Division C GSC Featured Scholar

Tang T. Heng
Teachers College, Columbia University

Tang is an active AERA member who is serving as the Division C campus liaison for Teachers College, Columbia University. Additionally, Tang is the graduate student representative for the Research in Education of Asian and Pacific Americans Special Interest Group. She reports benefiting from opportunities to interact with scholars across the country both online and in person.

Tang shared that she enjoys serving the Teachers College community by helping to build networks of scholars with shared interests. There are several activities that support AERA at Teachers College, including dinner discussions that allow AERA presenters to share their research and prepare for presentations. Additionally, Tang started a Facebook page for students to dialogue about their research and AERA happenings at Teachers College.

Tang attended the 2011 AERA conference and her experiences were quite positive! She shared that attending AERA at New Orleans was a wonderful mix of work and play. There was a wide range of high quality speakers, and it was exciting to put a face to authors she had been reading. Tang also found the graduate student activities tremendously beneficial. Tang indicated that she learned a lot about how to manage her dissertation journey and prepare for life after graduation. Tang also had the opportunity to present her research. She confided that her initial assumptions were that that no one would likely show up for her session at 8:15am on the last day of the conference. However, she was pleasantly surprised by the turnout! Tang noted that this goes to show one should never assume and always be prepared!

Although Tang has not determined a definitive position that she will seek upon graduation, any institution would be fortunate to have her. Tang’s research interests include immigration and education, cross-cultural adaptation of learning, social learning, culturally-responsive pedagogy, and curriculum design and evaluation. Tang recently published a case study, in the Early Childhood Education Journal, examining sociocultural misalignments faced by preschool Chinese emergent bilinguals at a Head Start Center. Additionally, upon factoring in feedback that she received at AERA 2011, she has submitted another article on the nature of interactions between low-income immigrant families and school staff for review.

Meet October’s Featured Scholar: Elyse Hambacher

Elyse is a doctoral student in the University of Florida’s School of Teaching and Learning. She is studying curriculum and teaching with a concentration in teacher education. Her research focuses on teaching and learning in high-poverty schools. She is interested in teacher learning across the professional lifespan and teaching for social justice. Elyse utilizes an array of qualitative research methodology to understand the depth of teaching and learning, particularly in urban contexts.

Elyse is an active member of AERA division C and has served as a campus liaison for two years. She reports that one of the best parts of being a part of AERA is the opportunities to get to know people and share opportunities. Elyse had the opportunity to present two papers, and attended the Asa G. Hilliard and Barbara A. Sizemore African American Research Course during the 2011 conference. This was also Elyse’s first time in New Orleans. While Elyse reports that the large conference felt a bit overwhelming, she found that carefully choosing a few sessions a day worked best for her instead of trying to experience everything all at once. She was also able to explore the many AERA opportunities, learn from the research of others, enjoy the city of New Orleans, and network with scholars in the field. Elyse also presented at the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE).

Elyse recommends Amos Hatch’s Doing Qualitative Research in Education Settings. She found the book helpful for methodological guidance. Nel Noddings’ book, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education and the Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed have also influenced her research and always provide new insight after each read.

When taking a break from studying, you can find Elyse getting a good work out—usually at a spin or hot yoga class. She loves to travel, enjoys anything outdoors, and is diligently working to improve her Chinese- though this is endeavor is proving to be much harder than she anticipated.

Meet Brenna Hassinger-Das

Brenna Hassinger, now Brenna Hassinger-Das, is studying Cognition, Development, and Instruction at the University of Delaware. She anticipates completing her program in 2014. Mrs. Das’ research interests include the role of quantitative vocabulary knowledge in children. She is currently exploring the relationship between quantitative vocabulary and vocabulary and number sense knowledge. Mrs. Das’ has presented pilot study research findings. Her future goals include working outside of academia as a research scientist studying at the intersection of cognitive science and education.

When not involved in activities related to her work as Vice President of the Graduate Education Association and studies, Mrs. Das enjoys traveling and trying new restaurants with her husband. This is Mrs. Das’ first year as a campus liaison. We look forward to meeting you in Vancouver!

A Brief Interview with M. Sencer Corlu

This week, I had the opportunity to chat with Texas A&M University’s Division C campus liaison- future doctor M. Sencer Corlu. Sencer is studying mathematics education and anticipates graduating in December 2011. The following is a summary of our conversation.

How many years have you been a Division C Campus Liaison?
I’ve been holding this responsibility since March, 2011.
Are you involved in any other activities in AERA?My first contact with AERA was during the annual meeting in 2009. Since then, AERA journals and meetings have become my premier source to learn more about educational research; how it is done and how it is disseminated at the top level.

What is the best part about serving and participating in AERA Division C?It provides me the opportunity to get to know the people from other institutions and learn more about their work to keep up-to-date. As much as my research is driven by my own interests and background as a mathematician and international educator, I also need to develop a wider perspective by following the current trends in education as a young scholar. Division C gathers the top educators in learning and instruction and works as an excellent venue to make new connections for possible interdisciplinary projects with a focus on learning and instruction. I believe learning is no longer bounded by a single academic division in our era of innovation. A holistic learning environment can be best achieved through instructional practices that combine perspectives from multiple disciplines. Serving division C also helps me have a rapport among my fellow Aggies at Texas A&M, with whom I am hoping to work for long years after I graduate.

Are there any special AERA activities that occur at your school?Several departments at Texas A&M College of Education organize events and workshops to inform us about the latest changes in AERA standards on reporting research and ethical conducts, as well as how to submit proposals to annual meetings. Many professors and research centers also work in collaboration with the graduate students and they hold pre- and post-annual meetings to evaluate and share their experiences.

Did you attend AERA 2011 and if so, what was your experience like?
I did attend AERA 2011, and I very much benefited from it. Over the course of the years, I believe I have managed to make more out of it each year as my skills have expanded as a young mathematics educator. This year in particular, I not only had the opportunity to present two papers but also to talk to top researchers in my field, and to develop connections with representatives of research institutions concerning my post-graduation plans.

Please describe your research interests.My research interests are shaped very much by my background as an international mathematics and science teacher. I am interested in curriculum integration and teacher education from a post-modern perspective and in particular, mathematics and science correlation in learning and instruction. I focus on quantitative research methods but also have a keen interest in naturalistic inquiry and ethnography.

Have you published or presented research this year?This year has been the most productive year in my short career as a young scholar. Two of my manuscripts have been published in SCI journals, and in another one, I collaborated with my colleagues at Texas A&M, in Turkey, China and Korea, which appeared in a respected international journal. As for presentations, besides AERA 2011, I also presented (and co-presented) our research on mathematics and science integration at the NCTM research Pre-session and Psychology of Mathematics Education meetings.

What are your professional goals for when you complete your degree?With the ultimate goal of having a broad impact in mathematics education and being remembered as an inspirational teacher, I feel the best place to help me achieve my goals would be academia. Thus, I will be seeking a professorship position in hopes of making a significant contribution to the learning and instruction of mathematics.

Is there a book or article that has helped you during your doctoral studies?Besides the APA Manual and my other holy book, I frequently cite and read over and over again two books: Alfred Whitehead’s Aims of Education (1929) and Dr. Paul Ernest’s Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics. Methodology-wise, I must have two books near me all times: Our very owns’, Dr. Bruce Thompson’s Foundations of Behavioral Statistics and Dr. Yvonne Lincoln’s Naturalistic Inquiry books. AggieStem Center’s Project-based Learning and Dr. Kilpatrick’s Research Companion are also two of my favorite books in my field.

Do you have any interesting hobbies or activities that you participate in outside of your graduate program?
I have traveled extensively in the past across the globe before coming to US for the graduate school. I still take a weekend runaway from time to time to do some horseback riding with my mates or simply wander around and take photographs. I still don’t see a better way to enjoy life other than an intelligent conversation.

Meet Iowa State’s Yasemin Demiraslan Cevik

Yasemin is a doctoral candidate at Iowa State University. Yasemin shared that she was interested in black and white photography, drawing, and oil painting. However, her interest in the activities did not last long. Her more recent hobbies include reading “The Scientific American Mind” and watching foreign movies. Yasemin is studying Curriculum and Instruction and eagerly anticipates graduating in August 2011!

Yasemin’s research interests include examining and understanding reasoning and decision making in the context of teacher education. She is currently investigating theoretically different instructional methods (e.g., case-based reasoning and worked example) and their effects on learners’ decision making. She most recently presented a paper related to her dissertation research at the AECT 2010 conference and is in the process of preparing three manuscripts as a result of her dissertation work. She anticipates that the manuscripts will be submitted for peer review in the near future.

In addition to her studies, Yasemin has actively served as a campus liaison since September 2009. She believes that serving as a campus liaison helped her to grow professionally by providing opportunities to build strong connections with people in her field. Yasemin has reviewed AERA conference proposals for several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Division C. Yasemin shared that there are many benefits of being a liasion. However, one of the best opportunities included getting up-to-date information about Division C activities, sharing this information with fellow graduate students, and playing a leadership role during this process of information sharing.

After the completion of her doctoral work, Yasemin will be working as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at Hacettepe University, Turkiye. In the long term, she hopes to be an innovative member of the community of researchers interested in developing ideas regarding using instructional technology to bring important changes to teaching and learning.

Meet Stacey Bridges

Stacey Bridges is serving Division C as a campus liaison for Oklahoma State University. She is doctoral student in the School of Applied Health and Educational Psychology majoring in Educational Psychology. Stacey anticipates graduating in May. Her research interests include creativity, leadership, and teacher preparation practices. Most recently Stacey has been involved in examining the preparation of teachers to integrate arts curriculum in the classroom in order to improve professional development. Stacey has submitted several articles which are in review and has presented numerous times this year. In addition to her studies, Stacey volunteers at a local children’s museum and is an avid gardener. She wholeheartedly believes in making time for friends and family.

Stacey has been an active member of AERA for two years. Although she was unable to attend the annual AERA conference in New Orleans, she served as a panel reviewer. She has volunteered to serve as a panel reviewer for the 2012 Annual meeting Vancouver. Stacey reports that the best part about serving, and participating, in AERA Division C is the access to experts in the field. The division has newsletters, blogs, graduate student listservs, and opportunities to get involved at the annual meeting. Stacey has been able to find out about the latest research updates and network with both veteran researchers and other graduate students.

Stacey shared that her campus is hoping to foster a collaborative event involving Oklahoma State University members of AERA and the local Kappa Delta Pi Chapter. Stacey indicated that Foss and Waters’ Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation has been quite beneficial during her doctoral studies. Stacey’s future goals include pursuing a career in the professorate as a professor of Educational Psychology at a research institution.

Congratulations Adar Ben-Eliyahu, PhD!

"Education plays a central role in children's and adolescents' lives, and influences adulthood career success and well-being. It is therefore important to consider how children are motivated and self-regulate toward academic success, especially in preferred versus disliked topics".

Division C Graduate Student Council is proud to announce that Adar Ben-Eliyahu from Duke University earned a doctorate of philosophy in May 2011. Dr. Ben-Eliyahu studied Developmental Psychology and served as a campus liaison for two years.

During a recent interview, Dr. Ben-Eliyahu shared that the best part of serving AERA is getting to know different people and having the opportunity to discuss interesting and important issues. She is currently studying how the interplay of motivation and self-regulation influence different outcomes throughout the life span. Dr. Ben-Eliyahu attended the AERA conference this year and reported that she "loved New Orleans"! She has published and presented research in the areas of motivation and self-regulation.

Dr. Ben-Eliyahu enjoys yoga and painting. She is currently pursuing a position in higher education. Thank you for serving as a liaison. CONGRATS Dr. Ben-Eliyahu!