RESEARCH

Office of Research Services

newsletter

September 2007


NEWS

Welcome back to an exciting new academic year!

As we gear up for a new year, we would like to pause for a moment to reflect upon last year’s success and the research activities within the School of Education. According to the Office of Research, from July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007, the School of Education received 16.7 million dollars for research activities. This is a 7.5% increase over research dollars received the year before – which is the largest increase for any department on the Monroe Park Campus. As the graph below illustrates, this is over a million dollar increase from the year before for the School of Education.

Congratulations on all your efforts – let us see how we can raise the bar for 2007-08!


Graph

Remember, we are here to help you through all phases of your proposal development and submission process. Additionally, the Office of Research Services, along with the Research and Professional Development Committee, will host a variety of workshops to assist you with research and professional growth. Stay tuned for more details!

Best wishes for a successful school year!
Dr. Ted Conway & Dana Andrews

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Seonhee Cho
Congratulations to Dr. Seonhee Cho of the Teaching and Learning Department for her recent award of a grant from the Department of Education! Dr. Cho was awarded over 1.2 million dollars for a 5 year grant entitled Assisting, Collaborating, and Training ESL Secondary Content Teachers (ACT-ESL).

Project description: The proposed project (ACT-ESL) plans to offer high-quality, focused and sustained professional development opportunities to secondary (6-12) content-area teachers. Accordingly, the ACT-ESL will provide services and activities in three areas: 1) Summer Institute; 2) Follow-ups with technical assistance; 3) Building of professional learning communities. The first two activities will routinely occur over a consecutive one-year cycle, while the last activity will occur over the entire project period beginning year two and concluding at the end of the project. Using this three-phase model, the ACT-ESL ultimately will empower secondary content-area teachers to build their own capacity to help academic achievements and language developments of ESL students at secondary schools.

Paul Gerber
Dr. Paul Gerber of the Department of Foundations of Education and the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy recently completed an exciting research project focusing on Self-Disclosure and Learning Disabilities in Adults funded by the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (ACLD). In this qualitative study, Dr. Gerber explored the dynamics of the dichotomy of acceptable loss versus potential gain as they relate to personal risk assessment in a variety of adult settings. Findings from this research indicate that it is difficult to generalize about the process of self-disclosure because it is often context-specific, sometimes being driven by provisions of the law such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, and other times playing out in less structured informal adult context.


In order to learn more about Dr. Gerber’s findings from this project, please view these articles and publications in press:

  • Gerber, P. J. & Price, L. A. (2006). Acceptable loss and potential gain: Self-disclosure and adults with learning disabilities. Thalamus, 24 (1), 49-55.
  • Gerber, P. J. & Price, L. A. (in press). Self-disclosure and adults with learning disabilities: Practical ideas about a complex process. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal
  • Price, L.A. & Gerber, P. J. (in press). Adults with learning disabilities and self-disclosure: In higher education and beyond. In A. Maris, G. Reid, & L. Siegel (Eds.), The Handbook of Dyslexia. London: Sage Publishing.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

GENIUS@VCU
Date: October 1, 2007
Time: 9 am -11 am
Hosted by Office of Research: Sponsored Programs
http://www.research.vcu.edu/events/detail.html?ID=39910
*This class is encouraged for investigators to set up a profile for electronic grants submission, as well as providing information on searching for funding via VCUeRA SMARTS and SPIN.

Qualitative Research Interest Group @ VCU
Date: October 17
Time: 4 pm to 6 pm
Location: Commons Ballroom A
Contact Dr. Mary Katherine O’Connor at mkoconno@vcu.edu to be placed on the email listserve for monthly meetings.

Focus on Social-Behavioral Research: Working with the IRB
Date: October 25, 2007
Time: 12:45-1:30 pm
Hosted by Office of Research: Sponsored Programs & School of Education
http://www.research.vcu.edu/events/detail.html?ID=40619

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LOOKING FOR A GRANT OPPORTUNITY

Let us help!
1. Meet with Dana Andrews and Dr. Ted Conway to discuss your interests.
2. Check out a listing of current grant opportunities. This page is updated bi-weekly. Please click here: http://www.soe.vcu.edu/research/funding.html#current.
3. Sign up for these email announcements or browse some of these searchable sites: http://www.soe.vcu.edu/research/funding.html#search_engines.

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RECENT AWARDS (June - September)

DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
Seonhee Cho
Title: Assisting, Collaborating, and Training ESL Secondary Content Teachers ACT-ESL
Sponsor: US Department of Education

CENTER FOR SCHOOL COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
Donna Dockery
Title: Collaborative HIV/STD, Abstinence, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Sexual and Reproductive Health (CHATS)
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Education

PARTNERSHIP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Deana Buck
Title: Include Me – Smart Beginnings
Sponsor: United Way of Greater Richmond

Melanie Sterling
Title: Center for Parent Involvement
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Education

Tera Yoder
Title: Self-Advocacy Mobilization
Sponsor: Virginia Board for People with Disabilities

RESEARCH AND REHABILITATION TRAINING CENTER
Teri Blankenship
Title: Memorandum of Understanding between Hanover County Public Schools and Virginia Commonwealth University
Sponsor: Hanover County, VA

Valerie Brooke
Title: NEXT STEPS: Building Effective Partnerships and Accessing Resources
Sponsor: Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center

John Kregel
Title: The Vocational Rehabilitation Act: Transition Outcomes and Effects
Sponsor: National Council on Disability
John Kregel
Title: VCU Conditional License Pilot Program - Year 5
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Education

John Kregel
Title: Virginia Commonwealth University's Work Incentive Resource Center (VCU-WIRC)
Sponsor: Social Security Administration/DHHS

Michael West
Title: Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program National Technical Assistance Center (HVRP NTAC) at VCU
Sponsor: Department of Labor

VIRGINIA ADULT LEARNING RESOURCE CENTER
Barbara Gibson
Title: E-Learn Virginia
Sponsor: Virginia Department of Education

Do you have ideas about research or scholarship activities that you would like to share for future publications? Please contact Dana at 827-2617. We’d love to hear from you!

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