The Reach of Research - 2012

Education in America is at a crossroads. Lehigh’s commitment to innovative research and focus on applying research to practice allows College of Education faculty to help shape education and mental-health policy across the nation. 

United States

Bethlehem, Pa.

The College of Education at Lehigh is forging a new partnership with Donegan Elementary School, blocks away from Lehigh’s South Side Bethlehem campus. Donegan is set to become another “community school,” joining Broughal Middle School and three others in the city.

“Our work is all centered around improving the quality of learning experiences for children and youth in the South Side,” says George White in an article that appeared in the Express-Times newspaper. “This means that every kid who attends Broughal will have been engaged in the philosophy of a community school from the time they enter school... It really does build a sense of community.”

White is a professor of educational leadership and says the community school is a vital addition to the South Side. “I know Alice Gast, [Lehigh’s] president, and the board have said this is an important contribution that needs to be made,” he told the newspaper. With the addition of Donegan, South Side Bethlehem students will now be part of a community school environment from kindergarten through eighth-grade—an initiative involving the United Way, corporate partners and two universities. 

Greensboro, N.C.
Kingston, R.I.
Bethlehem, Pa.

For young adults strained by the pressures of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, college can be a difficult place to navigate. Research shows they are at increased risk for obtaining significantly lower grade point averages, withdrawing from a greater percentage of courses, and not completing their degree programs relative to control individual without ADHD.

As a professor of school psychology, George DuPaul would like to reverse those trends. He is working with peers from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Rhode Island on the TRAC Project, a five-year study that explores how ADHD impacts the educational, cognitive, psychological, social and vocational functioning of college students.

More than 200 first-year college students are taking part in the study. A related study shows that five percent of incoming college freshman across the U.S. have ADHD. 

Data from the TRAC Project should help increase the probability that students with ADHD will succeed and graduate from college, thereby impacting their long-term chances for financial stability and positive mental health.

Aurora, Ill.

Robin Hojnoski, assistant professor of special education, and a team of researchers studied nearly 200 students before finding that Preschool Numeracy Indicators (PNI) can be an effective measurement tools for young children in special education—as long as they are sensitive to changes in performance over time.

Hojnoski questioned whether children in special education and general education start with different performances on the PNI—and whether the two groups have different growth rates over the course of the year.

The results indicate that PNI meets a critical need for the special education community. “We saw that growth was constant over time. Children grow throughout the year, and not in spurts from winter to spring, for example,” says Hojnoski.  “We also learned that there is significant variability in where kids start and their growth rates over the course of the year. This means that children enter with a range of skills and that individual children grow differently throughout the year.”

Her research suggests that, since children in special education started the school year with lower performance on most measures, instructional efforts could begin during the early intervention period from birth to three to increase early performance.

Around the World

In a world that is becoming more connected, Lehigh faculty have become an integral part of the international dialogue surrounding education—particularly in regions where educational reform is undergoing intense scrutiny.

China

Assistant Professor Peggy Kong is examining the dynamics between parental involvement, student outcomes and school-family interactions among a poor rural population in western China. Her studies investigate how parental involvement is conceptually different in the rural Chinese context. They also explore changes in parental involvement across age groups.

Cambodia

Entering Lehigh’s third year of partnership with Caring for Cambodia, teams of students conducted extensive field research on topics ranging from teacher quality and school readiness to child problem behavior and information and communication technology assessments. Four separate grant proposals have been written and their work has been featured in International Educator magazine. 

Bangladesh*

Doctoral student Amy Moyer, after completing Bangla Language acquisition courses in Bangladesh, is now conducting research there on the transfer of teacher training to classroom situations. Bangladesh is reforming teacher-training procedures, and Moyer plans to examine those aspects of public school environments that help or hinder new teachers attempting to transfer their initial training in schools.

Saudi Arabia

Analyses by Associate Professor Alexander Wiseman and College of Education graduate Emily Anderson show that information and communication technology (ICT)-based instruction in Saudi Arabia relies on primarily lower-level thinking skills, and does not build innovation and knowledge capacity in youth. However, reforms to teacher training and professional development would reverse those trends.  

Latvia

Children embody society’s fears and hopes for the future. The meanings of “child” and “childhood” are therefore central to the political, economic and social (re)making of societies. Associate Professor Iveta Silova examines the social construction of child.hood through the analysis of early literacy textbooks in Latvia. The study also includes research in other post-Soviet states, including Armenia and Ukraine.

Columbia*

Doctoral student Jonathan Johnson is studying the transfer of distributed leadership—or empowering teachers to take on leadership of school-wide initiatives—from U.S. to South American school environments. He is examining how culture-based understandings of leadership in Colombia inhibit the acceptance of distributed leadership in international schools with both U.S. and Colombian teachers. 

* Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Jill Sperandio partners on these research projects