaching was going to be a lot harder than I ever imagined.What has been the hardest part of teaching? Overcoming the many socialproblems children bring to the classroom. They enter with so much baggage andlack basic early learning and language skills most of us take for granted.What has been the best part? Watching children find the joy of learning andbecome successful students. I feel great satisfaction when students come back allgrown up and say, “ You taught me to read.” It tickles me when they can remem-ber specific units or lessons. That is when I know I have made a difference.If asked, what advice might you have for education reformers? Gointo the classrooms and spend time experiencing the problems. I get really frus-trated seeing politicians reading a book to a class. It’s sort of like singing onesong to the army troops on the front line. If they really want to make a differ -ence, substitute for a day or two in a disadvantaged school. Teachers todayspend so much time on things other than instruction.Unfortunately, you have totackle those obstacles before instruction can take place.

Anne MauldinSecond-grade teacherWhit Davis ElementaryClarke County

w w w . c o e . u g a . e d u / c o e n e w s

College of EducationAderhold Hall

Athens, GA 30602

NON-PROFITU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPermit No. 165Athens, Georgia

Documents

2002 UGA COE EDUCATION magazine