Topic: Education
Professor publishes article on writing program for urban, Latina students
Sara Exposito, assistant professor of education:
Exposito published an article in the April 2009 issue of Educational Leadership: Supporting English Learners titled “Top Notch Supports for Language Learners.” The article describes Exposito’s experience with a group of girls from Bell Gardens Intermediate in Los Angeles for the past two years. The school’s high concentration of immigrant students primarily from Mexico and Central America led Exposito to feel that Latina girls needed a place to discuss their lived, urban realities that sometimes lead to a numbing of the spirit. After working with the principal at the school and two counselors, the group set up a writing club called Girls at Promise. In this club, girls meet for two days a month to write and share their stories as well as read literature that is connected to their urban reality. Exposito’s team led the girls on field trips to the Huntington Library, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and to local colleges. Girls at Promise is currently finishing its second year.
Professor publishes article on multi-lingual learners
Ruth Shagoury, Mary Stuart Rogers professor of education:
Shagoury published an article titled “Language to Language: Nurturing Writing Development in Multilingual Classrooms” in the March 2009 issue of Young Children. In the article, Shagoury recounts her time spent in a multilingual kindergarten classroom in which six or more languages were spoken by the children. She provides examples of the process young dual-language learners engage when learning written languages in both first and second languages. “When the two written language systems that children are learning are very different, children still draw on their knowledge of their home language as well as their growing understanding of English, testing out hypotheses just as they do in their oral language,” Shagoury said.
Young Children is the journal for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The theme for the March issue was “Supporting All Kinds of Learners.” In the introduction to the issue, the editor states: “All the articles in this cluster are about getting to know individual children and then planning a curriculum and teaching strategies that will support every child’s development and learning.”
Two science professors receive M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust grants
Stephen Tufte, associate professor of science and Peter Kennedy, associate professor of biology:
Tufte and Kennedy each received a Partners in Science Program grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The goal of this program is to provide high school teachers with opportunities to work with college faculty members at the cutting edge of science and revitalize their teaching.
Tufte will work with Jo Ann Wadkins, a science teacher at Lincoln High School, for the next two summers in the Department of Physics. Their research, titled “Observational Investigations of Short-Period Eclipsing Binary Stars,” will be shared at two national Partners in Science conferences at the end of each summer.
Kennedy will partner with Eileen Oppelt, a science teacher at West Linn High School. Their research, “Examining Biogeographic Patterns in the Frankia-Alnus rubra Symbiosis,” will be conducted in the Department of Biology. Oppelt will also share the results of the joint research at Partners in Science conferences.
The Murdock Trust provides grants in five states of the Pacific Northwest to organizations that aim to strengthen the region’s educational base in sustainable ways.
Professor of Education published in American Paleontologist
Charles (Kip) Ault, professor of education:
Ault co-wrote an article in American Paleontologist with his son, Toby Ault, in March. Toby received a Watson Fellowship in 2002-03 to retrace Darwin’s adventure, with emphasis on South American localities. The article, titled “On the Trail of Darwin’s Megabeasts,” recounts efforts the Aults took to find their way to locations where Darwin collected fossils as well as to mimic his process: ask locals where to look. On the 2003 trek, Ault said, “We found ourselves guided by a motorcyclist, museum scientists, as well as Darwin’s journal, as we crossed Patagonia, with particular emphasis on the Rio Negro’s Playa Bonita and the Monte Hermoso beach near Punta Alta.”
Ault also published an article in Curriculum Inquiry in December. “Achieving ‘Querencia’: Integrating a Sense of Place with Disciplined Thinking” explores the Spanish word “querencia,” and the concept of how the self attaches feelings and beliefs to an environment.
Professor Nagel participates in math and democracy symposium
Nancy Nagel, professor of education:
Nagel participated in an international symposium organized by the Institute for Democracy from Mathematics (Oxford) at Windsor Castle in January. The goal of the symposium was to examine the connection between mathematics teaching and democratic education. Thirty professors and ambassadors, who represented 11 countries, discussed the problem of the high expectations held for those who excel in mathematics and how this results in lesser expectations for all other students. Presentations at the symposium posed that the most appropriate key to change is through the teaching of mathematics. Implementing Socratic methods of discussion were suggested as one model to encourage mathematical communication and learning. The symposium was sponsored by the Qatar Foundation.
“I found it highly interesting to listen to presentations and discuss mathematics education with faculty, ambassadors, and the educational representatives for the Prince of Jordan and for the Prince of Wales,” Nagel said. “Discussions with participants from nine countries made it clear that there is widespread concern about mathematics education and of the need to collaborate on successful educational models to help inform each other and better prepare all students.”
Associate Professor of History awarded Fulbright grant
David Campion, associate professor of history:
Campion received a grant from the Fulbright Scholar Program to work with universities in Hong Kong on development of their general education curricula. Only five awards were made by Fulbright as part of the foundation’s Building General Education Curriculum in Hong Kong Universities Program.
The purpose of the grant is to help Hong Kong universities prepare for replacing their current three-year undergraduate program with a four-year program that will include general education requirements beginning September, 2012. The grant winners will teach one course and consult with colleagues and committees at their host university.
Associate Dean of Students Greg Caldwell travels globally
Greg Caldwell, Associate Dean of Students and Director of International Students and Scholars, has been invited by IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) in Washington, D.C. to travel to Kiev, Ukraine and Chisinau, Moldova to interview applicants for its 2009/10 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD).
“Greg has been a pillar of international education for many years and we are incredibly proud that he has been selected to aid IREX in their recruitment and review processes” said Celestino Limas, Dean of Students. “Greg is a Lewis & Clark institution whose dedication to international students is unmatched. I join many students, faculty, and staff in congratulating him on this significant honor.”
The Global UGRAD program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State. The program brings undergraduate students from the former Soviet Republics to study for one academic year in US colleges and universities.
Lewis & Clark has participated in the UGRAD program for the past four years and has hosted student scholars from Turkmenistan, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova.
Caldwell will depart in mid-February for the two-week trip.
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