Ideas In Action Featured

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 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

By Jenna Somers Autumn Kujawa A two-year, $1.45 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will support a study to test a novel therapeutic approach for preventing the emergence of anhedonia, a hallmark symptom of depression, in high-risk children. Autumn Kujawa, associate professor of psychology… Read More

The Nashville Partnership for Educational Equity Research has received a three-year, $650,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation to study early postsecondary opportunity offerings, access, and success in Metro Nashville Public Schools and to design solutions for addressing disparities. EPSOs—high school academic offerings that expose students to advanced… Read More

Dean Camilla Benbow and Jordanian educators Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development hosted faculty, administrators, and staff from four Jordanian universities in a collaboration with International Research & Exchanges Board from May 8 to 12. The delegation was seeking to develop and implement a pre-service teacher education… Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh, associate professor of education and public policy Two recent studies indicate that school-level factors play a considerable role in racial disparities in school discipline. The first study, conducted primarily through a series of interviews, reveals disciplinary tensions between district leaders, school administrators, and… Read More

By Jenna Somers Will Doyle, professor of leadership, policy, and organizations In April, Will Doyle, professor of leadership, policy, and organizations, participated in a panel presentation attended by congressional staff in Washington, D.C., to discuss the possibility of federal-state partnerships to fund higher education at low or no… Read More

By Jenna Somers Sarah Brown-Schmidt, professor of psychology and human development In the first four months of Donald Trump’s presidency, leading up to Trump firing FBI director James Comey on May 9, 2017, they met privately nine times. Alarmed by how these meetings broke with traditional boundaries between… Read More

Autumn Kujawa, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, has received a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for a study to identify objective predictors of future suicidal behavior in high-risk adolescents. The study could improve understanding of the pathways to suicidal behavior in young people, help to identify those at greatest risk for suicide attempts, and lead to personalized interventions to prevent suicidal behavior and suicide deaths. Read More

By Jenna Somers Ilana Horn, professor of mathematics education, and Yeliz Günal Aggül, Fulbright Dissertation Research Fellow Around the world, educational problems are both highly universal and highly particular. Opportunities to collaborate internationally allow education researchers to see these problems through new perspectives and possibly discover solutions they otherwise may… Read More

Each spring, U.S. News & World Report releases its rankings of various professional schools and disciplines, including graduate schools of education. For 2023-2024, Vanderbilt Peabody College received an overall score of 98 out of a possible 100, resulting in a 6th place ranking. Peabody has been ranked among the… Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh Racial inequality in school discipline is a major problem across the United States. Black students experience disproportional office disciplinary referrals and out-of-school suspensions, which lead to greater losses in instructional time. Reducing the use of exclusionary discipline is critical for improving academic achievement and educational… Read More