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EHE News

New faculty add skills to EHE talent pool

9-16-10

Four scholars are now part of the College of Education and Human Ecology's talented group of faculty who use their expertise to tackle complex societal issues. They begin teaching, research and service at The Ohio State University in Autumn 2010.

In the School of Educational Policy and Leadership, Higher Education and Student Affairs section, the new faculty members are Susan Robb Jones and Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, both associate professors. Assistant professors Lin Ding and Hui Jin have joined the School of Teaching and Learning, Science Education section.

Susan Robb Jones

Formerly an associate professor in the School of Educational Policy and Leadership, Susan Robb Jones (PhD, University of Maryland) rejoins the college in the Higher Education and Student Affairs section after five years with her PhD alma mater. A strong scholar in her field, her research focuses on the areas of student identity development and service learning. She co-authored a widely used book about qualitative research and co-edited the forthcoming edition of the field's primary student services handbook. While at Ohio State, she collaborated with Golden Jackson and other faculty to launch the Service-Learning Initiative and the Service-Learning Scholars Roundtable. She also initiated Ohio State's service-learning leadership courses. Jones has received high recognition for her contributions, including the Senior-Scholar Award from the American College Personnel Association and the Robert H. Shaffer Award for Academic Excellence as a Graduate Faculty Member from NASPA -- Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

Terrell Lamont Strayhorn

Widely published in highly ranked journals and with appointments to seven editorial boards, Terrell Lamont Strayhorn joins the college as an associate professor. Previously, he was an associate professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, achieving promotion and tenure in only three years. Among his many publications, Strayhorn is principal author of a widely used assessment text. His research focuses on major policy issues in higher education, including student access and achievement, equity and diversity, impact of college on students and student learning and development. His external grants include an NSF CAREER Grant to study strategies to broaden minority participation in STEM fields. His leadership includes membership on the governing board of ACPA College Student Educators International. The recipient of multiple awards, he was honored for his remarkable scholarly productivity with the 2009 Early Career/Promising Scholar Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Lin Ding

Lin Ding (PhD, Physics, North Carolina State University) joins the School of Teaching and Learning as an assistant professor of science education. Previously a postdoctoral researcher in Ohio State's Department of Physics, Ding's research focuses on student conceptual understanding and problem solving in physics and effective methods for gauging learning gains. He recently led a study of student conceptual deficiencies in physics and developed an approach to using clickers to enhance student learning. He has published 10 journal articles and taught an impressive list of classes, including physics by inquiry to both preservice and inservice teachers. He has presented more than 20 papers, workshops and posters at national and international conferences, including two invited talks/papers. At his alma mater, he received the University Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, and the American Association of Physics Teachers honored him for the Best Graduate Student Paper.

Hui Jin

Hui Jin (PhD, Michigan State University) joins the School of Teaching and Learning as an assistant professor in science education. Her extensive classroom experience began with 11 years of teaching science and English to high school and postsecondary students in China. As a teacher educator at Michigan State while earning her doctorate, she guided professional learning communities for urban middle-school science teachers and used her research to inform teaching as a field instructor and methods course instructor for preservice science teachers. Her research centers on teaching and learning of science. She studies students' informal reasoning, particularly as it relates to core science topics such as matter and energy. Her current research project focuses on understanding how students progress in learning about socioecological systems, and she has a chapter accepted for the book Learning Progression in Science.

The Ohio State University

www.osu.edu