Department Faculty
Peabody Faculty
Paul Cobb
Professor, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
My current research seeks to address the shortcoming of how to support the improvement of mathematics instruction at scale by making instructional improvement in mathematics a researchable issue. To this end, my colleagues and I are collaborating with four urban school districts that are attempting to provide ambitious instruction for all students. We seek to add value to the districts’ reform efforts by providing them with detailed, actionable feedback on how their improvement efforts can be adjusted to make them more effective. In addition, we are testing a series of conjectures about school and district support structures that might enhance the impact of research-based curricula and high-quality teacher professional development on teachers’ classroom practices. In doing so, we view instructional improvement in mathematics as a challenge not merely for teachers but for school and districts as organizations. Our ultimate goal is to understand how schools and districts can become learning organizations for instructional improvement in mathematics. The issues that we are investigating include:
• Teacher networks and communities as contexts for teacher learning
• The role of school-based mathematics coaches in supporting teacher’s learning
• The development of effective school and district instructional leadership in mathematics
• The knowledge that instructional leaders need to develop in order to effectively support instructional improvement in mathematics
• The structures that need to be established to ensure that traditionally under-served groups of students have access to high-quality mathematics instruction, particularly African American students and English Language Learners
Amanda Goodwin
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
Amanda P. Goodwin is an Assistant Professor in Language, Literacy, and Culture at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Professor Goodwin is a certified educator who has taught in public and private schools at the elementary, middle, and collegiate level. She is interested in how aspects of word knowledge, such as knowledge and awareness of morphemic units like roots and affixes, support the increased reading demands that adolescent readers face when reading content specific texts. As Pinker (1994) writes, “The engineering trick behind human language—its being a discrete combinatorial system—is… [that] words themselves are built out of smaller bits by another set of rules, the rules of ‘morphology’” (p. 120). She aims to help readers become aware of the morpho-phonemic nature of English. Recent projects include exploring how middle school students build lexical representations for morphologically complex words like thermosphere and financially. Her research team is working on modeling how knowledge of different aspects of a root words like financial supports knowledge of different aspects of a derived words like financially for different words and readers. Her team is also examining morphological problem solving strategies that students, including English Learners, use to figure out unknown words. Additionally, her team has examined an integrated approach for teaching morphological analysis, including word solving as part of comprehension instruction. The ultimate goal of these projects is to use findings to develop instructional strategies that support students in learning important word knowledge. Professor Goodwin publishes in research journals such as The Journal of Educational Psychology, Reading Research Quarterly, Scientific Studies of Reading, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Psychometrika, Language Testing, Language Learning, and Annals of Dyslexia. She also publishes and is on the editorial board of teacher journals such as The Reading Teacher. Her work aims to improve understanding of how morphological awareness impacts reading achievement and ultimately lead to better design of morphological interventions and improved student literacy.
Kathy Ganske
Professor of the Practice & Director of Elementary Ed, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
Kathy Ganske is Professor of the Practice of Literacy in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, where she also directs the Master’s Plus Licensure Elementary Education Program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt she was a professor of literacy at Oberlin College in Ohio and Rowan University in New Jersey.
Her research and scholarly interests focus on three key areas:
Word Study: Practices that promote cognitive engagement and active learning through differentiation, while developing orthographic and vocabulary understandings, as well as discussion abilities
Writing: Developing knowledgeable and confident teachers of writing who understand the importance of engagement and of integrating writing across disciplines
Literacy Reform/Teacher Development: Improving the practices and approaches of inservice and preservice teachers to advance the learning of all students
Ganske is the author or coauthor/editor of numerous books on word study, writing, comprehension, and struggling readers and writers. Her work is grounded in a rich background of elementary classroom experience that encompasses teaching primary through upper elementary grades in various regions of the country and in extensive professional development work with practicing teachers.
Clifford Hofwolt
Associate Professor & DGS, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
clifford.hofwolt@vanderbilt.edu
For the past several years, Cliff has been involved in developing integrated media instructional materials for use in elementary science methods courses for prospective elementary school teachers. These materials are organized around using video from actual classroom lessons to provide instructional cases that can be analyzed from multiple perspectives. Two video discs, Approaches to Teaching Science and Effective Teaching Practices in Science, have been developed for use in elementary science methods courses. These video discs are in the process of being transferred to CD-ROM. Cliff also developed the curriculum program HyperScience for Middle School Teachers, which uses counterintuitive events in a video format to develop student’s abilities to explain science phenomena.
Cliff has also been active in the Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA). He served as President of this organization in 2000 and was a winner of the Harry Bowman Distinguished Service Award in 2002. Cliff current serves as the Executive Director of MSERA.
Video Interview
Professor Hofwolt talks about Peabody College’s doctorate in education programs.
Ann Neely
Associate Professor of the Practice, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
Ann Neely became a member of the faculty in the Department of Teaching and Learning in 1985. While teaching a variety of courses in the area of elementary education, Ann has focused on the field of children’s literature. She teaches introductory courses in the field, as well as an advanced seminar in the study of children’s literature for graduate students.For 16 years, Ann served as the founding faculty director of the Ingram Scholars Program, a University-wide scholarship for undergraduates who are leaders in the world of service. She also served as the Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Scholarships for Peabody College. From 1991-1996, Ann served as Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Affairs in Athletics. She has also headed efforts in the area of undergraduate retention, created the Peabody Scholars Program, and oversaw the Chancellor’s Scholarship. From 1987-1991, Ann served as Peabody College’s Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs. Her research and scholarly interests are focused on children’s literature, language and literacy, and elementary teacher education.
Deborah Lucas-Lehrer
Lecturer, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
As part of a three-person team in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Lucas is developing a public school based math and science initiative that is concurrently a demonstration classroom, staff development, and research site. She is also a member of a science-math research team investigating various aspects of student-conducted science research meetings, where children present their research program progress to their peers in weekly updates, field questions from class members and others, and then revise their work. She teaches guest classes in elementary science education and a combined math, social studies, and science methods course in early childhood education. Lucas is completing integrated science/math materials for a teacher Web site on inquiry-based science and mathematics, and teaches a course in elementary math methods
Andrea Henrie
Lecturer, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
andrea.w.henrie@vanderbilt.edu
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