Department Of Teaching And Learning

By Jennifer Kiilerich Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens When Vanderbilt researcher Golnaz Arastoopour Irgens learned about a new all-girls secondary school, located not far from Vanderbilt University, she quickly saw how its mission aligned with her own work. She set about fostering a collaboration that would connect young learners to her… Read More

Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development has established the new Teacher Pathway Scholarship for all admitted master’s and Ed.D. students in initial teacher licensure programs and advanced programs. The new scholarship guarantees a minimum 30 percent of tuition for initial licensure and advanced programs listed below,… Read More

By Jenna Somers On October 30 and 31, education scholars, practitioners and policymakers convened Schoolteacher at 50. The conference marked the 50th anniversary of sociologist Dan Lortie’s book about the ethos of the teaching profession. Attendees reflected upon Lortie’s insights at the time of publication as well as their applicability… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Gabriella Noreen is teaching at PTY while earning her Ph.D. with Vanderbilt Peabody College. Gabriella Noreen loved math from a very young age, her passion deepening when she discovered A.P. statistics as a teen. But she tended to be quiet in school. “I wish somebody had… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich and Jenna Somers Imagine learning about ecosystems by “becoming” a bee, connecting with your child more deeply by discussing a good book, or being inspired by a library of brand-new AI creations right at your fingertips. These experiences are all possible thanks to learning tools being developed,… Read More

By Jenna Somers In September, a delegation from Pakistan visited Vanderbilt University for the weeklong STEM-Powered Immersion Conference, hosted by Peabody College of education and human development. Six faculty members from Sukkur IBA University and Qasim Aslam, founder and chief executive officer of Beyond the Classroom, participated in a… Read More

Vanderbilt Peabody’s Emily Pendergrass has been named to the new global cohort “Empowering Teachers: 21st Century Skills.” The University of Jordan, in Amman, recently assembled the research team, which aims to boost teachers’ professional development in an age of evolving technologies and rapidly… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Generative AI is ubiquitous these days, but its use tends to raise as many questions—from practical to ethical—as it answers. A Vanderbilt website launched this spring, the Peabody Hub for Mindful AI Innovation, provides a space for users to take a breath and… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Teenagers in the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV), staff with the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art (VUMA) and Nashville Metro Historical Commission archaeologists recently joined forces in a unique collaboration. Beginning in January 2025 with support from Vanderbilt’s Community Engagement Collaboration Fund, three… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich This July 6 – 23, rising high school seniors in the Cooke Young Scholars Program immersed themselves in life and learning at Vanderbilt University. During the initiative’s annual Senior Summit, 57 students stayed on campus, studied in advanced courses and participated in engaging residential experiences.  … Read More

By Jenna Somers and Krystal Schmidt   This summer, around 30 middle-school students from the Tennessee Nature Academy explored upstream and downstream Mill Creek, which flows 28 miles from Nolensville to the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Some students moved as quickly as algae-covered rocks would allow, while others took… Read More

A university requires more than professors, administrators and students to run properly. The preparation of food, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, landscaping and groundskeeping work, and thousands of other essential tasks build the foundation of every place of learning. Even so, conversations between these two worlds can be rare, and when they do occur, might be scaffolded by hierarchical ideas about work. One program, sponsored by the Curb Center in collaboration with Forklift Danceworks, seeks to change this.  Read More

By Jenna Somers Mark Chin Andres Pinedo Nicollette Mitchell Two scholars at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development were awarded prestigious early-career fellowships from the National Academy of Education and… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Marissa Tessier, Melanie Hundley and Elizabeth Seeker. Photo: Krystal Schmidt Convincing tweens and teens to read books can be an uphill battle. But a collaboration between two Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development students, their professor, and best-selling Disney Books author Jen Calonita is… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Only a third of American students read proficiently, according to the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress. Scores continue to lag behind those from 2019 and 2022, and there has been little overall improvement since the NAEP began tracking reading in 1992. Educators and policymakers have… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich With artificial intelligence being rapidly deployed across all sectors of public life, including education, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how younger children interact with AI algorithms. Future programmers will need to consider the social and ethical impacts of technology, contends Vanderbilt Peabody College of… Read More

On March 3, more than 150 high school students from Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools participated in the  Interdisciplinary Science and Research Program (ISR) at John Overton High School. ISR is one of several programs of the Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach (CSEO) at Vanderbilt University Peabody… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich More than 60 percent of American students aged 12-18 are interested in a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to a 2023 Walton Family Foundation survey. On the road to a life in STEM, proficiency in high school math has been identified by researchers as… Read More

A Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools student from the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt’s senior class, also a student at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School, has been named as Tennessee’s only top 40 finalist in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search. This national competition recognizes… Read More