Category: Faculty


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


Dangerous Stereotypes Stalk Black College Athletes

August 20, 2018

“If you go strictly by the official account, heatstroke was the cause of death for University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair. McNair died earlier this year following a grueling practice in which training staff failed to properly diagnose and treat his condition. But there’s another culprit – or at least a contributing factor – that should not be overlooked,” says Joseph Cooper, an associate professor of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education.


NFA Offers Free Summer STEM Program With Neag School

August 9, 2018

Over 75 students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 participated in a free STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) enrichment program at NFA this summer. Guided by NFA faculty in collaboration with aspiring teachers from UConn’s Neag School of Education, the young students from Norwich and surrounding towns received a summer boost in their STEM education with hands-on learning to explore creative approaches to scientific questions, applying mathematics to modern day problems, and solving complex STEM problems, while having fun working in teams with new friends.


Advocacy Group Calls for More Oversight of Calif. Charter School Spending

August 8, 2018

Public Advocates, a nonprofit law and advocacy organization, is pushing for greater oversight, clearer accounting measures and more parental involvement in charter school financial affairs in a recently released report indicating most California charter schools are either failing to fully disclose how special assistance funds are spent or are not reporting the spending altogether.


Project SPARK Nurtures Young, Gifted Minds

August 8, 2018

Project SPARK at Brookside and Kendall elementary schools, part of a federal grant for gifted education run by researchers from the University of Connecticut, seeks to train teachers to better identify children with advanced potential for learning.



School Board Approves Funding for Genetics-Based Reading Program in New Haven Schools

August 6, 2018

Devin Kearns, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Connecticut, told the Register he believes genetic research has “a lot of really amazing potential to help kids of all kinds.” Reached for comment last week, Kearns, who has an appointment at the Haskins Laboratory at Yale but claims no affiliation with the Lexinome Project or its staff, said his research has to do with neuroimaging, or tracing development of young people’s brains as they are exposed to different reading interventions.




Peer Tutoring and Gifted Learners – Applying a Critical Thinking Lens

July 31, 2018

“Each year, I have the opportunity to work with preservice teachers to provide a little bit of information for them about gifted education. During that workshop, someone always brings up the idea that one great way to work with advanced learners – particularly the teacher pleasers and ‘fast finishers’ among them – is to have them help the other kids with their work. These developing professionals, along with some of the practicing teachers with whom they work, are secure in their belief that this approach is a win for everyone. Students are kept busy, the struggling student has individual support, and surely the gifted learner will benefit because “we all learn something better when we have to teach it to others,” writes Catherine Little, a professor of educational psychology at UConn’s Neag School of Education.