Ideas In Action Featured

By Jenna Somers Autumn Kujawa A five-year, nearly $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will support Autumn Kujawa, associate professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, and her team in examining changes in brain… Read More

Beginning in fall 2024, graduate and professional degree-seeking students at Vanderbilt University can enroll in certificate programs at Peabody College of education and human development enroute to earning their degrees. Whether students are just entering the workforce or are seasoned professionals, the new certificate programs in several fields will… Read More

The Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) released a series of four briefs that highlight key findings from the 2023 Tennessee Educator Survey on teacher recruitment and retention, school counselors, school leader experiences, and mental health in Tennessee schools. TERA is a research-practice partnership at… Read More

By Jenna Somers Deon Benton Deon Benton, assistant professor of psychology and human development, is leading an experimental study to understand when and how infants learn to distinguish that people can cause action both from a distance and by contact, but objects can only cause action by contact. While… Read More

By Jenna Somers Bahr Weiss Research Professor of Psychology and Human Development Bahr Weiss is helping to lead efforts to develop Vietnam’s licensure criteria for clinical psychologists, and as part of his primary efforts at capacity development, he and his team are adapting, implementing, and evaluating a mindfulness-based… Read More

By Jenna Somers This semester, the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development hosted its first cohort of 17 Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching (DAI) Fellows. Supported by the U.S. State Department and administered by the International Research and Exchanges… Read More

By Jenna Somers A trans-institutional team from the LIVE Initiative at Vanderbilt University has progressed to the final round of the National Science Foundation’s Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge for designing BeatBlox, a music-based framework for teaching computer science. The team, Code to Joy,… Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh According to an essay published in Educational Researcher, a decade of colorblind school discipline policy reforms have not disproportionally benefited Black students who remain the most often disciplined in schools and miss valuable classroom learning time. Given that fact, the authors say interventions directly… Read More

By Jenna Somers Heidi Carlone A three-year, nearly $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation supports a trans-institutional research team at Vanderbilt University investigating an innovative approach to STEM education that could help young people develop STEM identities and agency amid climate anxiety. Children around the world… Read More

By Jenna Somers Sophia Vinci-Booher A three-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will support Sophia Vinci-Booher, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, and her team in evaluating brain development… Read More

By Jenna Somers ChatGPT is here to stay, and educators need to adapt to their students using it—at least, that’s what news headlines have suggested for almost a year following ChatGPT’s unveiling. Much of the coverage has given voice to worries about the possibility that AI will hinder learning… Read More

By Jenna Somers Andres Pinedo How do young people develop an understanding of societal and systemic injustices, and how are they compelled to challenge those injustices? These questions lie at the center of new research published in Child Development that illuminates the interplay between youth participation in community-based… Read More

In 2023, many states made major progress to address poverty, the child care crisis, birth outcomes, and more.   American families are struggling. A national funding cliff is making child care even less affordable and accessible, the Medicaid unwinding means dropped coverage for millions, and child poverty has doubled after… Read More

By Jenna Somers Meghan Burke Public schools’ resources for students with disabilities are critical tools for empowering their educations, especially when families have the knowledge to advocate for their children and partner with their children’s schools to create support plans. However, research suggests that some schools may be falling… Read More

By Jenna Somers Amy Booth; Photo by Anne Rayner; VU Little is known about the origins and development of scientific literacy and interests that emerge in early childhood, but according to Amy Booth, professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and… Read More

Impacts include higher quality of care, increased parental employment and educational achievement—plus millions of dollars in state economic benefits. The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center release a one-of-its-kind report, Early Investment, a Lifetime of Returns: Articulating the Value of Early Childhood Investments in Virginia. This report estimates that the… Read More

By Jenna Somers Lisa Fazio New research published in Public Opinion Quarterly reveals a correlation between the number of times President Donald Trump repeated falsehoods during his presidency and misperceptions among Republicans, and that the repetition effect was stronger on the beliefs of people who consume information primarily… Read More

By Jenna Somers Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez Many students from Spanish-speaking homes—whether designated as English learners or not—struggle with English language and reading comprehension, including students born and raised in the U.S. and who attend English-only-instruction schools. These students’ low scores on standardized English reading and language assessments are often associated… Read More

By Jenna Somers Hilary Travers Earlier this year, the U.S. and Tennessee Departments of Education awarded grants totaling more than $9.9 million to Hilary Travers, PhD’21, research assistant professor of special education, to support educational and post-school outcomes of students with disabilities in Tennessee. In April, Travers received… Read More

By Jane Sevier and Jenna Somers Meghan Burke Meghan Burke joined Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development in August as professor of special education. Her research interests include family advocacy, families of individuals with disabilities, and disability policy. She examines how families advocate for… Read More