How Learning Thrives in Digital Classrooms
January 13, 2020
The number of college students enrolled in online degree programs continues to grow. According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, one-in-six students are now enrolled in online-only programs, and nearly one-in-three will take at least one online course before graduation. Yet, faculty and administrators often lack evidence-based …
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Improving Student Learning
January 10, 2020
Shaping minds is a big responsibility, one that teachers in classrooms across America embrace every day. With the introduction of Common Core or state standards in math, science and English, teachers are tasked with delivering rigorous material in ways that students can easily understand, retain and explain. This can be …
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Faculty Awarded $3.3 million Dept. of Education Grant
February 15, 2019
Research grant will fund professional development to benefit English learners Steve Amendum and colleagues from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are seeking to develop a comprehensive teacher professional development (PD) program aimed at increasing collaboration between classroom and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers to benefit young Latinx English …
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Math Ed professor to study mathematics motivation and engagement
January 6, 2018
When children are young, they are mathematically curious all of the time. We hear them challenging each other to count to the highest number, chatting about the concept of infinity, and identifying patterns in games that ask them to “pick the item that doesn’t belong.” As they progress through school, …
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Spencer grant to improve assessment of students’ writing skills
October 20, 2017
Josh Wilson’s Spencer Grant will allow him to expand his research to develop a new computerized formative assessment model that identifies student language skills at the word, sentence, and discourse level through automated evaluations of the essay’s word choice, syntax, and cohesion. He will examine results across multiple genres of student …
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Bookworms improves literacy outcomes in Cecil County
April 7, 2017
Bookworms curriculum introduced into Cecil County Public Schools UD professor Sharon Walpole and her colleague, Michael McKenna* developed Bookworms in response to the increased reading and writing expectations in the Common Core State Standards. Bookworms is a free, online, open-source database of reading lesson plans and resources for elementary school teachers …
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Evaluating Ed.D.’s ELP Capstone
January 30, 2017
UD researchers look at value of doctor of education capstone process In education leadership programs across the country, doctor of education (Ed.D.) candidates are tasked with identifying a significant educational problem or challenge facing the organization in which they work. They then propose and test strategies to address the issue …
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Playful Design
May 27, 2016
Early childhood education students partnered with mechanical engineering students to design developmentally-appropriate toys for young children. As a result of this successful collaboration, some toys have been identified as potential products for a toy manufacturer.
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Bookworms curriculum improves reading skills
March 30, 2016
Sharon Walpole, University of Delaware, and Mike McKenna, University of Virginia, developed “Bookworms,” a free, open-access, elementary ELA curriculum to increase students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary. Schools in Delaware and Georgia have successfully implemented this program.
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Creating improved observational protocol for writing instruction
January 12, 2016
With the attention that the Common Core State Standards give to writing, and the writing requirements in the new Smarter Balanced Assessments, many teachers and administrators are concerned about their approach to writing instruction. “As an elementary principal, and later, as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, I frequently observed primary …
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Predicting and addressing difficulties with fractions
January 12, 2016
In 2010, the Center for Improving the Learning of Fractions (CILF) was established at the University of Delaware. As part of a $10 million center grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, Nancy C. Jordan, professor of learning sciences in UD’s School of Education; Lynn Fuchs, Vanderbilt University; and Robert …
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Making education fast, fun, cheap, useful
December 8, 2015
Robert L. Hampel, professor, history of education, is crafting a book that will provide an historical overview of education in the United States. Titled Fast, Fun, Easy, Cheap and Useful: A History of Shortcuts in and around American Education this book is designed for audiences beyond fellow historians of education, to caution readers …
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