Education Eclipse

Law enforcement officers often consider their fellow officers as a brotherhood or sisterhood. That extends to canine officers. Police dogs. Quite frankly, some officers spend more time with their canine companions than they do with their own families, making those dogs de facto family. But how do we train police officers to render first aid to their dogs in emergencies, such as ingesting poisons? Phyllis Erdman is an expert in veterinary education, and talks about the unique bond between law enforcement canines and their handlers, as well as some new research she’s done.

Quite simply, we can teach better, as a society, when we better know how students learn. A lot of research has been done through classroom observation. But getting down to learning from a neurocognitive perspective, can really help researchers better assess what works and what doesn’t. Jonah Firestone, from WSU Tri-Cities, runs a lab, called The Simulation and Integrated Media for Instruction Assessment and Neurocognition Lab. As you can imagine, there’s an acronym: SIMIAN. Jonah tells us about SIMIAN, and, his love of sci fi.

We’ve all heard the phrase “best practice,” or, as is often used after research, “evidence-based practice.” Not all current teachers know what that best practice may be because they are uninformed about the newest research, or professional development hasn’t been provided to them. That certainly holds true for special education. We met up with Yun-Ru Hsiao from WSU Tri-Cities, and she goes over some of the latest evidence-based practices that exist in special education, specifically with students on the autism spectrum.

For stage actors, it’s not just about what is said, but how it’s said. And the body language that is used. The same can be said for teachers. Educational psychology doctoral student David Alpizar talks about something called “signaling,” which can be a variety of ways to emphasize thing for students; to draw their attention. Specifically, how signaling can be effective in a multimedia classroom, where a lot of stimuli wrestle for the attention of students.

During a teacher shortage, one place to look for teachers is the classroom itself. Washington state already has a lot of paraeducators… folks who are in the classroom day in and day out, and aren’t certified teachers for a variety of reasons. Lindsay Lightner is at WSU Tri-Cities, and introduces us to its Alternate Route program, which helps these parapros become certified teachers.

Situational interest is something that teachers often have incredible ability to control, and it’s the ability to gain the attention and engage the students. At least that’s the really basic way to describe it. We caught up with Nathaniel Hunsu at this year’s WSU Academic Showcase at and talked to him about increasing or fostering more situational interest in an educational engineering classroom.

People are bringing dogs into schools more than ever before. Usually, the reason deals with social aspects or social skills. Comfort dogs, for example. A lot of times, we call it canine therapy. But do we know the effect that dogs truly have on learning? Some research suggests there are some benefits to dogs in the classroom, especially for students with disabilities. That’s exactly what educational psychology doctoral student Katie Barton is trying to find out.

Research has shown that small interactions between students during small group learning environments can help the overall achievement of that group. But then do those small group interactions help the collective, whole classroom level of interaction? It’s not something recognized as having previously been investigated. We talk to Josh Premo, a graduate student in the biological sciences, who is working collaboratively with one of the College of Education’s science education faculty to determine if, in fact, small group interdependency during learning can be used to leverage increased behavioral engagement at the whole class level.

You may have heard, but Sesame Street is debuting its first autistic character, Julia. Good timing, because, April is also Autism Awareness Month. As one reporter from a Staten Island news outlet wrote: “Producers of Sesame Street said they took a lot of care in how they portrayed Julia. They worked with autism advocates, teachers, and parents of kids on the spectrum to learn about the ways autism presents. From that, they created this character who they say represents one child with autism, not a general description of autism.” How is autism normally portrayed? And, is it done in a way that exacerbates misconceptions or misperceptions? We met up with Christina Brando-Subis, a doctoral student whose research shows how current award-winning literature portrays autism, and what the outcomes of that portrayal may currently be.

Classroom technology integration has always been vital. So with every new building built, we must look at not only how to integrate current technology, but how to prepare for future technology, whatever that may be. That's no easy feat. Educational psychology doctoral student Kripa Sundar joined some of WSU's AMS experts to research active learning environments and how technology could best be implemented in WSU's new Digital Technology Classroom (expected Fall 2017).

It’s the academic advisor who is on the ground floor and sees the student’s whole academic career pass. They’re there when the students start and when they graduate. They see the struggles. They see the triumphs. Dan Overbay is an academic advisor at WSU Vancouver. We talked to him about the differences between being a student in Vancouver, versus WSU in Pullman. We talk about first-gen students. And, should teachers make more money?

We talk about STEM all the time. Well, since half of STEM is math and science, it stands to reason that a doctoral program that has both of those in it might be fairly important. The Washington State University College of Education has just that. The Mathematics and Science Education program is led by Dave Slavit, at WSU Vancouver, though the students are scattered all over the state. We talked briefly with Dr. Slavit, what the current math and science landscape is in our country and why this program stands to make a huge difference for both the doctoral students, as well as the individuals whom they do and will serve.

On this edition of Education Eclipse, intern Brittni Willis sits down with Pullman Police officer Riley Myklebust. In addition to Officer Myklebust having been ASWSU president during his time as a student, he was actually a College of Education graduate. So how does a guy who is an elementary ed major become a cop? And, how did his schooling back then help him now?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In a complex world, with complex societal grand challenges, it’s important for our nation’s youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve these tough challenges. Yet, how we teach these is also under the microscope then. STEM Education is a passion of Tamara Holmlund Nelson, a professor of science education on WSU’s Vancouver campus, and she explains what STEM ed is, along with some of the positive and negative issues surrounding it.

There’s never been a more important time to have really good teachers. And, as long as we’re talking about teachers, we might as well talk about school principals. Whenever you hear about a school turn-around, or an amazing reform effort, one of the indispensable components of these is a good principal. On the flip side, teacher retention is the worst in the first three years of a teacher’s career, and one of the most often cited reasons by these teachers for leaving the profession is a lack of support or understanding from the principal. Truly, the onus is on WSU’s educational leadership program to ensure its principal certification is top-notch. For more on this, we talked to Teena McDonald, from WSU Spokane.

Salina King is a recent graduate from the College of Education. You could say that she's doing a victory lap as she is using this Fall 2016 semester to finish her program and receive her teaching certification. She's student teaching in a 4th grade classroom in Colfax, WA.

Today’s education requires more than just the status quo. That’s where Washington State University’s College of Education comes in. The college has a dynamic statewide educational leadership program, including superintendent certification, principal certification, and the best, most well-respected educational doctorate program in the state. One of the college’s ed doctorate grads is Jared Hoadley, the executive director of student services for the Mead School District, north of Spokane. He’s absolutely dedicated to meeting student needs. Using a balance of practical experience, theory, and research, Dr. Hoadley is a prime example of how our alumni are making a huge impact in the field.

Right now, there’s a big focus at Washington State University on the health sciences. WSU Spokane has the new medical college, the College of Nursing, and the College of Pharmacy. However, only select populations tend to gravitate toward careers in the health sciences. There are definitely underrepresented groups of students. Janet Frost is a clinical associate professor in the college’s mathematics education program. She’s also the director of the Health Science STEM Education Research Center. Among other things, the center works on finding the best ways to help health science experts to better teach, mentor and guide these underrepresented students in a way that allows them to consider health sciences as a potential career.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that one out of four older people, meaning 65 and older, falls every year, but less than half tell their doctor. One out of every five falls causes a serious injury such as broken bones or a head injury. There’s also a tremendous cost attached to falls. Dr. Robert Catena, from the college’s Sport Science program, is the director of the Gait and Posture Biomechanics Lab. And he says that while the CDC highlights older people falling, there’s another demographic whose falls can injury not just one person, but two, potentially more.

A new fitness program is being introduced at Washington State University. The president and provost offices are giving financial support to the program, while the College of Education is administering the program, due to its scholarly research in sport science and athletic training. The program is called Cougar Employee Wellness Program, and is for all faculty and staff. Its motto is “Be Active. Be Fit. Be Well.” We sat down with Shane McFarland, one of the college’s kinesiology graduate assistants, and talked to him about everything he’s been doing to help get this program off the ground.