School of Education: Teaching teachers everywhere!
January 25, 2022
As a collective of educators and researchers, faculty and staff in Webster University's School of Education believe in collaborating with local, national and international stakeholders.
School of Education faculty continue to lead conversations in many pressing issues in education brought to light during the pandemic such as digital technology, creativity and psychology, mental health, reading interventions, teaching English as a second language and student behavioral support. Below are examples of educational initiatives showcasing faculty in the School of Education as dedicated scholars, who lead the way in educational practices across many fields of study here in the U.S. and around the world.
As we transitioned from remote learning to in-person class meetings in Fall 2021, Basiyr Rodney, chair of the Department of Teacher Education, traveled to Tashkent to meet with faculty, students, and community leaders during the pandemic. The launch of the MA in Education and Innovation program and the MA in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) in Uzbekistan continues to provide opportunities to expand collaborations between the School of Education and our campuses in Uzbekistan.
Professor Debbie Stiles updated her credentials in school crisis prevention and intervention and will offer the new and specially discounted course EPSY 5410.83 Mental Health Crisis Interventions in Schools during Spring 2, 2022. Students successfully completing the course will receive a special certificate from the National Association of School Psychologists, “Mental Health Crisis Intervention: Responding to an Acute Traumatic Stressor in Schools.”
During summer 2021, Professor Paula Witkowski-Dieckmann supervised the candidates in the MA in Reading to participate in summer reading programs across our area. These efforts strengthen our partnerships and collaborations with districts such as St. Louis Public Schools, Clayton, Webster Groves, Parkway, and Lindbergh.
Witkowski is currently working on a professional development course of study called ‘Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling’ (LETRS). This study will provide more in-depth knowledge about the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy—the focus of Webster’s reading methods courses.
Soheil Mansouri, visiting assistant professor and National Professional Development Grant project co-director, is a sought-after guest speaker. In addition to his academic research expertise in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language, he was recently invited by the Park University to present on Critical Race Theory and the need for its inclusion in Social Work at the Department of Social Work in the College of Education and Health Professions.
In Summer and Fall 2021, Mansouri conducted sessions and workshops as a Teacher Mentor at the Language Acquisition Resource Center (LARC) at San Diego State University’s STARTALK Program.
Zhichun Zhou, assistant professor and director of the advanced graduate certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), recently published two peer-reviewed journal articles. The first article, "Shining a Light on the Challenging Behaviors of Adolescents with Comorbid Diagnoses: Use of Pictorial Concurrent Operant Preference Assessment," was published in the Journal of Pediatrics. The article empirically demonstrated how the pictorial concurrent operant preference assessment can be used to identify the behavioral function for adolescents with comorbid diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders and mood disorders who displayed multiple challenging behaviors.
The second article, "Behavior-Analytic Interventions for Oral Health Care: a Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Clinical Practice and Research" was published in the Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The article provided a timely and meaningful information for dental professionals as well as non-dentists (e.g., parents, teachers, and direct-care staff members) on how to increase the oral health skills and decrease or prevent challenging behaviors during preventative and restorative dental treatments for persons with developmental disorders.