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The Graduate School

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Graduate School News Archive

Newgent Receives Regional Recognition from Professional Association
-- Posted by tfisher on Wednesday, November 12 2008

Rebecca Newgent, associate professor of counselor education at the University of Arkansas, has received the Outstanding Individual Achievement Award for Tenured Counselor Educators from the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

The award was presented last month in Houston at the association’s biennial conference. Newgent was one of about a dozen College of Education and Health Professions faculty members and graduate students in counselor education who attended the four-day meeting. The association includes 14 Southern states with membership by academics prepared at the doctoral level to provide clinical supervision in the community as well as other professionals in the field.

The award was given based on demonstrated service to the counseling profession through publication, leadership and administration, and an ongoing research agenda. Newgent focuses on peer victimization in her research and is currently working with six schools in Springdale. She plans to take an off-campus duty assignment in the spring semester to prepare a series of manuscripts using the data she has collected over the past 4 1⁄2 years on the factors that contribute to peer victimization, or bullying.

Graduate Certificate Gives Teachers Information, Skills to Help Students with Autism
-- Posted by tfisher on Tuesday, November 11 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Brenda Myles, international expert on autism spectrum disorders, visited the University of Arkansas to address an autism symposium earlier this year, she said every Arkansas special education teacher is likely to work with a student who has autism. At the same time, faculty members here were already developing a graduate certificate in autism spectrum disorders.

The certificate, now being offered by the College of Education and Health Professions through a combination of on-campus and online courses, will help teachers and other educators be better prepared to help these students. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network released data in 2007 that found about 1 in 150 8-year-old children in multiple areas of the United States had an autism spectrum disorder.

“Public schools have seen a significant increase in the number of students identified with autism spectrum disorders,” said Barbara Gartin, University of Arkansas professor of special education. “Teachers, therapists and parents report a lack of knowledge on how to teach these students. We at the university are attempting to meet these educational needs by developing a graduate program of study for those professionals who work with students with ASD and their families. The result was the graduate certificate in ASD.”

According to the CDC, autism spectrum disorders are a group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests. They include autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and Asperger syndrome.

Autism spectrum disorders affect many parts of the brain. They impact the person’s social development and communication skills and often their ability to think and learn. The disorders are usually apparent before the age of 3 and last throughout a person’s life. They occur in all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups and are four times more likely to occur in boys than girls.

The university’s new graduate certificate requires 15 credit hours of study. It is an interdisciplinary program. Professionals who enroll in the program will learn specific knowledge and skills that will greatly increase their ability to effectively identify and educate students with autism spectrum disorders. Courses cover characteristics, assessment, communication skills and educational interventions for students with autism.

The certificate is not a licensure program since there is no ASD license for teachers in Arkansas. The graduate certificate can be completed as a certificate-only program or as a part of a master’s degree in special education or a specialist or doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction. Courses are also open to speech and language professionals and others interested in ASD.

“The faculty sees the certificate program as an opportunity for anyone interested to learn about this condition and how services can be tailored to help the individuals with ASD and their families,” Gartin said.

Information about enrolling in the program can be found at http://cied.uark.edu/5225.htm

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Contact:

Barbara Gartin, professor of special education
College of Education and Health Professions
479-575-7409, bgartin@uark.edu

Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
479-575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu

Conference Focuses on Using Research in Teaching Those with Disabilities
-- Posted by tfisher on Monday, November 3 2008

Faculty members and a doctoral student in the special education program at the University of Arkansas presented information at the 11th International DDD Conference on Cognitive Disabilities/Mental Retardation, Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities held Oct. 8-10 in San Diego.

The conference was attended by people from the United States, Canada, Turkey, Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong and India.

Tom Smith, University Professor of special education, serves as executive director of the Division on Developmental Disabilities, a professional organization with more than 6,000 members. It’s a special interest division of the Council for Exceptional Children, the largest international professional organization addressing the educational needs of students with disabilities and/or gifts or talents. In his leadership role, Smith explained that the annual conference’s theme is “Research to Practice.”

Barbara Gartin, professor of special education, and Nikki Murdick, a visiting professor at the university, gave a lecture and demonstration titled “Building Memory Skills in Children with Cognitive Disabilities.” Tamara Rhomberg, a reading specialist from the Rockwood School District in Missouri, also presented with them.

The presentation translated brain-based research into classroom strategies that can enhance short-term memory skills and build long-term memory skills of children with cognitive disabilities.

Murdick, who is also on the education faculty at Saint Louis University, collaborated with Gartin and a third author on a book about special education law that is in its second edition. During her time as a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas, she is working with Gartin and Smith on a book called Including Adolescents with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms.

Smith presented a lecture on “Teaching Self-Determination and Social Skills to Students with Cognitive Disabilities.” Research shows that students with cognitive disabilities frequently lack self-determination and social skills. These skills are often co-dependent and are critical for successful inclusion in general education classrooms and later as adults in the community. The lecture presented an overview of the research concerning these skills and provided information on the strategies for teaching the skills to students with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Amrita Chaturvedi, a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction, presented a poster with a discussion about “Linking Students with Disabilities to Accommodations and Services.” Chaturvedi, who worked as a graduate assistant at the university’s Center for Educational Access, explained that the center is responsible for determining eligibility and providing appropriate accommodations and support services to students with disabilities at the university level. She looked at various accommodations and services available to students and the role the university plays in meeting student needs while ensuring academic integrity within the institution.

During the 2007-08 academic year, about 900 students with disabilities registered with the center. These students have a wide range of disabilities and chronic illnesses, including learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, Asperger’s, bipolar disorder, cancer, physical disabilities and multiple sclerosis.

“In the absence of academic accommodations and support services, these students will face a herculean task to achieve the goal of a successful postsecondary experience,” said Chaturvedi. She presented information for determining eligibility for services, options available for the support of students and how strategies can be applied to specific areas of disabilities.

From Arkansas to Ireland: Graduate Student's Work Leads to World Archaeological Congress Presentation
-- Posted by tfisher on Monday, November 3 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Who would guess that a little over two years after beginning graduate school at the University of Arkansas that Chris Angel would be speaking at an international conference about his research on the Bedouin city of Um Sayhun, Jordan? Not Chris Angel himself.

“Two years ago I didn’t think I’d be doing any of this,” Angel said. “I am still in a little shock.”

Although neither Angel nor his professor, Tom Paradise of the University of Arkansas is an archaeologist, they were invited to speak about “Emerging Global Technologies” this summer at the 2008 conference of the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland.

The team examined a growing town in the southern Jordan desert designed by a nomadic clan. The town was unique because it had not been previously researched.

For Angel’s position paper at the congress, he first spoke about his research, giving an overview of what he did and who he interviewed in Jordan. The speech was followed by questions from the crowd. A number of conference attendees stayed after the talk series to ask more questions of Angel and Paradise.

“Dr. Paradise told me that a critique among peers is a good sign,” Angel said. “It showed me how to continue and what it means for me to be peer reviewed. It motivates me to do more research,” he said.

“The responses to our research on Bedouin urban design were all positive,” Paradise said.

The week-long archaeological meeting is held every four to five years in different countries. This was the sixth international congress with over 1,800 people from 74 countries in attendance.

Angel, a native of Van Buren, Ark., graduated from Arkansas Tech University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in history. As a graduate student in the geosciences department at the

University of Arkansas, he chose to do research with Paradise.

Paradise’s research has spanned 20 years in Petra, Jordan. He has been identifying and assessing the impacts of nature and tourists on the famous Valley of the Crescent Moon and making a significant contribution to issues such as weathering, cultural heritage management and conservation studies.

Angel approached Paradise and together they worked with a once nomadic Bedouin tribe that was moved 23 years ago to Um Sayhun, Jordan, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizationwhen one of the tribe’s village sites, Petra, became a World Heritage Site in 1985.

The Bedouins often don’t understand the professor/student relationship, Paradise said. The Bedouins jokingly referred to Angel as Paradise’s “abdik,” which translates into English as “his slave.” Although they could not understand the research team’s connection to one another, the Bedouins could understand the passion that Angel and Paradise had for the project.

This passion kept the research group on task. Paradise interviewed the elders in Arabic, English and Italian. Angel interviewed the younger generation in English.

The young people also enjoyed talking about their Bedouin history, Paradise said. Chris fit in with them.

Angel and Paradise held town meetings in houses throughout the village “where all the older guys would share their tea and crowd around the map with us,” Paradise said. “Even their wives joined in.”

A satellite view of the village with its unique rounded city blocks was printed and carried to the town meetings with the team. “The map was the key [to the research],” Paradise said.

“The timing was perfect,” Paradise said, “and Chris’ knowledge of emerging mapping technology was a goldmine.”

Angel’s research included finding when each structure was built and also who lived at a house at the time it was erected, all in the hopes of mapping the village over time. There were fights, or rather disagreements, among the Bedouin tribe about both of the questions.

“We mainly took the most common answer when dates and owners were in disagreement,” Paradise said.

Angel is finishing his thesis for a master’s degree in geography and works full-time for the Center for Advanced Spatial Technology at the university. The center focuses on research, education, outreach and applications in geomatics.

Paradise is a professor and director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

###
Contact:

Christopher Angel, research assistant
Center for Advanced Spatial Technology
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
(479) 575-2793, cangel@cast.uark.edu
Tom Paradise, director
King Fahd Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
(479) 575-4359, paradise@uark.edu

Melissa Lutz Blouin, managing editor
Science and research communications
University Relations
(479) 575-5555, blouin@uark.edu

Jessica Powviriya, intern
University Relations
(479) 575-5555, jpowvir@uark.edu

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