A magazine of the SIUC College of Education and Human Services
Explore possibilities, fulfill dreams, change lives.
inside:
Extra Credit, Letters Home, and Gold Stars
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SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CARBONDALE
Contents Extra Credit JOURNEY TO NEW ORLEANS
2
Spring break offers teachable moments for the helpers and the helped
MUSCLE POWER
4
For cancer patients, exercise gives recovery some momentum
6
LETTING GO
THE GLOBAL SCHOOLHOUSE
To lose the weight, feel the love
ACTING UP, ACTING OUT
8
Genes may play a part in those trips to the office
COMING TO AMERICA
7
A flat world demands a well-rounded curriculum
9
Immigration’s needs take social work down a new path
Letters Home Departments 10-17 New Faces 18-19
Gold Stars Outstanding Teacher 20-21 Top NTT Faculty Member 22 Top Graduate Teaching Assistant 23 Outstanding Alumnus 24
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES Kenneth Teitelbaum, Dean Jim Bordieri, Associate Dean (2006-2009) W. Bradley Colwell, Associate Dean Jan E. Waggoner, Director of Teacher Education Curriculum and Instruction Lynn C. Smith, Chair Educational Administration and Higher Education Kathryn A. Hytten, Chair Educational Psychology and Special Education Lyle J. White, Chair Health Education and Recreation Joyce V. Fetro, Chair Kinesiology Elaine M. Blinde, Chair Rehabilitation Institute John J. Benshoff, Director Social Work Mizanur R. Miah, Director Workforce Education and Development Elizabeth W. Freeburg, Chair (2009- ) C. Keith Waugh, Chair (2005-09) Visit us on the Web at www.ehs.siu.edu JOURNEYS 2009
The Front Cover: The College of Education and Human Services comprises many layers and many perspectives, symbolized in this photo montage by graphic designer Nathan L. Krummel.
UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS Director: Mike Ruiz Editor, Writer: K.C. Jaehnig Art Director: Jay Bruce Designer: Nathan Krummel Photography: Rusty Bailey, Steve Buhman, Amy Dion, K.C. Jaehnig, Jeanette Johnson, Shutterstock.com
Printed by the authority of the State of Illinois, X/XX, XM, XX-XXXX. Produced by University Communications, Southern Illinois University Carbondale 618.453.2276, www.siu.edu/uc
College of Education and Human Services
From The Desk of the Dean It is my pleasure to introduce the College magazine. While we produce a monthly electronic newsletter (read it online at www.ehs.siu.edu), we think we need a more detailed annual presentation of activities and accomplishments, too. So why Journeys? In addition to producing high-quality teaching and learning, scholarly publications and presentations, expert and compassionate advising and mentoring, and excellent grades and test scores, we address lifelong learning as an integral part of human experience. We strive to be a part of that journey for our faculty, staff, students, alumni and off-campus partners. Our many destinations are important, but so are the paths that we take to get there. We want to emphasize these journeys, whether done in collaboration with others or as individual learners. We try to assure that all experiences with our College will be, as curriculum theorist Herbert Kliebard puts it, “as rich, as fascinating, and as memorable as possible.” And thus we come to our College’s new tagline: “explore possibilities, fulfill dreams, change lives.” We seek to encourage all to discover, to search out and to investigate the many different aspects of our complex social world as well as their own professional and personal lives. We strive to foster creativity and imagination and to find ways to realize the hopes and dreams of those with whom we deal. We care deeply about helping others by finding ways to promote a significantly better world for all to live in. This annual publication will share some of the ways in which those in the College of Education and Human Services explore possibilities, fulfill dreams and change lives. I know this magazine is just one of many clamoring for your attention, but I hope you take the time to read it carefully. You will learn more about the truly inspiring work taking place in our College, in and out of the classroom. I hope it instills in you a stronger attachment both to the College and to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with the academic offerings, research and other activities standing alongside the beauty of the campus, the cultural events, our winning sports teams and the many other reasons to feel Saluki pride. I conclude with an honest plea: At a time of diminishing state and federal support and rising costs, we depend a great deal on donations that help
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make a college education accessible, provide support for significant faculty research, maintain updated facilities and allow us to engage in important service. I ask for your (continued or initial) financial support for the College, in whatever amount you can provide. It is crucial in helping us to address our overall mission: to understand and improve the lives of children, adolescents and adults in the region and beyond. We greatly appreciate your interest in our College and welcome your feedback about our many activities and accomplishments, a selection of which is described in the pages of this first issue of Journeys. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments to share. I can be reached at kteitelb@siu.edu or 618-453-2415. Best wishes, Kenneth Teitelbaum, Dean
Left: Dean Teitelbaum with other college administrators. Below: Dean Teitelbaum with the Dean’s Office support staff.
Extra Credit
Journey To New Student volunteers learn from hard lessons in “The Big Easy”
HE WAS A LITTLE BOY, THIS FIRSTgrader who’d been through Hurricane Katrina, but he had a BIG attitude. “He fought me so hard,” said Melissa D. Gandy, a 23-year-old Chicago native who tested her classroom skills in a New Orleans school over spring break. “At lunch, the teacher told me he, his younger siblings and older sister got left behind — their parents just left. They were on the roof for two days. Somehow they got off and got to the Superdome — by themselves. They were there for three months — by themselves. They had to grow up so fast. You want them to turn back into kids, but it’s not that simple.” Gandy was one of nine curriculum and instruction majors specializing in early childhood education who spent a week in New Orleans early in March. Organized by faculty members Christina C. McIntyre and Deborah A. Bruns, the journey had two purposes. “We wanted to provide assistance and support to child care centers and elementary schools that were still recovering from Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike,” said McIntyre, an assistant professor in early childhood education. “I also wanted my teacher candidates to experience a different culture — to see how resources are not so readily available and the type of strains and constraints placed on child development. It’s not like the ideal setting we dream about and talk about on the college campus.” This was the second such trip the pair had led, but though the itinerary remained much the same as the previous year, the experience differed greatly. “Last year was way more surprising and shocking, way more emotional, seeing what everyone went through, seeing communities turned into ghost towns,” said Gandy, who took part in both projects. “It was deserted. Homes were collapsed on their foundations. You didn’t see people as you drove around. The mood was very down. It was a lot more physical labor last year. We helped rebuild. “This year, it was not so much dirty, hands-on labor; it was more using our brains, working in the
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classroom with the children and seeing how the teachers run things.” At first, that difference threw the newbies off stride. “I had packed nothing but T-shirts and shorts and jeans — anything that could get dirty — because I thought we’d be making the classrooms teachable,” said Krista R. Cawvey, a 23-year-old senior from Collinsville, who had heard all the stories from last year’s veterans before the group set out. “We got to the first place, and it was great — they had desks, they had books, they had uniforms.
I looked at one of the other girls and said, ‘Why are we here?’” But it didn’t take long for the students to pick up the pace. “When you expect one thing and you’re faced with another, you just have to go with the flow — that’s what you learn as a teacher,” Cawvey said. “We had to go into a different mindset — that’s part of professional development.” Not that there weren’t still needs. Midweek, McIntyre and Bruns, an associate professor in special education, divided the students into two groups. Each planned to visit a childcare center and screen the children for developmental delays. Bruns’ group found four children with such delays and one with autism;
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Orleans administrators at that center have arranged for a specialist to work with the children. But at the center McIntyre and her students visited, they could not conduct the tests because the center lacked the things that foster the development they’d be looking for. “My girls were upset,” McIntyre recalled. “We had raised enough money [before the trip] that we could spend some on projects down there, so I walked around and asked the teachers what they wanted for their spaces. Then the girls and I went out
that night and bought things — a kitchen set, 10 baby dolls, balls, construction paper, paints, crayons and pencils, teething rings, baby wipes, cause-and-effect toys. That felt good.” For both Gandy and Cawvey, pairing up with a classroom teacher proved the highlight of this year’s journey. Gandy teamed with a male teacher, a first for her, in a class whose students, she said, were “a handful.” Cawvey partnered with an English major two years younger than she who was in the midst of a post-baccalaureate teacher-training program during her “spare” time. Both young women said they got as much as they gave. “It made me more well rounded,
more patient and understanding, and I think it also will help me help children cope with the devastation that may happen in their lives,” said Gandy, who wants to teach in southside Chicago, where she herself went to school. “You never know what kids go through when they go home. For some, school is like home; it’s where they feel safe and comfortable. So maybe you should look deeper into problem behavior, see the root, and help the student through it.” Cawvey has kept in touch with her teacher, at her request passing on tips and ideas that might be helpful. She has felt awed, both by the teacher’s courage in tackling a profession she had not trained for and even more by the depth and breadth of her own knowledge. “That week let me tap into my teaching ability,” she said. “I might not have any pictures of crumbled houses that I put back together, but I have so much more. “I left New Orleans knowing that I am going to be a great teacher, that I could take on a classroom tomorrow and be perfectly fine, and that wasn’t something I would have gotten if it hadn’t been for that trip. I came back with just so much gratitude for the professors here that have mentored me and made me the teacher I didn’t know I could be.”
Christina C. McIntyre
Deborah A. Bruns
College of Education and Human Services
3
Extra Credit THE PRESCRIPTIONS PHILIP M. ANTON writes for his cancer patients elevate mood, reduce fatigue, increase strength and cost them nothing. What’s his wonder drug? An exercise program, tailored specifically to each person’s needs. “It’s not a cookie-cutter routine — it’s based on what their capabilities are at the time,” said Anton, an exercise physiologist in the Department of Kinesiology. Anton directs the Strong Survivors exercise program, sponsored by Southern Illinois Healthcare, which meets at John A. Logan College’s Community Health Education Complex in nearby Carterville. “(Participants) are encouraged to work at their own pace,” he said. “If there’s an exercise they’re not comfortable doing, we figure out something else. We encourage them to try, but we don’t stand there with a cattle prod. They’ve been through enough. They don’t need us making them any more uncomfortable than they are.” Anton, whose doctoral work at the University of Northern Colorado focused on exercise as therapy to counteract the physical effects of cancer treatment, feels a strong bond with those who have the disease. His cousin — his best friend — began her losing battle with cancer at 14. It took her leg, her lungs, her brain and, at last, her life. For awhile, her death left him drifting. Then his dissertation adviser founded the Rocky Mountain Cancer Rehabilitation Institute and invited him to work there. He realized shortly after that he’d found his calling. “It allowed me to do research and be a human being at the same time — to interact with people,” Anton said. “You can’t find a more rewarding subject population than cancer patients. When they’re told they have cancer, their life often spins out of control. Where a program like [the Strong Survivors] comes into play is that we give patients a toehold, an opportunity to have some sort of control. They can make themselves stronger, decrease the amount of fatigue they feel and increase their overall quality of life — it’s so rewarding. “It can be tough, because eventually you will lose people to the disease, but that’s a ‘con’ that’s outweighed by so many ‘pros’ they’re too numerous to count. I am amazed by what these people have gone through, the things they’re willing to try and
MUSCLE Made-to-order exercises help cancer the lengths they’re willing to go to try to get their lives back. They are the most resilient people you will ever meet.” Organizers at Southern Illinois Healthcare originally designed Strong Survivors as a nutrition education program with a little walking on the side. They’d already applied to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for a grant when Anton came along. He told them he could design an exercise program that would accomplish far more for the participants than walking alone would do. Then some folks from John A. (as the college is known locally) said they could arrange free use of their exercise equipment, and when the grant money came through in September 2005, the revamped program took off. It’s been going strong ever since. Participants meet twice each week for 12 weeks. At the beginning, they learn the basics of nutrition and physical activity as these apply to folks with cancer. They undergo tests to assess their ability to perform tasks associated with daily living — going up and down stairs, carrying things and the like — and they fill out questionnaires about how active they are, how easily they tire and their overall quality of life. They also detail their cancer and medical histories. “Different cancers require different treatments and different grades of treatment,” Anton said. “With breast cancer, for example, many of the surgical procedures mean they have limited ability to use one arm or sometimes both. All
“All this
information helps us
write their ‘exercise
prescriptions.’
Philip M. Anton
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20 09 areas in every single person since we started — in the majority of cases, we see improvement in all the test areas,” he said. “We also see an improvement in mood and attitude, though that’s not something we measure. “For me, the numbers are great because they help me in the research arena, but I am more about what I see on their faces and what they tell me about how they’re feeling. That’s much more valuable to me than any piece of research data will ever be.”
POWER patients push back against the disease this information helps us write their ‘exercise prescriptions.’ We give them a few weeks to get comfortable — a lot of them have never been in a gym before — and then we adjust the intensity. Periodically throughout the class we also adjust the exercise they’re doing so they’re not doing the same thing over and over.” Carbondale resident Kenneth J. Emmons said being part of the class has made a difference in his life. “I’ve been conscious since I’ve been in the class about doing some walking — it’s almost killed me!” he said, laughing. “It gets us old moldy seniors off the couch and lets us move a little. It inspired me to try to take care of myself again.” Joyce Ambler, a breast cancer survivor and an office administrator in the College’s Department of Health Education and Recreation, signed up with her husband of more than 30 years, David, who has never had cancer. “If you were to tell my kids their mom is ‘going to the gym’ and ‘enjoying exercise,’ they’d most likely look at you in disbelief,” Ambler said. “Phil and his young (undergraduate research) assistants through their kind and gentle guidance have taught me so much. I feel more energetic after exercising and truly enjoy it. And having this class gives David and me the satisfaction of knowing we are doing all we can to prevent a recurrence of cancer.” Anton, who hopes to broaden his research to include caregivers as well as survivors, said he was glad to welcome them. “Cancer is tough on the person who has it but almost tougher on those in a support position,” he noted. “They often feel helpless, don’t know what to say or do.” Participants get good results. “We have seen improvement in at least one of the test
A helping hand — Brian M. Thoele, a senior in exercise science and dietetics at SIUC, assists cancer survivor Sandra L. Shea of Carbondale with a workout designed specifically for her.
Strong support — David Ambler (left) of Carterville works some muscles he didn’t know he had under the watchful eye of Philip M. Anton, an exercise physiologist at SIUC. Ambler, who doesn’t have cancer, enrolled to be with his wife, Joyce, who did.
Living strong — Angela D. Cress (left), a senior in exercise science at SIUC, assists cancer survivor Kathryn L. Lockwood of Herrin.
College of Education and Human Services
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Extra Credit
LETTING GO New program shows weight loss comes with self-acceptance
Mark R. Dixon conducts research related to choice and risk taking with various clinical populations including persons with eating disorders, pathological gamblers, adults with brain injury and children with autism.
IN A TUG OF WAR WITH FOOD, YOU CAN win by letting go of the rope. This paradox lies at the heart of a new weight-loss program developed at the College’s Rehabilitation Institute. Researchers there say focusing on living a life that’s personally meaningful works better than an emphasis on shedding pounds when it comes to helping people lose weight. “We wanted to change [the participants’] psychological wellbeing, with the hope that change would spill over to other aspects of their lives, including their eating and exercise habits,” says Professor Mark R. Dixon, who heads the Institute’s behavior analysis program. “I believe we have succeeded in doing this very thing. After eight weeks, all of our subjects felt better about their body image — and 80 percent of them lost weight.” Says Michael J. Bordieri, one of two graduate students conducting the program, “Since our goal wasn’t immediate weight loss, that was just icing on the cake — though that might not be the most appropriate metaphor. But we’re also seeing reductions in depression and anxiety — these are larger changes related to overall health.” To get these results, Dixon, Bordieri and graduate student Nicholas K.L. Mui are using a short-term treatment style called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT. Earlier forms of behavior therapy stressed changing behaviors without regard to thoughts and feelings or trying to change the thoughts and feelings with the idea that behavior change would follow. This style says essentially, “See the feeling. Accept the feeling. Change anyway.” “People believe they are their thoughts, but a thought isn’t something that has to control your life,” Mui says. “Our approach is that you don’t have to fix your thoughts — they’re part of being human. It’s normal to be unhappy sometimes.” Each of the eight one-hour sessions begins with a client sitting quietly, observing his or her own thoughts. Partly, they do this to help quiet what Mui calls the constant “psychological noise” involved
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in thinking, partly it helps train them in becoming aware of what their thoughts and feelings are really saying to them. “There’s an underlying cause for why they’re eating,” Dixon says. “It’s often to escape another problem. We try to make people aware of that cycle so they can break out of it.” Adds Bordieri, “For many we work with, food is a moment of comfort. We try to provide space to come in contact with their discomfort. Then we can provide help in going in another direction.” How? Well, for one thing, they have their clients eat. “Too many diet programs make war on food — it’s something that’s to be avoided,” Bordieri says. “We take the opposite approach — we actually eat in the sessions. We teach them to sit there and enjoy the food for its own sake rather than using it as an escape. And every single client, once they became aware that they ate to escape from thoughts, feelings, problems — they stopped.” But Bordieri stresses that awareness and acceptance — and the weight loss that can accompany them — are only half the deal. “It’s just the start of a process for living a life that’s healthful and meaningful,” he says. “It goes beyond an eight-week plan.” In pointing the way to a more fulfilling life, Dixon says the therapists try to help their clients identify the larger “costs” of those extra pounds. “One of the first things we ask is, ‘Are you living in a way you want to live? What could you do if you weren’t overweight?’” he says. As clients become aware of their core values and what they truly want, they can focus on achieving goals related to their hearts’ desires. In doing so, they can draw on the energy they once expended on battling, rather than accepting, unhappy thoughts and feelings. “Our goal is that when a person who has been through our program sees a piece of cake or a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign, the craving won’t be there any more because they understand it won’t give them the comfort that they once expected,” Dixon says. “They won’t be the same person, and at that point, they won’t have to fight the food thing any more.”
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THE GLOBAL SCHOOLHOUSE Democracy demands new teaching emphasis in a shrinking world FORGET THE CALL FOR A RETURN TO academic standards and lots of memorization and drills, says Kathryn A. Hytten, interim chair of educational administration and higher education. What our brave, new, global world needs are responsible, active, fair-minded citizens, and we can’t produce them by focusing on improving test scores. “A standards-driven, skill/drill/test system actually exacerbates the very problems associated with unfettered global capitalism, including self-centered individualism (and) unhealthy competition,” Hytten wrote in an article published early this year in the yearbook Philosophy of Education. While folks talk a lot about globalization, Hytten finds most don’t know what it is. “They think of it as this benign force allowing us to quickly communicate with others and access a huge variety of consumer choices rather than the uneven distribution of freemarket capitalism’s costs and benefits,” Hytten says. “But if you scratch the surface, you see it’s not about making the world better. Corporations do whatever it takes to produce goods and services the most inexpensively, invariably in locations where there is little protection for either workers or the environment.” We don’t talk much about capitalism in schools, in part because we assume that communism is its only alternative. That’s not the case, Hytten maintains. The opposite of unfettered, free-market capitalism is democracy. “Democracy balances individual rights with a commitment to the common good ,” she says. “All that matters in a capitalist
system is increasing price for shareholders, no matter what.” To counter globalization’s “dark side,” democracy must become more than a label, a trip to the polls, the belief that we can do what we want. Schools used to play a key role in teaching students about what it means to live in a democracy, but somewhere they have lost their way, Hytten says. In her article, she calls for teachers to return to the idea that they are shaping thoughtful future citizens who will hold those in power accountable to the common good. To do that, school must depart from the standards-driven model. “Stuffing kids with information and then testing them doesn’t teach them to question or problem solve, and when they’re learning something for a test, they don’t have a sense of why it matters,” Hytten says. Teachers must draw on material that focuses on asking questions, finding information, and evaluating results. The curricula also should include service activities to connect students with the wider world. Students should be encouraged to get lost in the subject matter, to reflect, to go beyond the surface. “This is easier with young kids — they ask questions all the time,” Hytten says. “It’s when the testing starts that it’s no longer about knowing something but about getting the right answer.” Hytten hopes to see schools foster the development of citizens who assess situations, call attention to injustice and know how to bring about lasting change. “Rethinking democracy in light of the dilemmas of globalization is crucial if we hope to live up to our own best visions,” Hytten says.
Kathryn A. Hytten’s research interests include philosophy and sociology of education, diversity, social justice, critical theory, and globalization.
College of Education and Human Services
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Extra Credit
ACTING UP, ACTING OUT Researcher looks at genetic links to “bad” behavior
Michael E. May is interested in gene x environment interactions in problem behavior, applied behavior analysis for students with severe disabilities and dual diagnoses, and professional development for teachers and staff who work with people with disabilities. In his spare time, he plays recreational soccer in an attempt to stay in shape.
A COMMON GENETIC MUTATION MIGHT HELP predict which boys with intellectual disabilities will cause trouble in school. The mutation results in an oversupply of a brain chemical tied to aggression. Previous research by an international team of scientists has linked it with violent or antisocial acts committed by New Zealand men who suffered mistreatment in their early years. Now researchers from our College and Vanderbilt University have found a connection between that mutation and problem behavior in a group of men with intellectual disabilities. Men in the study who had the mutation were more than twice as likely to lash out, destroy things or hurt themselves than were their counterparts who did not have the mutation. “This study was not designed to label people (as aggressive) from an early age,” said Michael E. May, project leader and an assistant professor of special education. “Ultimately, we want to identify these kids so we can develop successful early intervention strategies for them, to arrange their environment in such a way that we can teach them to get what they need in a more appropriate way.” Roughly a third of the general population has this mutation, but the research done with New Zealanders suggested environmental factors — maternal rejection, inconsistent care and physical or sexual abuse — provide the needed trigger for the accompanying aggression. “We decided to look at adults because most of them have been in situations that can produce environmental triggers,” May said. “We chose individuals from institutional and community settings where environmental triggers
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were equally likely to take place,” Other researchers have associated this mutation with the more severe forms of autism, which is often accompanied by a degree of mental retardation. This led the team to focus on adults with mental retardation. The 105 men studied ranged in age from 18 to 50 and live in Southern Illinois or Middle Tennessee. Matched by age and IQ, two-thirds had intellectual disabilities; half of these had lengthy histories of trouble making. The others came from the general population and had no reported behavior problems. The study involved only men because the gene in question resides on the X chromosome. Men have just one such chromosome while women have two. “It is more efficient in terms of time and resources to search one X chromosome, and males are more likely to act out than females are,” May said. Researchers collected DNA from the participants, had it checked for the mutation and then compared results with behavior reports assembled by trained agency staff. They found that 43 percent of the men with both mental retardation and problem behavior had the mutation, while just 20 percent of the other men did. Although this study reinforces other research linking aggression with this particular genetic variant, the fact that the mutation appears in men who do not behave badly also underscores that genes are not destiny. “It is important to emphasize that when we look to identify the cause of aggressive behavior, we’re not just looking at genetics,” May said. “It’s not ‘nature versus nurture’ — they influence each other.”
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COMING TO AMERICA
Immigrant experience offers roadmap to social work curriculum
IMMIGRATION RESEARCH CONDUCTED AT THE
College contributed to the League of Women Voters’ national stance on the issue and points to new directions for social work education. In 2007 the League was looking for particulars on the reasons people immigrate, input on federal policy and attitudes about immigration. To Assistant Professor Dona J. Reese, that spelled “participatory action” research project. “It’s participatory because the people you are focusing on help design the study, and the results support social action,” Reese explained. Her research team included Hispanic participants, local social workers, university professors, League members and community leaders. Focus groups revealed the immigrants came not just to make money but because they felt drawn to America’s ideals: That people are created equal, that they have a right to fair treatment, that hard work will be rewarded. While work does serve as a huge draw, the jobs immigrants generally take are those no one else wants. And although they do send money back to family members in their home countries, they also spend their wages here. In addition, even those without papers pay taxes, though they can’t collect refunds or tax-supported benefits. Changes they would like to see include being allowed to work, receiving fair wages and having wider access to visas, driver’s licenses and services. They asked for tolerance for those unable to learn English and spoke out against deportations that needlessly disrupt families. “The suggestions made by the participants were practical, realistic and fair,” Reese said. “They wanted us to take their views to someone who could make a difference (in immigration policy). We’re still working on strategies for doing that.” Reese and her team also created a questionnaire to determine whether demographics, racist or ethnocentric attitudes, financial insecurity or belief in cultural myths — America is overrun by immigrants, immigrants are taking Americans’ jobs,
immigrants are often terrorists, for example — could predict support for harsher immigration policies. They distributed the questionnaire to more than 100 students from the School of Social Work, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and the SIU School of Law. “These departments are educating professionals who will practice with immigrants,” she said. “The literature indicates new professionals are not well educated about migrants so their clients aren’t getting proper services. If the professionals also have racist attitudes, they won’t be able to work with immigrants. It’s our responsibility to help our students think about their values so they will be better able to work in this area.” Gender, age, race, country of origin, marital status and political stance did not predict policy preference, the team found; education and religious preference did. Newer students tended to favor exclusionary policies as did Protestants and Catholics, while more experienced students, Buddhists and Muslims did not. Those with racist or ethnocentric attitudes supported stringent controls in all policies related to immigrants. “If (the respondents) didn’t have those attitudes, they didn’t support those policies — the pattern was highly significant,” Reese said. Those who subscribed to economic myths also tended to support exclusionary policies in terms of law enforcement, economics and human rights. Surprisingly, those who felt anxious about their own financial circumstances supported exclusionary policies related not to economics but to law enforcement. Reese presented her findings during the Council on Social Work Education’s annual meeting in 2008. She hopes to use what she’s found as a springboard for introducing more content on immigrants and immigration policy implications in coursework. “No matter what happens, immigrants are not going away,” she said. “We have a responsibility here if for no other reason than being humane.”
Dona J. Reese is interested in communication between cultures, with a long-standing focus on facilitating cultural competence in hospice care. Lately she has become interested in the broader focus of international relations.
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Letters Home
Curriculum and Instruction
Lynn C. Smith, Chair
THE DEPARTMENT HAS TAKEN ON NEW ENERGY WITH nine new hires in the past five years. In addition to being excellent teachers, they have become engaged in a multitude of exciting research projects representing their own fields of interest and crossing into areas of others’ inquiry. New faculty members Kelly Glassett, Christie McIntyre and Grant Miller are working with veterans Joyce Killian, John McIntyre, and Cathy Mogharreban on a project looking at how our Teacher Education Program prepares teacher candidates to develop, implement and make instructional decisions based on pupil assessments. Frackson Mumba’s research agenda includes State of Illinois Math/Science Partnership Grants for developing science content and pedagogical skills for area elementary and secondary teachers, a National Science Foundation grant related to high school science instruction and a State of Illinois Science, Math, and Action Research for Teachers grant to develop a master’s program specifically for math and science educators. Deborah Seltzer-Kelly works with three SIUC competitive debaters on what makes competitive debate educational. The study considers competitive debate as a curriculum, looking at explicit content and process skills. Stacy Thompson and a colleague in special education focus on early intervention programs, issues and outcomes, investigating socio-emotional wellbeing and satisfaction resulting from such intervention. They also are collecting data from parents, administrators and service coordinators to examine satisfaction with early intervention services. Cheng-Yao Lin focuses on pre-service teachers’ knowledge of fractions and on their developing computational skills. The latter has developed into a cross-cultural study with colleagues in Taiwan and in a localized study with faculty member Jerry Becker and graduate student Miran Byun. Lingguo Bu looks at theoretical and practical implications of dynamic school mathematics from a model-centered perspective. He is editing the first book on GeoGebra in mathematics teaching and learning and collaborates with researchers at Florida State University and University of Georgia to study dynamic mathematics in pre-service teacher preparation and in-service teacher development. Peter Fadde and C. Sebastian Loh direct the Collaboratory for Interactive Learning Research to research and develop projects related to interactive learning, including
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simulations and video games for instruction and assessment. The department began its first off-campus bachelorcompletion elementary education program in Grayslake in 2002. Off-campus centers have since sprung up in Mt. Vernon, Ullin, Centralia and Red Bud. Mt. Vernon has
graduated its second cohort of elementary education majors, while Grayslake produced its eleventh graduating cohort this past May. Courses, with the potential to become full-blown programs, are in place at Centralia and Ullin. The early childhood preschool/primary program began its first full bachelor-completion program at Mt. Vernon this fall. The department is fortunate to have alumni who contribute regularly to our SIU Foundation account. Because of that generosity, both graduate and undergraduate students have been able to participate and present at conferences and workshops throughout the United States and internationally. We consider such support a wise investment in our students who will be or are teaching in the state’s schools and who will be the college and university faculty of the future.
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Educational Psychology and Special Education I WELCOME THIS OPPORTUNITY TO RELAY UNIQUE contributions and accomplishments of some of our faculty members. Nancy Mundschenk serves as a regional coordinator of the Alliance for School-based Problem-solving and Intervention Resources in Education (ASPIRE), a five-year project serving schools in 41 southern Illinois counties. It delivers research-based professional development and technical assistance, involves parents in school decisionmaking, incorporates professional development content into the curriculum of future educators, and evaluates the effectiveness of project activities. Regina Foley represents SIUC in partnership with FoCUS (Federation of Community United Services) of Southern Illinois to prepare special educators for the southernmost
region. She also coordinates a research project at Carbondale Community High School examining co-teaching as an alternative instructional delivery system for students at risk for academic difficulties or with disabilities. Deborah Bruns seeks to increase the knowledge base on rare-incidence trisomy conditions and to make this information available to families and interested educational, medical and therapeutic professionals. She also conducts research in infant and toddler screening and inclusive preschool environments. Morgan Chitiyo conducts research in Zimbabwe and has a book in press, “Identity in Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Writings from Zimbabwe Students.” Kim Asner-Self and colleague Jim Schreiber received a contract from Wiley & Sons for a textbook on research
methods for master’s level practitioners of counselor education. Last fall, Asner-Self received the Deanna Hawes Outstanding Mentor Award from the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Tracy Stinchfield received the North Central Association’s Supervisor of the Year Award last fall. And in a dramatic show of program faculty excellence, Brett Zyromski made it three for three at the North Central Association’s conference by winning the Outstanding Professional Teaching Award. Todd Headrick, coordinator of the educational measurement and statistics program, is under contract with Chapman & Hall/CRC for a book titled “Statistical Simulation: Power Method Polynomials and Other Transformations.” Patricia B. Elmore, who has returned full time to the faculty, was named a fellow by the American Educational Research Association early this year based on her sustained record of research accomplishments and contributions. She also is a fellow of the American Counseling Association. Rhonda Kowalchuk has been extensively involved with the university’s College of Engineering in its efforts to increase its undergraduate retention and graduation rates. The project is funded by a National Science Foundation grant for which Dr. Kowalchuk serves as evaluator and co-principal investigator. Yanyan Sheng was named research associate by the university’s Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development for her work as the research coordinator and hierarchical linear modeling specialist on a study exploring risk factors for cardiovascular disease morbidity. In addition, she is an investigator in a project supported by The Pioneer Fund to use latent variable modeling to assess the Flynn Effect.
Lyle J. White, Chair
College of Education and Human Services
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Letters Home
Health Education and Recreation
Joyce V. Fetro, Chair
IN 1993, TWO NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED DEPARTMENTS merged to become the Department of Health Education and Recreation. Currently, the department offers six degree programs and participates in a multidisciplinary certificate program in gerontology. The department has eight health education and seven recreation faculty members known nationally for their expertise in teaching, research and professional service plus three visiting Korean scholars, 10 health education graduate teaching assistants, six graduate assistants in recreation, and four graduate assistants in health education. The recreation program is fully accredited by the National Recreation and Parks Association. The College is also affiliated with the Wilderness Education Association — one of only 54 colleges and universities nationwide with such a connection. This offers a unique experience designed to help students learn basic outdoor living and leadership skills in back-country wilderness environments with a student-centered, problem-based experiential approach. The department has also newly established a public health master’s program — the only one in Illinois with a concentration in community health education. Graduates
of these programs have found jobs in a variety of public and private settings, including public health departments, community health organizations, state education agencies, non-profit health education agencies and hospitals. Our doctoral program is nationally ranked with more than 300 graduates in leadership roles in local, state and federal government agencies and in universities across the country.
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The department sponsors two student organizations, Alpha Alpha Chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma and the Student Recreation Society. During the 2008-2009 academic year, our faculty continued to make significant contributions to health
education and recreation through teaching, research, publications and professional service. Many faculty and students have received recognition for their accomplishments, including Heewon Yang, associate professor of recreation, who received the College’s Teacher of the Year Award. Mark Kittleson, professor of health education, received the American Association for Health Education Scholar Award. Dhitinut Ratnapradipa and Steven Brown received a $25,000 seed grant from the University’s Office of Research and Development Administration. Joyce V. Fetro, professor and SIUC distinguished teacher of health education, recently became department chair. Josh Sheehan (recreation) was one of the university’s 25 most distinguished seniors. Bethany Carriger and Lisa Jaquez (health education) were named outstanding undergraduate scholars by the American Association for Health Education. Eta Sigma Gamma received the 2009 Outstanding Program/Event Award from the university’s student development office. Finally, Judy C. Drolet (health education) and Regina B. Glover (recreation), two senior faculty with 53 years of combined service, have retired.
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Educational Administration and Higher Education THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION and Higher Education is a graduate-only department that has graduated more than 100 students in the past three years. We have seven faculty members, among them the president of the American Educational Studies Association, the president-elect of the Educational Law Association, a board member of the National Holmes Partnership, an NCATE program reviewer and a recent SIUC College of Education and Human Services teacher of the year. They serve on editorial boards and in the past two years have published more than 25 articles and book chapters as well as two books. Since 2005, we have been running our educational administration master’s program on a cohort basis. We accept 15 to 20 students each year, and all graduate in two years (while also working full time as teachers). Most have secured administrative positions soon after graduating. Our
conferences attract up to 200 regional administrators and provide great networking opportunities for faculty, students and school district personnel. In higher education, our faculty members participate regularly in student affairs activities throughout the university and are regularly recognized for their service. Among our highlights for the 2008-2009 academic year: • Brad Colwell was recently promoted to associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College. • Our most senior faculty member, Marybelle Keim, published three peer-reviewed articles and continues to maintain a national reputation in the field of community college education and administration. • Patrick Dilley gave the keynote lecture in March 2009 at the 14th annual Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. • Saran Donahoo won two national awards for her article “Reflections on Race: Affirmative Action Policies Influencing Higher Education in France and the United States.” • Judith Green became a lead reviewer for educational administration programs as part of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). • Tamara Yakaboski received the annual Service to Student Affairs Award in April 2009 for the year’s most significant contribution to student affairs and student life at Southern Illinois University. • Liz Lewin hosted our spring 2009 Educational Leadership conference. She also spearheads our educational administration outreach efforts.
Kathryn A. Hytten, Chair
fifth cohort of students began classes in summer 2009. Many of our graduates have gone on to become educational leaders throughout the state. Our higher education graduates include university administrators, college presidents, chancellors, faculty, deans and professional staff in a wide range of areas. Recent graduates have secured positions at New York University, Purdue University, SUNY Stony Brook, Westminster College, University of Wisconsin and Fontbonne University. Our outreach efforts include the local, regional, state and national educational administration and higher education communities. For 12 years we have hosted two day-long professional development opportunities for administrators: the School Law Conference in the fall and the Southern Illinois Leadership Conference in the spring. These
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Letters Home
Kinesiology
Elaine M. Blinde, Chair
THIS IS AN EXCITING TIME FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF kinesiology as many positive happenings are taking place. Beginning with our name change from Physical Education to Kinesiology three years ago, the department has actively worked to inform others about the mission and scope of its teaching, research and service activities. Our diversity is reflected in our three undergraduate majors: athletic training, exercise science and physical education teacher education. Enrollment at the undergraduate level has increased by nearly 37 percent in the past four years; we have approximately 270 students in our three majors. During a recent accreditation review, the Athletic Training Education Program received full accreditation status through 2013. A fourth major in sport administration has just received final approval, and early indicators suggest this will be a very popular major. At the graduate level, the department offers a master’s degree with focus areas in exercise science and sport studies. With new faculty, we have developed many new graduate courses including courses related to financial aspects of sport, medical aspects of exercise, organizational behavior in sport, psychology of injury, and motor learning. The sport studies area has a cooperative graduate internship program with Saluki Athletics designed to provide valuable work experience for students in 10 different areas of sport management and student-athlete services. The graduate program has seen enrollment increase 125 percent in the past six years. Many new tenuretrack faculty members have joined us during the past five years, including Juliane Hernandez (exercise physiology, Iowa State), Julie Partridge (sport psychology, Northern Colorado), Meungguk Park (sport management, Ohio State), Michael Olson (biomechanics, Louisiana State), Toby Brooks (athletic training, Arizona), Philip Anton (exercise physiology, Northern Colorado), Jared Porter (pedagogy/motor behavior, Louisiana State), Thomas Parry (pedagogy/motor behavior, Indiana) and Bobbi Knapp (sport studies, Iowa). This young core of ambitious and research-active faculty has brought much
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energy and excitement to the department and complement the seasoned tenured faculty, including Elaine Blinde (sociology of sport, Illinois), Donna Wilson (dance, Oklahoma), Daniel
Becque (exercise physiology, Michigan) and Taeho Yoh (sport management, Florida State). We have expanded research laboratories with the addition of the Biomechanics and Integrative Movement Laboratory, Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory and Cancer Rehabilitation Laboratory. These labs join the existing Exercise Physiology Laboratory and the Social Psychology of Sport Laboratory. The research interests of faculty reflect the diversity of focus areas within the department, including exercise and cancer rehabilitation, mechanisms of blood pressure regulation, gender dynamics in sport, motor skill learning, ergogenic aids and performance, biomechanics and motor control of the body, sport marketing, corporate sponsorship of sport, shame coping, pedagogy, social influences in sport and the role of baseball in a community. The future looks promising. The growth in student enrollments, faculty, programs, research laboratories and research productivity has brought us visibility and recognition. Yet, we also cherish our rich history as the Department of Physical Education, acknowledging the solid foundation provided on which to build the current department. To those individuals who have been part of this history, we say thank you.
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Rehabilitation Institute THE REHABILITATION INSTITUTE EVOLVED FROM ONE faculty member recruiting students at a card table with a sign advertising traineeships and free tuition into a comprehensive rehabilitation training center with two undergraduate programs, four master’s degree programs and a doctoral program. The Institute now includes a communication disorders and sciences program with a national reputation, the country’s first behavior analysis and therapy master’s program, the first Doctor of Rehabilitation program and a rehabilitation counseling program ranked sixth in the nation. Our nearly 4,000 graduates work and live on every continent (except Antarctica) and in every state and territory of the United States. The rehab counseling faculty created the El Valor project, taking the master’s degree program on the road to Chicago to one of the country’s largest Hispanic social service agencies. They offer specializations in traumatic brain injury, with Tom Upton, and in substance abuse with Shane Koch. Stacia Robertson provides practicum and internship supervision. Carl Flowers coordinates the rehabilitation administration program and oversees development of our proposed online executive master’s in rehabilitation administration. No longer will faculty and students make the trek to Springfield or Indianapolis; the program is as close as their home office computers. Bill Crimando continues to teach in the rehabilitation administration program and was named a Living Legend in Rehabilitation by the National Rehabilitation Association.
Darrell Taylor teaches in our sequence on aging and in the undergraduate rehabilitation services program. The behavior analysis and therapy program won an Enduring Contribution to Behavior Analysis Award from the Association for Behavior Analysis. Tony Cuvo serves as director of the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt coordinates the undergraduate program in rehabilitation services and does research and training in
autism. Mark Dixon coordinates training sites in the Metro East often involving the provision of behavioral services to children with autism. In addition, he heads projects to offer the BAT master’s degree in Rockton and Peoria, coordinates our online certificate program and conducts research in obesity and pathological gambling. Brandon Greene continues to manage Project 12 Ways, while Paula Davis is a co-principal investigator on a new federal grant project training students to work with veterans. New faculty member Nicole Heal investigates behavioral interventions with young children, while recent addition Jonathan Baker studies behavioral strategies in the treatment of the elderly. Ken Simpson coordinates our Communication Disorders and Sciences program, a top-100 program in U.S. News & World Report rankings. He also works with recent addition
John J. Benshoff, Director
Maria Claudia Franca on voice research. Linda McCabe Smith has joined the administrative ranks of the university, serving as interim associate chancellor for diversity. We are proud of our distinguished faculty and equally proud of our hard-working students. Two students received dissertation research awards, and a number have received fellowships. Our communication disorders and sciences student group received bronze chapter status from the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, and our student rehabilitation association chapter was named chapter of the year by the National Rehabilitation Association. Finally, we are proud of our alumni; you are the leaders, the movers and the shakers in the rehabilitation world. It seems everywhere I go, I run into Rehabilitation Institute graduates. Some have never been to campus, earning their degrees through one of our off-campus programs; others recall with great fondness their time in Carbondale. To each of you, we say thanks for representing us so well, and thanks for your continued interest in our success.
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Letters Home
Social Work
Mizanur R. Miah Director
THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK OFFERS BACHELOR‘S AND master’s degrees in social work. Both are fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. Academic concentrations include children, youth and families, health and mental health, and a certificate program. The master’s program is one of the most popular of the university’s 69 graduate programs and this academic year was named as one of SIUC’s four “signature” programs. This year, the School has 222 undergraduate and 112 graduate students, six tenured full professors, four tenuretrack assistant professors, three full-time continuing clinical faculty members and several talented adjunct faculty. The School scores well in diversity. Sixty-seven percent of our faculty members are women —very much above the national average — while our student body consists of 284 female and 50 male students. The School houses two active, vibrant social work student organizations. The Undergraduate Social Work Student Alliance and the Graduate Social Work Student Alliance play
Also this year, the social work council’s Global Commission named the School a “Partner in International Education.” Here at home, the School administers an annual $4.5 million grant from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Integrated Assessment Program, which operates in 84 Southern and Central Illinois counties. extensive volunteer roles in communities and social welfare organizations. The School has an exceptional track record in international scholarly productivity. Roughly half its tenured and tenure-track professors hail from other countries; many serve on international committees and have working ties or research partnerships overseas. We are proud of our links with 11 universities in eight countries; we offer Study Abroad programs in Austria, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Mexico and India and an Elderhostel program in Mexico. This year, the School partnered with Egypt’s Helwan University to sponsor, for the third time, an international social work conference in Egypt.
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Workforce Education and Development FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH US OR what we do, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce you to the Department of Workforce Education and Development. For those of you who are, I am pleased to have this opportunity to let you know what we have been up to this past year. Ours is a very large department, with more than 1,000 students pursuing either a bachelor of science degree, a master’s of science in education degree or a doctor of philosophy degree. At the undergraduate level, we offer a bachelor’s degree with a major in workforce education and development within
the specializations of career and technical education, teacher certification or education, training and development. Not only do we offer these specializations on campus, but we continue to offer the ETD specialization at 15 military bases and one civilian location in 11 different states. Since beginning off-campus delivery at Scott Air Force Base in 1973, we have graduated over 25,000 students. Our service to military students was recently recognized with Southern Illinois University Carbondale being named as one of the “Top 20 Military Friendly Colleges and Universities” by the publishers of Military Advanced Education. As the largest military program on campus, we take great pride in this recognition. But most gratifying is that our undergraduate program has launched the careers of graduates as career and technical educators in public schools, training and development professionals, human resource specialists, and administrators in the public and private sector. In addition to offering our undergraduate degree program at military bases across the country, we have expanded the delivery of our master’s degree to off-campus locations throughout Illinois. Through a combination of online courses, two-way interactive video conferencing and on-site
delivery, students who have job demands and busy schedules can complete the master’s degree with greater convenience. While most of our master’s graduates go on to enjoy productive careers in the human resource field by applying what they have learned, many go on to earn a doctoral degree from our department. Our doctoral program remains strong and highly respected in the field. The strength of our department is our outstanding staff and faculty. Our department faculty members are recognized scholars in the field, with each member having specific expertise in an area that contributes to the mission of our department. Collectively, the faculty continues to be active in securing external funding for research, training and special projects. Since 2001, the department faculty has submitted 125 grant proposals with 105 accepted for funding, totaling more than $20 million. The centerpiece of grant acquisitions is the Center for Workforce Development. Projects operated through the center include the Illinois Office of Education Services and Illinois Worknet. In addition to grant activities, our faculty members remain active in professional organizations and hold a number of leadership positions in national and international professional organizations. These organizations include the Association for Family and Consumer Science, Delta Pi Epsilon, Omicron Tau Theta, the Association for Career and Technical Education and the Academy for Human Resource Development. We are certainly proud of the tremendous accomplishments of our faculty and the visibility their accomplishments bring to the department.
C. Keith Waugh Chair
(Editor’s note: Waugh served as chair through the 200509 academic years. Elizabeth W. Freeburg will lead the department through 2010.)
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Letters Home
NEW FACES IN 2008-09 The College had a successful recruiting season, entering the academic year with 12 new faculty members representing a wide range of knowledge and interests. Learn more about these colleagues through the brief “snapshots” below.
subjects, especially the teacher’s adaptation process in response to student learning. Seltzer-Kelly earned her doctorate from the University of Nevada, Reno.
structuring affect live supervision, both in terms of the counseling process and feedback. She earned her doctorate from Idaho State University and previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
underserved populations and interventions designed to increase public understanding of toxic chemical and pollution prevention programs. Ratnapradipa received his doctorate from the University of Utah. Before coming to SIUC, he supervised the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Office of Environmental Health Risk Assessment. He also taught in the public health program at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.
Assistant professor Muthoni Kimemia teaches the counseling practicum, counseling appraisal and oversees internships. Her research focuses on culturally responsive counseling with an emphasis on Africa. She has done research on coping responses among women who are the primary caregivers for family members living with HIV/ AIDS. Other research interests include experiences of caregivers terminally ill family members and help-seeking attitudes among Kenyans. Kimemia earned her doctorate from the University of Central Florida.
• Kinesiology
• Curriculum and Instruction
Assistant Professor Lingguo Bu teaches mathematics content and methods courses. He has a multidisciplinary background in mathematics, science and education. He is interested in research on model-centered learning in mathematics education, including dynamic mathematics and interactive technologies. He received his doctorate from Florida State University.
Assistant Professor Christina C. McIntyre, who served for several years as the college’s LiveText coordinator and as a term faculty in early childhood education, moved to a tenure-track position in the preschool/primary early childhood certification program. Her research includes work on the use of portfolios in teacher education. McIntyre earned her doctorate from Georgia State University. • Educational Psychology and Special Education
• Health Education and Recreation
Assistant Professor Deborah Seltzer-Kelly teaches action research courses and the graduate introduction to the curriculum. Her current research focuses on the integration of the arts into core
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Assistant Professor Julia Champe teaches life-span development, group counseling theory and the career group practicum. She also will assist with coursework in the marriage, couple and family counseling track. Champe’s research focuses on education and training in counselor education. She currently is studying how trainees’ cognitive processes and
Assistant Professor Dhitinut Ratnapradipa’s research focuses on environmental health education interventions for
Assistant Professor Thomas Parry, who has taught courses at Indiana University in motor skill learning, weight management and exercise, focuses on pedagogy and physical education teacher education here, with courses on how to teach team sports and motor behavior. His research centers on motor skill learning, with an emphasis on practice schedules and knowledge of results. Parry earned his doctorate from Indiana University.
Assistant Professor Jared Porter, who has taught courses in
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motor learning and tests and measurements at Louisiana State University, focuses on pedagogy and motor behavior here. He teaches courses on motor behavior and the foundation, organization and administration of physical education. His research centers on the role of contextual interferences in the learning of motor skills, and he has published articles in the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology and the International Journal of Sport Sciences and Coaching. He earned his doctorate from Louisiana State University. • Rehabilitation Institute
Assistant Professor Maria Claudia Franca teaches in the Rehabilitation Institute’s Communication Disorders and Sciences Program. Her research focuses on voice science and multicultural issues related to communication. A Fulbright award winner, Franca also has produced peer-reviewed articles and a book chapter, and has additional manuscripts in preparation. Franca earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Rehabilitation Institute. In addition, she has undergraduate and graduate degrees from universities in her native Brazil, where she began her academic career.
Assistant Professor Nicole A. Heal teaches basic behavior analysis and behavior change applications in the Institute’s behavior analysis and therapy area. A certified behavior analyst, she came to the College after a post-doctoral fellowship at the May Center for Education and Neurorehabilitation in Brockton, Mass., one of the country’s only schools for children and teens with brain injuries. Her research focuses on problems in early childhood and preschool; she is the co-author of seven articles published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the discipline’s leading journal. Heal earned her doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas. • Social Work
Assistant Professor Dona J. Reese, formerly an adjunct faculty member, teaches undergraduate research and advanced social work practice with children, youth and families. Her research focuses on psychosocial and
spiritual issues in counseling with dying patients, work with families and interdisciplinary teams in hospice settings, and addressing organizational barriers to culturally competent hospice services. She is currently planning a local project to increase access to hospice for diverse cultural groups. Reese received her doctorate from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1994 and previously taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of North Dakota and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. • Workforce Education and Development
In the Wings We welcome seven new faculty members in 2009-10 — Jonathan Baker, assistant professor, Rehabilitation Institute, with a doctoral degree from Western Michigan University
––Valerie E. Boyer, assistant professor, Rehabilitation Institute, with a doctoral degree from SIUC
— Crystal Shelby-Caffey, assistant professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, with a doctoral degree from the College
— Bobbi Knapp, assistant professor, Department of Kinesiology, with a doctoral degree from the University of Iowa
Assistant Professor Paul Asunda is interested in ways of integrating mathematics, science and technology in the workforce education curriculum. His research focuses on best practices in teacher education. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he came to the College from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn.
— Jennifer Koran, assistant professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, with a doctoral degree from the University of Maryland College Park
— Michelle Salazar Perez, assistant professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, with a doctoral degree from Arizona State University
— Terri Wilson, assistant professor, Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education, with a doctoral degree expected from Teacher’s College, Columbia University
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Gold Stars
G N I D N A T S OUT ER H C A E T xless” o b “ d n a g in Respect, car g style in h c a e t a e IN thinking DEF
HEEWON YANG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR in the Department of Health Education and Recreation, was named the College’s top tenure-track teacher for 2009. He and ten faculty members from other colleges and schools were recognized at the university’s “Excellence Through Commitment” awards dinner April 21. The honor included a cash award, funds from the Office of the Provost to support professional activities during the coming fiscal year, a certificate and a watch from the Alumni Association. Yang, who teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in therapeutic recreation, makes a point of learning all his students’ names before the second class session, an early indication of the respect and
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caring with which he approaches his teaching responsibilities. “Education should occur in a relationship in which teachers and students establish rapport, understand each other and love each other with genuine concern,” says Yang, whose father helped establish Ghandi School, Korea’s first alternative education institution. Students respond to this approach, reporting that Yang always has time for them — in class, during office hours and at the times they most need him. The words “inspirational,” “caring,” “passionate” and “dedicated” frequently surface in their accounts of his influence on them. “He is always willing to help students no matter how long it takes or how many other things he has to do,” says former student Megan
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M. Kutz. “Dr. Yang is more than a professor to me. He is a mentor and an inspiration for what I aspire to be.” At the semester’s start, Yang uses icebreakers — name games, team-building activities and such — to establish rapport and increase students’ interactions with each other. Each class also includes a daily quote or a “think-outside-the box” problem. “Quotes, with themes of love, friendship, caring, leadership and creativity, provide students with positive philosophy and values, emphasizing the importance of becoming responsible citizens who can take care of fellow citizens in need,” Yang says. “The main purpose of providing thinking-outsidethe-box questions is to enhance students’ ability to solve problems in a creative and adaptive way. Many times, those questions do not have a single absolute answer.” Students mention both as among the most memorable parts of their coursework. “We really liked those thoughts, lessons and philosophy in the beginning of each class,” says former student Candice Watson. “They reminded us of how important caring for the people we serve should be. “The thinking-outside-the box drills were by far one of the most stimulating learning opportunities in his class. They helped us think creatively and flexibly and showed us that learning can be enjoyable.” In his classes and labs, Yang uses a mix of technology, problem-solving, creative exercises, field trips, guest speakers, group discussion (both in class and online) and a sense of humor to make his subject matter come alive. “His classes are full of information that supplements the textbooks, his PowerPoint presentations are effectively designed with a variety of visual aids and animations, and the practical, fun-filled group discussion that allow students to share their ideas and opinions are welcomed by all the students,” says Lei Guo, now an assistant professor at North Carolina Central University. “The use of various teaching techniques
helps students learn the material very effectively.” Yang also encourages students to take part in service projects, such as Special Olympics and an activity weekend for people with multiple sclerosis, that afford them learning opportunities of a different kind. “Our students should be creative problem solvers who will actively get engaged in changing and reforming our society — citizens who actualize what they learn,” Yang says. Colleague Marjorie J. Malkin says these projects, which involve beginning as well as graduate students, allow them to take varying degrees of responsibility. “These opportunities to put professional theories into practice have proved to be very valuable,” she notes. In addition to his teaching expertise, Yang is gaining national recognition for scholarly contributions to his field. While he focuses mainly on how therapeutic recreation affects teenagers with behavior problems, he also has examined what it can do for older adults with physical problems such as arthritis. He has published five book chapters, more than 25 peer-reviewed articles and has presented some 50 papers at international, national and regional meetings. While his research helps shape his teaching, so does his participation in such professional organizations as the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification, where he serves as chair of the Exam Maintenance Committee, and the American Therapeutic Recreation Association, where he co-leads the international relations team. Born in South Korea, Yang earned his bachelor’s degree in his home country, where he later worked in mental health hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages and shelters for the homeless. He moved to the United States in 1995, completing his master’s in 1997 at The University of Tennessee and his doctorate in 2002 at Indiana University. He joined the College faculty in 2004, winning his first teaching award in 2006.
“Education should occur in a relationship in which teachers and students establish rapport.”
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Gold Stars
JACKIE L. COX, A THREE-DEGREE graduate of the College, clinical instructor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and a center coordinator for the Office of Teacher Education, is the College’s top non-tenure track (NTT) faculty member in teaching in 2009. Cox joined the faculty in 1995 after 20 years with Carbondale Elementary School District No.
that she aims to show her students how to approach their work professionally in all respects. “I demonstrate this by dressing appropriately for class, being prepared, implementing effective teaching strategies, varying my instructional techniques, modeling the use of technology, belonging to professional organizations and assuming leadership roles, attending and presenting at conferences, mentoring new teachers, researching and writing, and encouraging students to become involved in the teaching profession beyond the classroom,” Cox said. Her students certainly “get it.” Describing Cox as one of her greatest professional influences, Megan K. Berry, now a teacher with Giant City Consolidated School District No. 130, recalled that Cox used many different methods to teach not just subject matter, but how to teach. “These illustrations showed me how any content could be presented in an interesting and engaging manner, and she gave feedback which helped me develop into a teacher who is dynamic, reflective and works to make lessons that are the best for the children,” Berry said. “No other teacher prepared me as much as Dr. Cox for my current first year of teaching. I truly believe her advice, guidance and instruction gave me the tools to succeed in the teaching profession.” Stephanie D. Todd, now a graduate student in curriculum and instruction, recalled Cox as flexible, supportive, knowledgeable, responsive and extremely helpful. “She provided detailed feedback for each lesson she observed and stayed after to review everything with me — it was her feedback that helped me tremendously with confidence and management,” Todd said. “It was Dr. Cox that suggested the Teaching Fellow Program I’m in now. This was the best career decision I could have made, and I owe it all to her.”
Top NTT Faculty Member A “teacher of teachers” shows her students how it’s done 95. These days, her efforts focus on serving as what one colleague calls a “teacher of teachers,” as she works with some 50 teacher candidates each year. In this role, she teaches two classes on campus and supervises pre-service teachers in five schools. “Her work with her pre-service teacher candidates shows extreme attention to detail, impeccable planning, laborious hours of work and careful follow-though,” said Jan E. Waggoner, director of teacher education. “The comments on her qualitative evaluations are evidence of her devotion to her students and provide testimony that she is the consummate teacher. In short, she models excellence and inspires it in others.” That modeling is no accident. In setting forth her philosophy of education, Cox makes clear
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Top Graduate Teaching Assistant Former teacher takes a playful approach JILL M. RAISOR, A DOCTORAL STUDENT in curriculum and instruction since 2007, is the year’s best graduate teaching assistant. Working in early childhood education, she teaches “Guiding Play as a Learning Medium” while carrying a full doctoral course load and assisting with faculty research. Associate Professor Susan Pearlman, who acts as Raisor’s faculty supervisor for the guided play course, said Raisor actually needs little supervision. “Before she started teaching, I gave her my course syllabi and teaching materials and access to my files,” Pearlman recalled. “She has taken the framework that I gave her and has put her own stamp on it, enhancing the course by using a variety of instructional strategies.” These include the use of PowerPoint slides to outline material, bringing in projects she used in teaching kindergarten before she went on to graduate school, demonstrating techniques, having students prepare boxes of play materials designed to teach skills and concepts and then explaining their work, having them play mathematics games and design their own, and having them create a fairytale newspaper. “It’s clear that she considered the students’ learning styles and carefully meshed the course content with the appropriate instructional strategies,” Pearlman said. That’s no accident. Citing the influence of, among others, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, Raisor said, “A teacher should
integrate knowledge of teaching methodology with developmentally appropriate practice to design curricula that best meet each student’s particular needs.” Junior Jennifer L. Shelton reported coming away from Raisor’s class with just that kind of knowledge. “The most important, valuable thing that I learned was how to be sensitive to each child and their individual needs,” Shelton said. Raisor’s creative approach also inspires her students. “While in her class, I never became restless or bored; she made every day full of learning, fun and exciting,” said senior Jessica M. Wallis. “I gained an enormous amount of information and ideas that I will use in my classroom. She has taught me an effective way of managing my classroom environment, the benefits and value of play, and the types of curriculum to use in my classroom that fit with my teaching style.” Many students said lessons they learned from Raisor went beyond the syllabus handed out in class. “She motivated and challenged me to persevere during difficult times, she guided my writing abilities, she caused me to strive for excellence and she instilled within me her love and passion for teaching by exemplifying that love both within and outside the classroom,” said graduate Catherine M. Allison. “She believed in me, encouraged me and was there for me whenever I needed her. She taught me respect for other people, love for other people and love for teaching.” Assistant Professor Christina C. McIntyre, whom Raisor assists in research, found Raisor’s work in this capacity both promising in itself and helpful in setting a professional example. “All graduate students are not created equal,” McIntyre said. “Some are better teachers, and others are better researchers. Our early childhood program has been fortunate to have someone who is excellent in both areas. Jill Raisor is a wonderful model for other graduate students as well as our undergraduates.” An Indiana native, Raisor earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2003 from the University of Southern Indiana and her master’s in curriculum and instruction in 2005 from Indiana University. Before starting graduate school, she taught kindergarten at Westminster Children’s Ministry and first grade at Holy Rosary School, both in Evansville, Ind.
College of Education and Human Services
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Gold Stars
A Mann For All Seasons
The “father of American education” inspires alumni achievement winner ROULHAC REVEALED Roots An amateur genealogist, Edgar Roulhac can trace his ancestry back to French plantation owners in Beaufort, N.C. His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister with a church in Selma, Ala., and his father attended the famed Tuskegee Institute and served in World War II. Handy man Newly married, he solved the nofurniture problem by building a couch. Also a stereo cabinet, side tables, bookcases and study carrels. “My dad made sure I could do some carpentry so if I didn’t succeed in school, I could at least use my hands, “he says. Supreme ultimate fist Spotting some folks practicing tai chi chuan, Roulhac liked it so much, he found an instructor back in Baltimore. After only two years, he placed third in national competition.
EVERY DAY ON HIS WAY TO CLASS, freshman Edgar E. Roulhac passed a bronze bust of Horace Mann, the wall behind it emblazoned with Mann’s classic challenge: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” It was 1965, and Roulhac, the great-, greatgrandson of a North Carolina slave, took those words seriously. Just five years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Roulhac earned his bachelor’s in health education, then went on to earn a master’s in community health education and a doctorate in higher education, all from the College. Today, after earning an additional master’s in health planning and administration at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., Roulhac serves as vice provost for academic services there, responsible for a broad range of academic, planning, policy and stewardship functions. The career highlights on his CV run to nearly two pages. Along the way, he has racked up some significant firsts: first African-American tenuretrack faculty member in healthcare planning at SIU’s School of Medicine; first African-American dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; highestever ranking African-American in Johns Hopkins’ academic affairs central administration. Though only 62, he already has some victories to his credit. As a faculty member at the new School of Medicine, he developed components of a self-
24 Southern Illinois University Carbondale
paced, mastery-based curriculum that won national attention, training hundreds of new doctors. After becoming assistant provost at Johns Hopkins, he designed, then established a $33 million, 36-acre satellite campus in Rockville, Md., which today offers graduate coursework in 20 programs to some 4,000 students each year. Yet, one of the victories of which he is most proud occurred while he was technically still a student. His dissertation focused on childhood lead poisoning. A study of property records showed that while the ailment affected those who lived in substandard housing, it also appeared in kids who lived elsewhere. Close scrutiny revealed that the afflicted children attended the same school, so he went there and watched them, looking for clues. The answer came during recess. They were playing with the lead-based putty in the classroom window frames, then putting their hands in their mouths. Once he’d uncovered the putty connection, the poisoning ceased. Roulhac, who credits the College with teaching him how to establish goals and priorities and how to achieve them, said he’d had other options when it came time to select a university, but SIUC was his first choice. He found, on his first trip down to check things out, that he could look around and see others just like him. “At that time, enrollment was around 20,000, and 2,000 to 3,000 were African-Americans,” he recalled. “I didn’t find that at other places. There was also the extraordinary respect and support that the faculty provided. They were extremely sensitive to and knowledgeable about diversity, even back then. It was absolutely remarkable.” Looking back, Roulhac said he has enjoyed five intertwined roles: faculty member, mid-level administrator, university leader, public health and education professional, and community steward. He credits the teachers and mentors in health education, his training as a graduate assistant, exposure to a broad array of disciplines, in-depth intellectual and professional challenges, and the thrill of giving back to the community that began with his discovery about lead poisoning with making it possible. “What I picked up at SIU endures in how I look at and approach life today,” he said.
Giving As I write this message — my first as director of development for the College — I realize that change is around us all the time. For instance, we have seen a change in our economic climate like no other since the 1930s, and that change has had an impact on our financial future. How we adapt, accept or even ignore change is simply up to us. We are in control of our own destiny. Your College is no different. In higher education, state and federal funding has diminished substantially for schools like SIUC. Therefore, private support is vital to our future. And you — our alumni, friends and supporters — are helping us respond to this challenge. In July 2008, the university successfully concluded its first-ever comprehensive campaign, raising $106,200,000 in support of the people, programs and places of SIUC. We appreciate your continued generosity. As you have read throughout this publication, our students are performing remarkably with the support of top-notch faculty. Your commitment makes this possible. I look forward to hearing about the success you’ve attained in your chosen fields, in addition to your memories of SIUC. I’m also excited about any opportunity to share news about your alma mater. Your support is vital to our continued success in the College; therefore, I’m always available to discuss how you could provide a positive impact on any area of your choice at Southern. Your generosity provides support of our students and faculty as they pursue their dreams and enhances programs that attract the best and brightest to our University. The support you provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. David M. Ardrey, Director of Development For information about how to give to the College of Education and Human Services, contact David M. Ardrey at dardrey@siu. edu or at 618.453.4083.
To make an online gift to the College of Education and Human Services go to www.siuf.org and click on “make a gift”.
Options for Giving... Current Gifts • Cash • Securities/Real Estate • Bargain Sale • Personal Property Deferred, Irrevocable Live Income Gifts • Charitable Gift Annuity • Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust • Charitable Remainder Unitrust Other Irrevocable Gifts • Charitable Lead Trust • Retained Life Estate Deferred, Revocable Gifts • Bequest in Will • Retirement Accounts • Life Insurance Few realize the many ways to pledge your support to SIUC and the College of Education and Human Services. To help you make an informed decision select one of the above gift types for your review at www.siuf.org/ways_to_give.htm
College of Education and Human Services Wham Building - Mail Code 4624 Southern Illinois University Carbondale 625 Wham Drive Carbondale, Illinois 62901
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COEHS Family Weekend Tailgate Party 1-3 p.m., Oct. 24, McAndrew parking lot — see you there!
Health education and recreation major Jacqueline C. Glynn puts on her game face May 8 after Carbondale’s most destructive storm ever. Winds, which reached speeds estimated at 106 miles per hour, started to blow just as the College commencement ceremony got under way.