Grants
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Guang Guo and Greg Duncan, William T. Grant Foundation, "A Replication and Extension of a Study of Peer Impacts on Attitudes and Drinking Behavior," $568,450. |
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Kemi Jona, National Institutes of Health, "Learning Modules for Oncofertility," $1,031,605 |
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Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, "Project BLAST," $596,422. |
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Michelle Reininger, Joyce Foundation, "Targeting Recruitment Efforts at Promising Student Teachers," $127,610. |
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David Uttal, National Science Foundation/University of Kansas, "Understanding the Tree of Life," $17,667. |
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Uri Wilensky, National Science Foundation, "Advancing the Science of Agent-Based Modeling Through Frameworks, Tools and Pedagogies," $447,918; J. Pierrehumbert, R. Berry, A. Bradlow, Louis Gomez, M. Honig, A. Katsaggelos, N. Kraus, B. Pardo, Wilensky and P. Wong, Motorola with Tiz Media Foundation, "Speech and the Cell Phone," $49,791. |
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Honors and Awards
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P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale has joined the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. |
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Eva Lam was invited to join the editorial board of Asia Pacific Journal of Education. |
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Carol Lee was elected president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). |
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A research article co-authored by Seon-Young Lee, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Rob Donahue and Katrina Weimholt won the 2007 National Association for Gifted Children Special Schools and Programs Division Article Competition. |
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Penelope L. Peterson was named to the Board of Trustees for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. |
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James Rosenbaum is serving on two national panels: the Independent Advisory Panel, U.S. Department of Education, National Assessment of Career and Technical Education, 2006-2011; and the Technical Review Panel for the design of the national High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 for the U.S. Department of Education. |
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Publications
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Eva Lam, "Language Socialization in Online Communication," in Patricia Duff and Nancy Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education (2007); "Second Language Literacy and the Design of the Self," in J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear and D. Leu (Eds.), Handbook of Research on New Literacies (2008). |
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R. Josselson, A. Lieblich and Dan McAdams (Eds.), The Meaning of Others: Narrative Studies of Relationships (2007); McAdams and Jennifer Pals, "The Role of Theory in Personality Research," in R. Robins, C. Fraley and R. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Research (2007). |
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Andrew Ortony, W. Revelle and R. Zinbarg, "Why Emotional Intelligence Needs a Fluid Component" in G. Matthews, M. Zeidner and R. Roberts (Eds.), The Science of Emotional Intelligence (2007). |
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David Rapp and P. Kendeou, "Revising What Readers Know," Memory & Cognition (2007); Rapp, P. van den Broek, K. McMaster, P. Kendeou and C. Espin, "Higher-Order Comprehension Processes in Struggling Readers," Scientific Studies of Reading (2007); M. Wolf, T. Davis, W. Shrank, Rapp, P. Bass, U. Connor, M. Clayman and R. Parker, "To Err Is Human," Patient Education and Counseling (2007).. |
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James Rosenbaum, J. Redline and J. Stephan, "Community College: The Unfinished Revolution," Issues in Science and Technology (2007). |
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David Uttal, L. Liu, A. Lewis and Dedre Gentner, "Developmental Changes in Children's Understanding of the Similarity between Photographs and Their Referents," Developmental Science (2007); C. Davies and Uttal, "Map Use and the Development of Spatial Cognition" in J. Plumert and J. Spencer (Eds.), Thinking and Talking about Spatial Relations (2007). |
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Uri Wilensky and W. Rand, "Making Models Match," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (2007); Wilensky, NetLogo computer software, version 4.0.2 (2007); S. Levy and Wilensky, "Inventing a 'Mid-Level' to Make Ends Meet," Cognition & Instruction (2008). |
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Presentations
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Eva Lam delivered a keynote address at the International Conference on Language, Education and Diversity in Hamilton, New Zealand, in November. |
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Dan McAdams spoke at the Chicago Humanities Festival in November on "America's Redemptive Storehouse." In Europe in November, he gave the keynote address for the International Conference on Generativity in Family and Community at Catholic University of Milan, as well as an invited lecture at Queens University in Belfast. |
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David Rapp presented an invited talk on "Reader Processing of Inaccurate Information" at the University of Illinois at Chicago in October. |
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Dan McAdams Begins Long-Term Study of Adults
Professor Dan McAdams is launching a new longitudinal study of midlife adults, to be called the Foley Longitudinal Study of Adulthood. The study will examine a wide range of psychological, social and cultural factors, with an emphasis on how people's life stories change in late midlife and how these changes connect to psychological and physical well-being, coping with stress and loss, and patterns of social and civic engagement. Research assistant professor Regina Logan will serve as the project director for this study, which is funded by a $3,225,000 grant from the Foley Family Foundation.
(Photo by Bill Arsenault)
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An educational study unprecedented in scope and led by professor Greg Duncan found that children who enter kindergarten with elementary mathematics and reading skills are the most likely to experience later academic success - whether or not they have social or emotional problems."We find the single most important factor in predicting later academic achievement is that children begin school with a mastery of early math and literacy concepts," said Duncan. Attention-related skills, though more modestly, also consistently predict achievement.
However, it is the seeming lack of association between social and emotional behaviors and later academic learning that most surprised the researchers. This lack of association was as true for boys as for girls and as true for children from affluent as for those from less affluent families.
The study's findings, which highlight "the paramount importance of early math skills," according to Duncan, are based on an analysis of data from more than 35,000 preschoolers in the United States, Canada and England. "Mastery of early math skills predicts not only future math achievement, it also predicts future reading achievement," he says. The study was featured on the front page of the New York Times and in Time magazine.
Policymaking Guide
Duncan, who has devoted his career to studying poverty and its effects on children, also co-authored a comprehensive policymaking guide for enhancing the lives of vulnerable children. "A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy" draws on four decades of research.
"Early intervention in children's lives can make an important difference, and this evidence-based report offers critical insights about how to do that," says Duncan, who is co-chair of the National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation, one of the guide's authors.
(Photo by Leslie Kossoff/LK Photos)
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Fay Cook Will Address Alumni on Social Security
 Photo by Leslie Kossoff/LK Photos |
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Alumni will learn the truth about the future of Social Security when professor Fay Cook, director of Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research, speaks at A Day with Northwestern on April 19. Her topic will be "Getting Behind the Rhetoric on Social Security: Problems, Politics and Policy Proposals." Registration is through the Northwestern Alumni Association. |
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Two major grant awards made by the William T. Grant Foundation in 2007 went to School of Education and Social Policy professors for their research on how social settings affect youth. One is a study of peer impacts on drinking behavior, and the other is a study of an after-school program.
Professor Greg Duncan and Guang Guo of the University of North Carolina are studying how 3,000 college roommates affect each other's beliefs, attitudes and behaviors related to drinking. A major focus of the two-year study is genetic analysis of predisposition for binge drinking. The W. T. Grant Foundation has awarded $568,450 in funding for the study.
A three-year study by professors Barton Hirsch and Larry Hedges, "After-School Programs for High School Students," is evaluating whether a large after-school program for high school students can improve youth development, job skills, academic performance and behavior. The W. T. Grant Foundation awarded $843,729 in funding for the project.
John Orr Crites, a prominent vocational psychologist and SESP faculty member from 1985-89, died on March 15, 2007. Crites was a professor of counseling psychology.
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