Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development

Students’ Work Considered as Possible Option for City Improvements

Posted on July 19, 2024

Students in Dr. Eric G. Bing’s Creating Impact in Global and Public Health class learned how important their work can be in changing the community for the better. The City of Dallas used the students’ design in a recent survey as one of four options under consideration for improving Dallas’ hike and bike trails. The survey was part of the city’s plan to engage the public and garner input on the best ways to grow a comfortable, safe, and direct bicycle network that serves the diverse communities in Dallas.

Teams of undergraduates in Bing’s class presented their comprehensive strategies in the ninth Battle to Save Lives, a global and public health case competition in April. The Katy Trail-Alternate Route strategy was selected by judges to win the competition. The plan was designed to improve user safety on the proposed Dallas LOOP Bikeway and builds upon work from the previous year that identified bicycle speeds as a key problem for overall safety on the Katy Trail.

The Department of Transportation will consider the students’ proposal in selecting the most suitable and feasible route to recommend to the Dallas City Council. DOT is expected to finalize that recommendation later in the calendar year.

Simmons Dean Stephanie Knight says the fact that an SMU student proposal is one of the plans considered speaks highly of what and how students are learning. “I was fortunate to witness the presentations and was so impressed with the keen analysis, creativity, and professionalism that went into these proposals. Thank you Dr. Bing and your students for being a great example of SMU Simmons’ engagement in the community and the future of Dallas.

Visit https://blog.smu.edu/globalhealthimpact/2024/05/20/the-2024-battle-to-save-lives-an-smu-global-and-public-health-case-competition/ for more on the students’ work.

Walkington Awarded NSF ITEST Grant to Study Middle School Math Large Language Models

Posted on July 18, 2024Updated: July 18, 2024

A grant totaling nearly $1.3 million has been awarded to Candace Walkington, Ph.D., the Annette and Harold Simmons Centennial Chair and Professor Gerald J. Ford Research Fellow.

Professor Walkington learned that she received the $1,296,683 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) on July 11. Walkington, Principal Investigator for the project, says the research will involve working with teachers and using large language models to write math problems that are personalized to the interest areas of middle school students.

According to Walkington, the research will advance theories of interest development where there is a lack of intervention studies targeting motivation and guidance on how to support students at different interest development phases. “Interest in math has been shown to decline over adolescence and this research will explore how to make math meaningful to middle school students. This grant allows us to conduct research foundational to the future of personalized learning, capitalizing on very recent advances in AI that offer novel opportunities to bring these approaches to scale.” Walkington says the project will also advance theories of teacher problem-posing, examining teacher characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes, and the problems teachers encounter when teaming with AI.

Walkington says she is thrilled to begin working with her distinguished Co-PIs including Dr. Tiffini Pruitt-Britton, a Ph.D. graduate of SMU, currently at American Institutes for Research (AIR) as well as other national leaders in Generative AI and Large Language Models Ryan Baker, Andrew Lan, and Neil Heffernan.

The research has a start date of August 1, 2024, when Walkington and her team will begin recruiting and working with 7^th grade teachers using ASSISTments. The team will conduct studies looking at the effect of deep authentic forms of personalization using LLMs versus other alternatives. They will test generating visual illustrations to accompany math problems using LLMs. And they will explore approaches teachers can use for prompt engineering to create the best personalized math problems. They will examine teacher and student outcomes in each of these studies.

Upward Bound Camps at SMU Help First-Generation Students Chart a Course for College

Posted on June 20, 2024Updated: June 20, 2024

Students from high schools throughout the Dallas area are staying on the SMU campus to get a better idea of what it is like to be a college student. The Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science summer residential camps sponsored by College Access, a program in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development, help low-income, first-generation students prepare for college.

The camps offer students helpful classes on everything from English, chemistry, calculus and sign language to college writing, filling out admissions forms and understanding the financial aid process. It also gives the campers a taste of being on a college campus, eating in the dining halls and living in the dorm.

Forty-four students from partner high schools in Dallas ISD, Lancaster ISD, Duncanville ISD, and Garland ISD are attending the camps. Dr. LaChelle Cunningham, College Access Director, says the camps and the program are life-changing for the participants. “These students have the aptitude and desire to continue learning. They also know a college degree can lead to a better future not only for them but for their families. We are pleased that, through these camps, we help them navigate what is most often unchartered territory for them and their parents.”

Adriana Reyes, a rising 12^th grader at Skyline High School says the information they are learning at the camp is already making an impact. “I am more confident about successfully getting into college and what steps I need to take. I am a first-generation student, so I am taking in everything to help me be successful and succeed.”

One of those providing that information is Phylisha Smith, a camp alum, who came back to work for College Access after graduating college. She is now a camp class instructor. “I teach them how to fill out an admissions application, apply for financial assistance, and research their first college choice. I know how much this camp helped me and how important it is to help them understand the process.”

The campers are enjoying making new friends with students from other area schools. They say one of the best things about the camp is that they all have the same goal – to graduate from college.

Desmond Minger, a rising 12^th grader from Kimball High School, says, “I have social anxiety and really didn’t talk much. I have come out of my shell here and have learned so much from communicating with the other students. My American Sign Language class has really taught me a lot about communicating with others and that it doesn’t always have to be verbal. I now have the confidence that I can attend college”

Simmons Dean, Dr. Stephanie Knight, says “I am so proud of the good work being done through College Access. It is just another way we fulfill SMU’s commitment to community outreach. The camp runs through July and is funded by an Upward Bound grant from the United States Department of Education.

Simmons has a Strong Presence at 2024 ISLS Conference

Posted on June 4, 2024Updated: June 6, 2024

A group made up of Simmons faculty, post doctoral and PhD students will present at the 2024 International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Conference in Buffalo, New York, June 10-14. The Simmons academics are presenting topics such as: Students’ Representational and Relational Caring in STEM; Exploring STEM Identity and Belonging in Minoritized Girls at a Summer Camp; and Pedagogical Issues in Virtual Reality Mathematics Education.With these presentations and those of other university researchers from around the country, the conference promises to offer discussion of meaningful issues and innovative approaches in the world of learning sciences today.

ISLS works to further scientific, humanistic, and critical theoretical understanding of learning and to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations and the improvement of instructional methodologies. Learning Sciences (LS) research traditionally focuses on the cognitive-psychological, social-psychological, cultural-psychological, and critical theoretical foundations of human learning as well as the practical design of learning environments. Major contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. Over the past decade, LS researchers have expanded their focus to include the design of curricula, informal learning environments, instructional methods, and policy innovations.

A core feature of research in the learning sciences is attention to the detailed processes of learning and teaching for theory development. Accordingly, the Society calls for papers that address questions about learning processes, mechanisms, and outcomes. Papers may develop data-driven theories that elucidate processes of learning and teaching within various contexts and the ways in which technologies, instructional practices, and learning environments can be designed to support learning in different contexts.

This year’s ISLS Conference leads up to the new Learning Sciences Master’s at Simmons that launches in the 2024 Fall semester. The full ISLS Conference schedule of presentations by Simmons educators can be found here.

2024 Battle to Save Lives Competition

Posted on May 23, 2024Updated: May 23, 2024

Students in Dr. Eric Bing’s Creating Impact in Global and Public Health class are helping city transportation planners by offering some well-thought-out options on Dallas’ hike and bike trails.

Teams of undergraduates presented their comprehensive strategies in the ninth Battle to Save Lives, a global and public health case competition. The students’ plans were designed to improve user safety on the proposed Dallas LOOP Bikeway and encourage more involvement in the very diverse neighborhoods connected by the trails.

The goal of the LOOP Bikeway initiative is to connect 50 miles of existing trails across Dallas, enhance accessibility to cycling and link diverse communities and neighborhoods. The hope is that it will serve as a unified thread across the city. However, in some instances the plan for the trails presents challenges that require inventive solutions. The student teams put together thoughtful and innovative proposals to address those challenges and provide answers to the problems.

The judges carefully considered each proposal, asked questions and offered feedback to each team. The South Dallas Community Strategy was won by Team Engage South Dallas. The Katy Trail Alternate Route challenge was won by Team Two Wheels, report One Vision.

Throughout the semester, undergraduates developed skills in public health leadership through hands-on training, classroom engagement, and interactive competitions. Many students hope to pursue careers where they can apply their knowledge to real-world public health challenges.

For the complete story and details on the teams, judges and outcomes visit https://bit.ly/4buEuMo.

Outstanding 2024 Grads of Simmons School of Education & Human Development chosen as graduation ceremony speakers

Posted on May 10, 2024Updated: May 10, 2024

Katie Brennan is receiving her Bachelor of Science in Applied Physiology & Sport Management with a concentration in Sport Management. Katie is a member of the Hilltop Honors Program, a Provost Scholar, a BBA Scholar, and served as a member of the Simmons Undergraduate Student Advisory Board. While at SMU, she has served as the Club Tennis treasurer for four years and on the executive board of her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Thanks to APSM faculty’s large network, she got involved as an Operations Intern for the Dallas Open. In Summer of 2022, she studied abroad in France with the inaugural sports management program. In 2023, she interned with the Professional Pickleball Association and worked part-time at the PPA as a coordinator and assistant for the PPA/USA Pickleball National Championships.

Gabriel Shapiro, M.D. is receiving his Master of Liberal Studies Degree. Gabriel enrolled in the Master of Liberal Studies program upon leaving an impressive career at UT Southwestern as an Oncologist and Clinical Faculty Member for residents. From his first semester in MLS, he examined the intersections of human rights and poetry. The result, thesis which expanded his scholarship beyond medicine to examine the human condition and his personal curating of poems centering on compassion and empathy.

Maricela Pillaca is earning a Master of Science in Counseling. Born in Dallas, she is a first-generation college student who is proud of her Mexican-Peruvian heritage. She has taught first and second grades in Mesquite ISD, served as a Learning Recovery Specialist, and mentored first-year teachers. While in the SMU counseling program, she completed coursework focused on child and adolescent counseling and school counseling; she completed internships at Armstrong Elementary in Highland Park ISD and Insights Collaborative Therapy Group. She also served as vice-president and president of the SMU Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society. Upon graduation, she plans to seek licensure as a professional counselor, certifications as a school counselor and registered play therapist, and work with children and adolescents in therapeutic and/or school settings.

Luis Zambrano, J.D. had a successful law practice for decades when he decided to become a teacher. His goal is to help students understand the history and institutions of the United States, develop critical thinking skills, and increase their leadership skills. In the classroom, his professors say his intellectual rigor, genuine curiosity, and academic humility have inspired instructors and peers and enriched conversations and learning experiences. Professors believe Luis will be exemplary in understanding research, translating it to practice, and addressing the learning needs of all students. Luis is currently a Teacher Preparation Program student in the Department of Teaching and Learning.

Lorena Tule-Romain is graduating with her Ed.D. in Education Leadership. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategic Officer for the non-profit ImmSchools. In that role, she created and launched an organization whose efforts focus on supporting undocumented students and families as they navigate the K-12 educational space. As a community activist, she also serves on the City of Dallas Parks and Recreation Board, is the Educational Community Chair for the North Texas Dream Team and served with the Dallas Greater Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Lorena says, “I’m pursuing a doctorate in education leadership because I seek to create a safe and welcoming learning environment for all our children in K-12 schools, especially those that are undocumented.”

Enigma Mobile Literacy Game Research

Posted on May 6, 2024Updated: May 16, 2024

Focused on improving literacy skills, the SMU Enigma literacy game is a mobile application that helps learners improve their reading skills when played an average of 60 minutes per week over eight weeks. The customized version of the game was developed by SMU researcher, Dr. Anthony Cuevas, with player options for middle and elementary school students. It was piloted at the Dr. Elba and Domingo Garcia West Dallas STEM School and was initially piloted with middle school students in an afterschool program during Fall 2023. The Enigma research resulted with positive feedback from students and increases in some literacy measures.

At the request of the school, the Enigma project was extended to Spring 2024 to pilot the game with elementary students in first and second grade. The request came from some of the elementary teachers involved in the middle school pilot who believed the game could help elementary students build their foundational literacy skills. Students play Enigma for 30-45 minutes twice per week after school as part of a structured afterschool program. They play the game as an adventurer traveling around the world experiencing new cultures and history while uncovering the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis.

Players begin by discovering a tablet in their attic with clues of a great mystery and travel to the country of Egypt. They move through five levels of gameplay by completing literacy games focusing on different foundational reading skills including: letter-sound fluency; word identification fluency; and phonological decoding fluency using onset-rime. To support Spanish-speaking multilingual learners, a read-aloud dictionary is available. The skills and content in each level are reinforced through games that mimic real world tasks, such as reading documents, labels, street signs, or lists of objects. Students find artifacts and relics to decode the ancient language of Atlantis into English.

According to Cuevas, “The game maintains interest over time because it includes an interactive and engaging story that is fun and includes activities that are grounded in learning science and evidence-based literacy instruction. They are able to improve their reading skills which provides a sense of accomplishment.”

Cuevas’ research is supported by the U.S. Department of Education. SMU continues to develop the Enigma game with financial support from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and Barbara Bush Foundation. Dr. Diane Gifford and Dr. Corey Clark are Co-Investigators on the research project.

Middle School Math Gets a Boost from Virtual Reality

Posted on May 6, 2024

Middle school math students struggling to catch up with their peers benefited significantly from tutoring via virtual reality according to new research by SMU math education pioneer Candace Walkington. The first researcher to develop and analyze VR tutoring, Walkington found the strategy offered students the benefits of face-to-face tutoring in addition to virtual immersion into the world of math.

Walkington, professor of teaching and learning at SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development, presented her research recently at the American Educational Research Association meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

To conduct the study, Walkington and her team recruited 38 seventh- and eighth-graders from after-school programs at two Dallas urban schools. Ten miles away on the SMU campus, SMU undergraduate student tutors met their students remotely as avatars in a virtual math classroom where student avatars could stretch, condense, and even crawl inside the prisms, pyramids and other geometric shapes they were studying.

“VR is this very immersive environment where things happen that can’t happen in the real world,” Walkington says. “You can have a cube floating in the air in front of you and there’s no gravity to make it fall to the ground.”

Students are drawn to the playful aspects of VR tutoring, Walkington says, but research shows they also benefit from embodied learning, or the movement the technology enables that illustrates mathematical concepts, she says.

“When we move we do mathematics,” she says. “Students intuitively understand math in a spatial and embodied way. They will spontaneously use gestures and movements to explore concepts.”

It’s important to note that the study also exposed some limitations to VR tutoring. Despite upgrades to school Internet connections, students and remote tutors regularly experienced connection problems while working in the virtual world. It also took time for students to learn to use the VR headset and goggles, creating delays.

According to a recent study conducted by Harvard and Stanford, students in the U.S. have made up about a third of COVID math learning loss, but the $122 million federal aid education package to support tutoring and summer school for those with COVID learning loss expires in September 2024.

“As technology continues to advance, we believe VR tutoring will become commonplace, given its strengths of embodied learning, dynamic interaction and collaboration,” she says.

Walkington’s research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Co-authors of her paper include Max Sherard, Prajakt Pande, LeaAnne Daughrity and Anthony Cuevas.

Simmons Professors among those honored by Provost

Posted on April 17, 2024Updated: April 17, 2024

Three Simmons faculty members were recognized at the SMU Provost’s 2024 Faculty Career Achievement Awards reception on April 15 at the Umphrey Lee Center.

Greta Davis, Ph.D., Chair of the Counseling Department, Michael Harris, Ed.D., Chair of Education Policy & Leadership and Anthony Petrosino, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research & Outreach, were honored as faculty with state and national recognition.

Davis is the recipient of the 2023 Community Advocacy and Service Award from the Texas Career Development Association. The award was given in recognition of her five years of service leading the statewide Career Counseling Peer Consultation Group. The purpose of the group is to build the capacity of counselors in Texas to provide equitable and culturally responsive career services. The award was presented at the TCDA annual conference in November 2023.

The American Council on Education (ACE) announced in February 2024 that Michael Harris, Ed.D. was named an ACE Fellow for academic year 2024-25. Following nomination by the senior administration of their institutions and a thorough application process, 26 Fellows were selected this year. The prestigious Fellows program incorporates signature features such as retreats, interactive and virtual learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations, and placement at another higher education institution. All these experiences are condensed into a single year, providing the Fellows with years of on-the-job experience and skills development.

Fellows learn about innovative higher education practices that can be brought back to their home universities after the fellowship.

Petrosino was named a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s committee on PreK-12 STEM Education Innovations throughout the 2023-24 academic year. The committee is working to identify research gaps regarding the interconnected factors that foster and hinder successful implementation of promising, evidence-based PreK-12 STEM education innovations at the local, regional, and national level. The work will result in making recommendations to the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and other national, state, and local educational agencies.

According to Dean Stephanie Knight the recognition of Davis, Harris and Petrosino is well-deserved. “We can be proud that these state and national recognitions elevate the reputations of these faculty members and grateful that they also raise Simmons as a whole.”

Davis, Harris and Petrosino say they are grateful for the provost’s acknowledgement and enjoy the work they are doing or have done on a state and national level.

SMU Simmons Professor named Poet Laureate for City of Dallas

Posted on April 10, 2024Updated: April 10, 2024

SMU and the Simmons School of Education and Human Development are celebrating the announcement of Mag Gabbert, Ph.D. as the new Poet Laureate for the City of Dallas. Mayor Eric Johnson announced the news at an April 10^th morning press conference at City Hall. Simmons Dean Stephanie Knight and City Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis were on hand for the ceremony.

The Dallas native and graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, says her new role is the thrill of a lifetime. “This city has always been very important to me, so it is no exaggeration to say that becoming only the second Dallas Poet Laureate in the city’s history is the greatest honor of my life up to this point. I’m feeling immensely grateful and humbled.”

In her official role as poet laureate Gabbert will undertake various initiatives in partnership with the Dallas public library and the city’s Office of Arts and Culture. She hopes to inspire and unite the people of Dallas. “I hope that, by taking on this role, I’ll be able to bring people from all across this vast community together; I hope to forge new connections; and I hope to inspire our residents to further enrich their own lives through art. Not everyone realizes that they, too, can gain access to and devote time to art—but art should be available for everyone, and now I have the opportunity to help make it so.”

Gabbert is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Human-Centered Interdisciplinary Studies in the Simmons School teaching doctoral and master’s courses such as Transformational Narratives; The Art of Creativity and Expression; and Translations and Interpretations Across Art Forms.

“SMU is proud to have Dr. Gabbert on our faculty and delighted that she will be able to share her considerable talents with the City of Dallas,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “In an age where social media tends to drive us to instant reactions, poetry gives us a reason to slow down and think. It’s a great gift that she shares with us.”

Dr. Stephanie Knight, Dean of SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development, says the entire university, especially Simmons, is extremely proud and pleased about the announcement. “We are thrilled that Dr. Mag Gabbert has been named the Poet Laureate for the City of Dallas. With her many literary awards and published works in national and international reviews, we are not surprised she would achieve this impressive honor. Knight went on to say, “Dr. Gabbert’s students know her as an outstanding professor and now they have further confirmation they are being taught by the best ̶ a poet laureate.”

Gabbert’s impressive list of accomplishments include the Pushcart Prize (2023), 92NY Discovery Award (2021), and the Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry (2021) from The Ohio State University and its literary magazine, The Journal, for her debut collection SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS. The book was published by Mad Creek Books—trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press—in 2023.

Learn more about Gabbert at https://www.smu.edu/simmons/about-us/directory/human-centered-interdisciplinary-studies/gabbert