Ideas In Action

By Jenna Somers In November 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee proposed the Education Freedom Scholarship Act to establish a new statewide education scholarship account (ESA) program. ESAs—also called education savings accounts—are a type of voucher program that support not only private school tuition but other education-related expenses. As… Read More

by Tamarra McElroy and Jake Lowary The latest results from an annual poll of Tennessee parents from the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy again show education and school quality is the leading concern parents have for their children for the third consecutive year. Statewide, parents listed their top concerns as 1)… Read More

Ilana Horn Ilana Horn is among 24 scholars selected as 2024 Fellows by the American Educational Research Association. Horn is professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. Professor Horn’s research on teacher learning lies at the intersection of mathematics education, learning sciences,… Read More

By Jenna Somers   Bethany Rittle-Johnson (Vanderbilt University) Bethany Rittle-Johnson, professor of psychology at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, recently hosted visiting scholar Serkan Özel through Vanderbilt’s Global Scholars in Residence program. Özel is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics… Read More

By Jenna Somers  “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” This quote, most often attributed to Nobel laureate in physics Richard Feynman, reflects the immense difficulty, even among physicists, of grasping quantum science concepts. But researchers at the University of Central Florida, University of Texas… Read More

By Jenna Somers When a teacher refers a student to the principal’s office or a principal suspends a student, parents might first receive a phone call and then have a conference with administrators and teachers. But what role do prior interactions and the relationships between families and school personnel… Read More

Could unlocking metacognitive skills be the key to math motivation in middle school? Teachers across the globe face the same challenge – how to make math not just bearable, but exciting. Research shows that in middle school, motivation for math in students starts to decline. But at the same time,… Read More

Join The Possibilities Project for a convening on Black education on March 28 at the Faye and Joe Wyatt Center for Education at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. A networking reception will begin at 3:00 p.m. followed by the convening from 4:00 to 7:00… Read More

Camilla P. Benbow Jason Grissom Carolyn Heinrich Rich Milner Education Week recently released the 2024 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, an annual list of education researchers who have demonstrated the greatest influence over educational policy and practice. Four researchers from Vanderbilt Peabody College of… Read More

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

  Luis Leyva (Vanderbilt University) Luis Leyva, associate professor of mathematics education and STEM higher education at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, was recently recognized  by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education and Out in STEM (oSTEM) for his research contributions that promote educational… 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