Faculty Wins Critics Choice
Book Award
 Associate Professor William Reynolds book, A Curriculum of Place: Understandings Emerging through the Southern Mist, won the 2014 Critics' Choice Book Award for the American Educational Studies Association. More Faculty Publications Assistant Professor Amelia Davis is the editor of Meeting the Transitional Needs of Young Adult Learners, in the series
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, published fall 2014.
Goizueta Distinguished Chair in Education
Alejandro Gallard published The Development and Validation of an Alternative Assessment to Measure Changes in Understanding of the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, in Environmental Education Research, published July 2014.
Gallard is also editor of a special edition of Innovacion Educativa, a publication of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Learning and Teaching Academic Writing, Vol. 14, number 65, in Spanish.
Faculty News
Assistant Professor Nancy Arrington was  named a Scholarship of Teaching and Learing (SoTL) Fellow for 2014-15. Her research is titled "Examining Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy for enhancing Literacy of Diverse Learners through Music."
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COE Student Government Association
COE Dean Thomas Koballa met recently with the COE Student Government Association Senators. From Left to right, Makenzie Simons, Dean Koballa, Hope Largent, Quentin Ladson and Carrie West.
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(l-r) Keynote speaker Catherine Wyatt-Morley with conference chair COE Assistant Professor Fayth Parks and attendees at the recent Rural HIV Research and Training Conference.
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is published on the second Tuesday of the month by Georgia Southern University's College of Education.
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Faculty Collaborates on New NSF Grants
in Education
Antonio Gutierrez, a new assistant professor in the College of Education, Department of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading, is part  of two newly funded grants from the National Science Foundation totaling $950,000. Both grants concern issues surrounding different aspects of teaching and learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The first grant seeks to increase the number of students with disabilities participating in high school computer science courses. According to Gutierrez, about 13 percent of K-12 students are identified as having disabilities but the majority of these students are intellectually able to learn computational thinking and programming. "The problem is that this group is terribly underrepresented in these types of courses and only about 1 percent of computer science doctorates are awarded to students who have disabilities," Gutierrez said. The goal of the project, called Access CS10K, is to increase the successful participation of students with disabilities in Exploring Computer Science (ESC) and Computer Science Principles (CSP) courses through educator professional development and the development of curricula and tools for students with disabilities in those courses.
The second NSF grant uses learning management systems (LMS) software and research on learning to identify and improve STEM undergraduates' learning behaviors, motivations and outcomes. "This grant is particularly interesting because it looks at ways to improve understanding of the cognitive, metacognitive and motivational factors that influence undergraduate STEM learning outcomes using unobtrusive, technology-driven methods," Gutierrez said. Read more!
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Georj Lewis Joins COE Board of Advisors
Georj Lewis, a 2007 COE graduate in the leadership and higher education administration doctoral program, has been named to the COE  Board of Advisors.
Lewis was recently named the vice president for student affairs at Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, Georgia. Among his responsibilities, Dr. Lewis provides leadership and advances strategic goals at Armstrong. Prior to joining Armstrong University, Dr. Lewis served as the vice chancellor for student affairs at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana. He also served as dean of students at Georgia Southern University for nine years and, prior to being named to that position, was the director of the Multicultural Student Center at Georgia Southern.
Originally from Connellsville, Pennsylvania, Dr. Lewis received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
Read more about COE's Board of Advisors.
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Curriculum Studies Professors Donate Books/Papers to University Library
Two nationally recognized professors in curriculum studies have donated their books and papers to the Zack S. Henderson Library at Georgia
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(L-R) Professors William Schubert and Edmund Short.
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Southern University. William H. Schubert, professor emeritus and university scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Edmund C. Short, professor emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, have donated more than 3,800 books to the collection. Both educators are also preparing their personal papers for donation as well. After Professor Short's retirement from Pennsylvania State University, he joined the faculty at Georgia Southern where he helped develop the doctoral program in curriculum studies. Read more about the collections.
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EAGLES Tutoring Takes Flight
According to the US Department of Education, only 70% of students graduate high school in the state of Georgia. That leaves approximately 1.2 million adults without a high school diploma, more than 15% of the  state's population. That's why Assistant Professor Amelia Davis decided to create EAGLES Tutoring, a weekly tutoring session for adults hosted in the College of Education. EAGLES (Enhancing Adult Georgians' Life and Educational Skills) Tutoring is designed to help adult students seeking to improve their basic skills or obtain their GED. Davis, who is in the Department of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading, specializes in adult learning and adult basic education and worked in the field of adult education for 12 years prior to coming to Georgia Southern.
"It's a great opportunity for adult learners to build their basic academic skills and for future educators in the College of Education to get first hand experience developing strategies for working with parents who many not have a high school diploma or who may lack the basic skills needed to assist their child with schoolwork," Davis said. Students who volunteer with the tutoring program receive training on working with adult learners, and may get service-learning credit.
"Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro provides a great basic education and GED preparation program," Davis remarked. For the past two years Davis has volunteered time each week with Ogeechee Tech's Adult Learning Program. "The EAGLES program is scheduled on Fridays when GED preparation isn't offered at OTC, but I also wanted to broaden awareness of adult education by bringing it to Georgia Southern and to provide more opportunities for adults in our community," she added.
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Around COE
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(l-r) John Luque, Marcela Ruiz-Funes, Christina Abreu, Alma Stevenson, Antonio Gutierrez, Alejandro Gallard, COE Dean Koballa, Carlos Martinez, Angela Pinilla-Herrera, and Martin Gendelman.
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Latino/a faculty gathered for the inaugural meeting of a new group on campus that will, among other activities, increase campus and community awareness of Latino/a history and culture.
The group was conceived by Goizueta Distinguished Chair in Education Alejandro Gallard and Assistant Professor of History Christina Abreu. COE hosted the group's meeting.
2014 COE Film Series 
Standardized: Lies, Money and Civil Rights; How Testing is Ruining Public Education, September 16.
American Promise, October 14.
Admission is free. Screenings begin at 5 p.m. in COE Room 1115 with informal discussion led by COE faculty. The College Middle Level Association will be selling food and beverages at each screening.
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In Memoriam
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 Lorraine Gilpin, Ed.D, professor in the College of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning, passed away August 30, 2014, at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah.
Dr. Gilpin was a dedicated teacher, scholar, wife, mother and friend. She had been a member of the College of Education faculty since 2000, where she received her undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees. Her special areas of research included the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), learning communities, mentoring "at risk" students, multicultural education, and education within the contexts of social class, race, ethnicity and gender. She was also editor of the
International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Her life and work were ever-mindful of the transformative power of education. She was forever dedicated to making the world a better place for all.
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