News from WCER
COVID-19 and Social Distancing Do Not Need to End College Internships
April 7, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Careful redesign of traditional face-to-face internships can ensure web-based alternatives that are meaningful for students and recent graduates seeking real-world work experience or a bridge to a permanent job during the health crisis.
New At-Home Language Activity Booklet for Young Children Available Online
April 1, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly
WIDA Early Years is making a new booklet, “Learning Language Every Day: Activities for Families," available free online in English and Español to help children keep learning at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. The booklet can be downloaded for printing and sharing.
New Fulbright Scholar Bob Mathieu Heads to Chile in 2021
March 27, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Bob Mathieu, director of CIRTL at WCER and the Albert A. Whitford Professor of Astronomy at UW-Madison, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award that focuses on his two academic passions—advancing STEM education and studying binary stars—and a goal to grow personally by living abroad for the first time. He hopes to gain more of an international perspective by living life in Chile for three month next year between February and May.
EdNeuroLab Zeroes in on Math Learning
March 26, 2020 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
In 2012, Edward Hubbard, an assistant professor in UW‒Madison’s Department of Educational Psychology, created the Educational Neuroscience Lab to understand—through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—how the physical changes that occur in children’s brains as they learn may help improve education practices.
Education on the Home Front: How to Keep Young Children Learning in the Early Days of COVID-19
March 20, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
For families with young children, UW–Madison educator, doctoral alum and family engagement researcher Lorena Mancilla has some advice on how to create spaces and establish routines for learning and working effectively from home.
First Analysis of UW System Hmong Undergrads Finds Low & Declining Enrollments, Grad Rates
March 10, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
A team of HMoob (Hmong)* American undergraduates mentored by UW–Madison education researchers in WCER's Center for Research on College to Workforce Transitions has completed the first analysis of University of Wisconsin System student data disaggregated by race and ethnicity for the state’s largest Asian ethnic population.They find that except for UW–Oshkosh and UW–Green Bay, UW System enrollment of HMoob Americans is proportionally low and declining, particularly at the state’s flagship UW–Madison campus.
“Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” Series Pitched by UW-Madison Researcher Airs this Week
March 9, 2020 | By WCER Communications
Starting today, a television news series pitched by Ruslana Westerlund, a researcher in UW-Madison's School of Education, begins on Madison’s NBC affiliate during its "News at 4" time slot. "Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” will air at 4:15 p.m. today through March 13, featuring immigrants and the contributions they make to Dane County. Westerlund, who has lived in the United States for 25 years, pitched the interviews to highlight the positive contributions of immigrants and counteract negative rhetoric in the media.
Teacher-Guided Play Seen as Key to Deeper Student Learning
February 14, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
An errant paper airplane, and a teacher’s insightful response to it, led to one of the best examples of successful play-based learning in a classroom that Angela Pyle, a faculty member in early childhood education at the University of Toronto, has witnessed in her extensive research.
Termed “inquiry play,” it’s a type of teacher-guided play in which an instructor seizes on young students’ expressed passions for a topic or activity, even if it means shifting gears to pursue an unexpected interruption as a multi-faceted learning opportunity.
WIDA Receives $4 Million to Support Multilingual Learners with Cognitive Disabilities
January 14, 2020 | By Katie Stenz, WIDA
Educational tools and resources for assessing a small but important group of students, multilingual learners challenged with the most significant cognitive disabilities, now will become reality thanks to a $3.998 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded to WIDA.
WEC Evaluators Recommend Sharing Best Practices as Student Career Planning Spans State
January 14, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Capstone experience of completing and presenting a final project was most often named by students as the "most beneficial" activity for them to do, along with job-shadowing, in the state-required Academic and Career Planning (ACP) program, a WEC evaluation shows.
Latest Gear Learning Game, ‘Newt’s Voyage,’ Teaches Laws of Physics by Feel
December 16, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Players learn scientifically sound concepts about motion and gravity as they fly virtual spaceships around the moons of distant planets.
What’s Right With Rural
December 4, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
We hear a lot about the challenges of rural education: declining enrollment, limited resources and funding, difficulty recruiting teachers and keeping them. And at UW‒Madison’s Rural Education Research & Implementation Center (RERIC), much good work is being done to improve educational outcomes in the state’s distant, sometimes forgotten classrooms. But on a recent day in November, the narrative shifted when 19 STEM teachers from 18 rural school districts in Wisconsin traded stories at the third annual Teacher Speakout! sponsored by RERIC, housed at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. This exchange of ideas between teachers, researchers, policymakers and rural advocates turned into a public display of spirit, grit and passion for what is right with rural education.
WIDA Seeks Input on English Language Development Standards Edition 2020
November 20, 2019 | By WIDA
WIDA, a leading support organization for multilingual learners, educators and families, is seeking public input on the 2020 edition of its English Language Development Standards. The research-based nonprofit includes a consortium of 40 U.S. state education agencies as well as an international consortium of more than 400 international schools. WIDA invites anyone involved in multilingual learner education to share their views by completing an online survey by Dec. 15, 2019.
Rural Teachers & UW–Madison Education Researchers Share Perspectives on STEM Education in Wisconsin
November 13, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
The Rural Education Research and Implementation Center (RERIC) will host 19 rural STEM educators from 18 school districts around Wisconsin for the third annual Teacher Speakout!, Friday, Nov. 15, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 1025 West Johnson Street, 13th Floor; followed by field trips on Saturday, Nov. 16 from 8 a.m. to noon starting at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The goal of Teacher Speakout! is to bring the voices of rural teachers into a collaborative, public forum with researchers, legislators and rural school advocates.
WCER Project Explores Academic & Career Pathways of Undergrad Military Service Members & Veterans
November 8, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
A new research project focused on the experiences of undergraduate military service members and veterans enrolled in Wisconsin universities has recently been launched at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, part of UW-Madison’s School of Education. The Veteran Education to Workforce Affinity and Success Study (VETWAYS), a three-year $556,000 project funded by the National Science Foundation, will seek to better understand the unique social experiences and challenges this special student population encounters as they progress through college and into the workforce.
