Faculty News

Ross Nehm wins grant

Ross Nehm was awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study a central problem in STEM education--assessing students' cognitive models of natural selection--that must be addressed in order for substantial progress to be made in the teaching and learning of this extremely important but greatly misunderstood core idea in biology. Nehm has assembled an interdisciplinary team including Judith Ridgway (Center for Life Sciences Education), John Opfer (cognitive psychology), and Dennis Pearl (statistics) to collaboratively transform the basic approaches used to perform biology assessment. A major goal of the project is to harness advances in computer technology and develop, implement, and test a cyber-enabled assessment cascade system for measuring learners' knowledge of natural selection.

Peter Paul receives funding

Peter V. Paul, Teaching & Learning, has received funding from the School Study Council of Ohio/Ohio Department of Education for two projects. One project is a continuation of the alternate route program for preparing individuals to become teachers of children who are blind or visually impaired. The funding period is from October 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, and the amount awarded is $200,000. The second project is to plan and develop an orientation and mobility program. The funding period is from October 2009 to June 30, 2010, and the amount awarded is $100,000.

Danforth publishes book

Scot Danforth has published another book entitled The Incomplete Child: An Intellectual History of Learning Disabilities (New York: Peter Lang Publishing). With the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975, the learning disability construct gained national legitimacy. Feeding that political achievement, behind the very idea of a learning disability, was the development of a science that blended neurology, psychology, and education. This book tracks the historical creation of the science of learning disabilities, beginning with the clinical research with brain-injured World War I soldiers conducted by German physician Kurt Goldstein. It traces the growth of the two primary research traditions, the psycholinguistic theory of Samuel Kirk and the movement education of Newell Kephart, exploring how specific scientific orientations, theories, and practices led to the birth of the learning disability in the United States.