Curriculum and Instruction News

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick and Sarah Lubienski promoted to full Professor

Fouad was one of only four professors who received honorable mention from the Provost's office for his outstanding work. Fouad's current work includes the following: (1) Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching & learning [EnLiST]; Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Co-PI, National Science Foundation; $5,000,000 and (2) students' Interest in, and Attitudes toward, Science (QIAS); Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, PI, Qatar Foundation; $315,000

(1) Scholarship in social and entrepreneurial leadership and distributed leadership frame EnLiST's efforts to build and sustain a state-wide Illinois community of highly qualified science teacher leaders, transforming K-12 science teaching and learning through intensive professional development and innovative school projects. Teacher leaders gain cutting-edge scientific knowledge, research experiences in University laboratories, and effective pedagogical repertoires, as well as entrepreneurial leadership and transformative skills. They return to their districts empowered to energize and transform STEM teaching and learning. Core partners include Education, Physics, Chemistry, Business, Champaign Unit 4 District, Urbana School District #116, and Thornton High School District #205, in addition to other school districts across the state.

(2) Drawing on a national probability sample of precollege students, science teachers, and schools in Qatar, QIAS aims to (a) assess students' interest in, and attitudes toward, science, and the ways in which these variables change during the school years; (b) identify factors that impact students' interest and attitudes, including their dispositions toward pursuing college science studies and scientifically-based careers; (c) characterize the prevailing modalities of science teaching in the various types of precollege Qatari schools; and (d) examine the relationship between students' interest and attitudes and their science learning experiences. QIAS will make significant contributions to Qatar at the levels of research, policy, and practice.

Sarah Lubienski's current work includes a new IES-funded postdoctoral training program focusing on the preparation of mathematics education researchers. Lubienski, along with co-PIs Arthur Baroody and Joseph P. Robinson, have designed a program that will allow fellows to work with a range of UI faculty with expertise in mathematics education, psychology, and statistics. The program will help fill the national need for scholars who have a blend of expertise in mathematics education, research design and data analysis.  The program will bring in 3 fellows over the next 5 years, with each fellowship lasting 2-3 years.  The program's first fellow, Dr. David Purpura, arrived on campus in August, 2010 and will be working primarily with Dr. Art Baroody on his research.

Lubienski is also the principal investigator of an IES-funded study of gender and mathematics learning.  Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), this project explores how boys' and girls' early experiences differ at both school and home, and how those differences relate to gender disparities in K-5th grade mathematics achievement.  She and Dr. Joseph P. Robinson presented their findings at the annual conference of the Institute for Education Sciences in June, and their article related to this work will appear soon in the American Educational Research Journal.

Sarah Lubienski was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to work with the Centre for the Advancement of Science Teaching and Learning (CASTeL) in Dublin, Ireland.  As a Fulbright scholar during Fall, 2010, Dr. Lubienski will teach a graduate course for Irish mathematics teachers and will conduct research on mathematics education reforms in Ireland.

Lubienski joins Dr. Barbara Hug in studying the impact of their new masters degree program with funding of one million dollars from the Illinois State Board of Education.  In partnership with Decatur Public Schools, Hug and Lubienski developed the Sense Making in Mathematics and Science (SMMS) program to enhance K-8 teachers' knowledge of mathematics, science, and teaching.  The teachers are in the final year of the program, and they have made significant gains in their content knowledge, as well as important shifts in their science and mathematics instruction.