Research and Projects

Faculty in EPET are doing research across a wide range of topics in educational psychology and educational technology. In keeping with the focus and expertise in the College as a whole, many of our projects focus on teacher education and professional development. Doctoral students in our program have exceptional opportunities to work with faculty on these projects. This page contains brief descriptions of some of our current research projects, along with links to Web sites where you can learn more.

Centers
Sample of projects in:

Centers:

Center for the Study of Supported Electronic Text (CSET),
Cynthia Okolo and Carol Sue Englert, Directors

In this project, we are investigating he impact of various forms of electronically supported text with students with learning disabilities. Over the course of the project, we are working with 5th and 6th grade students in social studies and language arts classes. Texts in social studies and language arts often have similar text structures (e.g., narrative) but rely on different types of information (e.g., social studies text typically make more extensive use of pictures and other artifacts to support the narrative). Thus, we will be able to contrast how different aspects of text structure and textual information affect students’ use of supported text. In each of our studies, we use multi element designs to investigate differences in students’ text comprehension and engagement when they read text aloud versus when the text is read to them by a text-to-speech software program with different types of highlighting, vocabulary, and word recognition features. http://www.educ.msu.edu/content/default.asp?contentID=275

US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence,
Yong Zhao, Director

With support from the Hong Kong-based Sun Wah Group, the US-China Center of Research for Educational Excellence at MSU’s College of Education will develop and disseminate effective models of education that integrate the strengths of both the Eastern and Western educational practices through scientific research of excellent schools and educational programs in China and the United States through modern technologies. The Center will focus on five aspects of schooling: leaders and leadership, teachers and teaching, learners and learning, curriculum and textbooks, and school, family, and community connections.For more information about the Center, see: http://www.china-us.us,

Center for Teaching and Technology,
Yong Zhao, Director

The Center for Teaching and Technology is a unit in the College of Education at Michigan State University. The Center provides support for faculty, staff and students in their effort to use technology to enhance their teaching and learning, and conducts research about the use of technology in education. On this web site you will find information about the services and resources we provide and activities we are engaged in. http://ott.educ.msu.edu/ctt/

Literacy Achievement Research Center (LARC),
Nell Duke and Mary Lundeberg, Co-Directors

LARC is a research center housed within Michigan state University’s College of Education. LARCs mission is “to promote and coordinate research efforts to increase literacy and academic achievement of children, adolescents and adults. The center offers support for research, conferences and symposia, training for doctoral students, and a website with a wide variety of resources related to literacy research and education. http://www.msularc.org

Projects in Educational Technology

Virtual Professional Development for the PROM-SE Project,
Yong Zhao, PI

As part of the NSF-funded Promoting Rigorious Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education project (PROM-SE), PROM-SE-VPD will develop and sustain a virtual professional development environment based on the current knowledge of teacher professional development and online learning. The environment will include three main components: On-demand individualized content delivery, a responsive community of practices, and a virtual knowledge economy. http://www.promse.msu.edu/

The Virtual History Museum: Technology Tools and Environments to Support the Historical Understanding of Students with Disabilities,
Cynthia Okolo and Carol Sue Englert, PI’s

The purpose of this project is to evaluate and refine the development of The Virtual History Museum: a web-based history-learning environment. The Virtual History Museum (VHM) is designed to improve the historical knowledge and understanding of students in inclusive classrooms by engaging students in meaningful and motivating historical inquiry. The VHM is a virtual learning space in which teachers or students, in the role of curators, can develop an exhibit, establish goals for viewers' investigation of that exhibit, and create activities for viewers to complete as they investigate the exhibit. All VHM exhibits and activities offer cognitive supports and mediational tools that facilitate full participation and success for students with mild disabilities, including text-to speech options, online help, and levels of teacher prompting. This project is supported by a grant from the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education programs. http://vhm.msu.edu/site/default.php

Integrating Technology into Preservice Teacher Education,
Patrick Dickson, Director

A team of graduate students and faculty are working on designing and teaching an innovative course aimed at preparing pre service teachers to integrate technology in their teaching during their fifth year internship year and beyond. The course makes extensive use of Web 2.0 applications and web design tools. Students in the course design a professional eportfolio and prepare a technology integration plan to be implemented during their internship year. Our first research report was presented at SITE 2007. The course will be taught as a regular offering starting fall 2007, offering an opportunity for our doctoral students to teach and do research on this crucial aspect of preparing teachers. 2006 - 2008

Teachers as Designers: A Problem-Based Approach to Preparing Teachers to Use Technology,
Punya Mishra, Yong Zhao, Matthew Koehler, and Cheryl Rosaen (Teacher Education), Pi’s

This project aims to prepare teachers to use technology flexibly to improve academic performance of all students using a problem-based approach. The fundamental theoretical basis of this approach is the concept of teachers as designers, which suggests that teachers learn to use technology through designing technological solutions to authentic pedagogical problems. The project includes four components: problem-based design teams, Web-based learning and assessment environment, technology integration, and reflective documentation. Three years of funding have been provided by the U. S. Department of Education. 2003-2007.

Projects in Educational Psychology

Key Transitions in Preschoolers' Number and Arithmetic Development: The Psychological Foundations of Early Childhood Mathematics Education
Arthur Baroody (University of Illinois) and Kelly Mix, PI’s

This project examines the emergence and coordination of several key mathematics concepts, including numerical equivalence, verbal counting, and calculation. We focus specifically on the transition from toddlerhood to preschool, a period that is relatively understudied in the early number literature. To capture the subtle developmental changes that occur in this age period, we use a variety of methods including cross-sectional, diary/case, and microgenetic training studies. Our goal is to provide not only a comprehensive account of typical numerical development in early childhood, but also a mechanistic explanation for the changes we observe. This research is generously supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.

The STEM Project: Strengthening Tomorrow's Education in Measurement,
Jack Smith, PI

With funding from the National Science Foundation's REESE Program, this project is assessing the capacity of elementary and middle school curricula to support robust student learning of length, area, and volume measurement. Substantial empirical evidence has shown that U.S. students perform poorly on measurement tasks, weakly understand the process of measurement, and compare poorly to students from other nations. But no serious explanation has been advanced for why national learning and performance is so weak. The STEM project is a first step toward providing such an explanation. We begin with written curricula, but with the full acknowledge that many factors may contribute to the problem.

Projects in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Professional Development in Early Reading,
Matthew Koehler, Powell (Purdue), Diamond (Purdue) PI’s

With support from the U.S. Department of Education, Michigan State and Purdue University are collaborating to develop, implement, and investigate the effectiveness of a comprehensive professional development program that utilizes planned variation in expert coaching coupled with web-based resources to improve the teaching of pre-kindergarten reading and writing and children’s language and early reading outcomes. The program provides information on, and demonstrations of, best practices in early reading instruction, and regular feedback and individualized guidance on teaching practices through expert coaching, both on-site and remote

Problem-Based Learning: Teachers’ Professional Continuum,
Matthew J. Koehler, Mary Lundeberg, and Joyce Parker (Teacher Education Department), PI’s

The goals of this five-year project are to develop, implement and study the impact of a subject matter-focused, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) model of teachers’ professional development and to incorporate PBL into key subject matter and teacher preparation courses taken by pre-service teachers and study the impact on their learning. The in-service component will be designed with and for teams of K-12 science and mathematics teachers from local school districts. The pre-service component will work with faculty and students in the teacher preparation programs at Michigan State University and Lansing Community College. 2004-2009

KAT: Knowledge of Algebra for Teaching,
Robert Floden,Raven McCrory, Sharon Senk (Mathematics) and Mark Reckase (Measurement) Pi’s

The KAT project is identifying elements of teacher knowledge that impact student achievement in algebra. We are developing and piloting items that will be used to assess whether and how teachers’ knowledge of algebra impacts student learning. Previous work developed a framework for studying teacher knowledge of algebra, focusing on equations, expressions, and functions, and secondly, linearity. Within these topics, we are developing items to assess basic knowledge (what students might be expected to know), advanced knowledge (mathematics that is foundational to or follows the basic knowledge of algebra), and teaching knowledge (e.g., knowledge of student errors and misconceptions about specific topics). Funding for three years has been provided by the ROLE Program at the National Science Foundation. 2003-2008

Research on Math Science Partnership Teacher Induction.
Ralph Putnam, PI

This five-year NSF-funded project studies the effects of induction programs for new teachers of mathematics and science. We are studying induction programs designed for secondary mathematics and science teachers, focusing in particular on the support they need and receive around content-specific aspects of teaching. Several of the induction programs we are studying are parts of the Mathematics Science Partnerships funded by NSF. The research is being down in partnership with researchers at WestEd.. 2003-2008

ME.ET: The Mathematical Education of Elementary Teachers,
Raven McCrory, PI

Funded by the National Science Foundation through a five year CAREER grant, the ME.ET project is investigating the mathematics courses taken by prospective elementary teachers during their undergraduate education. The focus is on MATHEMATICS courses, not on mathematics methods courses. The project has collected data from 70 mathematics departments in three states to identify mathematics classes for elementary teachers; along with data from surveys of instructors of these classes and assessments of students from a sample of these classes. 2005-2010.
http://meet.educ.msu.edu/

Other Research

Online Chinese Language Teaching (Confucius Institute)
Yong Zhao, PI.
http://confucius.msu.edu/

Projects include:

Teachers for a New Era,

Robert E. Floden,
Duncan Sibley, &
Joan Ferrini-Muncy, Co-PIs

Engineering Students for the 21st Century.
Mary Lundeberg, PI.2006-2009

Developing Computer Simulations of Protein Laboratory Procedures for Case-Based Learning in International Biology Curricula and Pre-service Science Teacher Education.
Mary Lundeberg Co PI with M. Bergland and M. Klyczek. 2003-2008

Interactive Case Study Teaching in Large Classes.
Mary Lundeberg, PI. 2006-2008

Professional Development in Early Reading
Doug Powell & Karen Diamond (Child Development & Family Studies, Purdue University), Matthew J. Koehler, Co-Principal Investigators

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