Category: Faculty


Read stories related to faculty experts at UConn’s Neag School of Education.

First-Year Neag Educator Wins “Faculty of the Year” Award

March 24, 2015

In addition to celebrating his one-year anniversary of teaching at the Neag School of Education, Dr. Ron Beghetto, associate professor of educational psychology, has yet another milestone to celebrate. This year, Beghetto received the 2015 Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD) Faculty of the Year Award after spending just one year teaching in the Neag School, an […]


What Ever Happened to Gillette Castle?

March 24, 2015

Students across the state are wondering: what happened to Gillette Castle? In the real world, the historic mansion built in 1914 by actor William Gillette sits safely atop its perch overlooking the Connecticut River in East Haddam. But in The Great Connecticut Caper – a serialized e-book being released, with help from UConn Libraries and Neag faculty, by the nonprofit organization Connecticut Humanities – students must follow the clues to find and recover the national historic landmark.


Passion for Art May Thwart Pursuits of the Heart

March 24, 2015

Being creative can be sexy in any relationship, but how you apply your creativity can influence how long a relationship lasts.
In two recent studies that looked at the intersection between creativity, personality, and relationships, UConn professor James C. Kaufman and colleagues found that people who immerse themselves in purely artistic pursuits – such as writing the next great novel, composing an opera, or painting a brilliant landscape – are more apt to be single and experience short-term relationships



A 21st-century Approach to Teaching Social Studies

March 24, 2015

In January, the State Board of Education voted to adopt the proposal – called the Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks – as a guide recommended for use by local school districts. Alan S. Marcus, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction in UConn’s Neag School of Education, was a lead writer for the state’s new Social Studies Frameworks.



Collective Uplift: How Research Could Reshape the Educational Experiences of Black Male Student-Athletes

March 13, 2015

This past fall, Neag Assistant Professor Joseph Cooper began reaching out to black male student-athletes at UConn, gathering them for a new grassroots effort called Collective Uplift, which seeks to empower, educate, and inspire ethnic minorities at UConn to maximize their full potential as holistic individuals, not exclusively in the realm of athletics, but also beyond.



Charter School Reform Must Become Part of National Education Reform

January 23, 2015

More than 2.5 million students attend an estimated 6,400 charter schools in 42 states, with the number of these “independent public schools” — as President Barack Obama called them in his National Charter Schools Week proclamation last year — increasing dramatically. For the 2013-14 school year, more than 600 new charter schools opened their doors nationwide, while 70 more are slated to open in North Carolina alone. But as the charter school model of education grows, so does the likelihood for fraud and mismanagement.


CRT Production Prompts Neag Faculty to Weigh in on Competition in the Classroom

January 15, 2015

This view of a spelling bee as a competitive entertainment event was part of the success of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” the award-winning musical presented this past fall by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. As the characters moved through the backstory of their lives in flashbacks during the spelling bee, the theme of competition was ever-present in the setting – a school gymnasium, with its floor lined as a basketball court. University faculty say that competition in the classroom and on the playing field can provide many lessons to students, although it may have a downside for some.