Great Professors: Jim O’Neil

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Dr. James O'Neil being interviewed by UConn Today.
Dr. James O’Neil being interviewed by UConn Today.

Jim OʼNeil, professor of educational psychology, raises the bar for exceptional teaching. I took his online course, Introduction to Psychoeducation and Counseling, during the 2012 Intersession. Even though the class was only three weeks long, OʼNeil had a lasting impact on me. It was evident that he loved to teach, and that his main goal was to positively impact the lives of each individual student. Because the class was online, I had never met Professor OʼNeil, but he utilized other methods to facilitate our involvement and personalize the course for each of us.

After finally meeting him this semester, I began to take an interest in his research. He focuses on the psychology of men and created a construct called Gender Role Conflict, which headlines numerous studies on the topic. Furthermore, OʼNeil developed the Gender Role Conflict Scale, a measure used in about 300 studies, in order to quantify the construct he created.

OʼNeilʼs passion for psychology and teaching is visible through all aspects of his work, whether it be through an online course, in the classroom, or in the field. Not only are his teaching methods effective, but OʼNeil goes above and beyond to foster personal growth in every student he interacts with. Now that is what I call a great professor.

For more information, view an interview of Dr. O’Neil.

Neag Alumni Society Launches New Student Scholarship Fund

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Neag student in classroom As members of the Neag Alumni Society, the Neag Alumni Society’s main focus is working with the dean and the faculty to advocate for the Neag School of Education and to help advance the School’s core mission. Our other focus is to support the students in the Neag School. The most obvious way is through the offering of financial support in the form of scholarships.

Through the support of the Neag Alumni Society Board of Directors, we have officially launched a new Neag Alumni Society Scholarship Fund. At the May Neag Alumni Society Board of Directors’ meeting, the group voted to support a new scholarship fund. Members of the board generously gave donations, which helped start the Fund.

Since the Neag Alumni Society has one of the largest alumni memberships of any school or college at the University of Connecticut, with more than 1,000 members, we are now seeking support from you – members of the Neag School of Education Alumni Society. We hope to enlist your support to help the best and brightest students offset their financial stress. If half of our membership gave at least $10.00, we would raise over $5,000.  That would allow the Society to present five (5) additional scholarship grants of $1,000 next year.

We hope you’ll consider supporting this valuable effort. Please join us in helping a fellow Neag student by visiting www.friends.uconn.edu/neagschool and selecting Neag Alumni Society Scholarship Fund.  We appreciate receiving your contributions by September 1, 2012 so we can plan for next year.

If you have questions about how to support this effort, please contact Heather McDonald at (860) 486-4530 or by emailing hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu.

We thank you for your support!

Debra Hultgren, ’80 & ’86           William Barney, ’64                        Jerry Spears, ’71 & ’81

 

Neag School Sees New Role in Conversation About Education Reform

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Stock image -- classroom When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law this week a landmark piece of education reform legislation, it marked, among other things, the growing role of the University of Connecticutʼs Neag School of Education in helping shape the conversation about one of the most closely-watched public policy issues of the day.

The Northeastʼs top-ranked public graduate school of education has been examining its mission in light of the regional and national discussions about school reform, and will now have a formal role in evaluating part of the program created by Malloyʼs legislation.

“The Governorʼs Education Bill provides a blueprint for educational change for administrators, teachers, and students across this state,” says Thomas DeFranco, dean of the Neag School. “I am excited that the Neag School will be part of the change process and have a role in improving the academic performance of all children in this state.”

One mark of lawmakersʼ confidence in the Neag Schoolʼs expertise is the legislative provision tasking the Neag School with studying the implementation of the teacher evaluation and support pilot program.

Under the law, the state will provide support and resources for low-performing schools through whatʼs going to be called the Commissionerʼs Network. The state Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) is currently developing ways to measure categories such as the effectiveness of teachers and principals that will be piloted in 8- 10 districts throughout the state.

The Neag School will study perhaps the most high-profile measurement – teacher effectiveness – and report back to the General Assembly.

“Our role is to evaluate whether the model of teacher effectiveness developed by PEAC is being implemented with fidelity, as well as the validity of the model – that is, how well the model measures what it intends to measure,” DeFranco says.

But the Neag School has a broader role in the overall conversation, one that starts with providing administrators and teachers the skills they need to succeed in contemporary classrooms, he adds: “Our goal is to produce highly effective administrators and teachers who in turn will be part of the turnaround process in low-performing schools.”

Among other ways the Neag School is looking at participating in the school reform conversation are:

  • Developing a team of faculty committed to conducting research and working collaboratively with educators, parents, unions, legislators, and state department of education personnel to turn around the lowest performing schools in Connecticut;
  • Incorporating comprehensive and sustained professional development opportunities to improve school leadership and teacher quality;
  • Providing professional development and technical assistance to help schools establish school climates conducive to learning and meaningful wrap-around services such as parental engagement, after-school programs, mental health and disability supports, community service, and alternative learning programs;
  • Developing a research agenda around the work of closing the achievement gap, and providing school leaders with the tools and systems to enhance turn-around decisions in support of low-performing schools.

Efforts like Neagʼs are crucial to helping schools in the fast-moving environment of education reform, says Casey Cobb, head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis.

“Itʼs a new frontier in some ways for leaders in this environment,” he says. “Itʼs not necessarily one size fits all. There are magnet schools, charter schools, academies within larger high schools, there are even thematic middle and elementary schools. Weʼre recognizing we have to differentiate our curriculum somewhat to prepare, for example, for students who know they want to be in an urban setting or turnaround school.”

(Note: Stephanie Reitz also contributed to this story.)

Adult Learning Program Helps Professionals Better Educate Other Adults

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Stock image -- medical professional Capital Community College nurse educator Bonnie Edelen earned not just a doctoral degree from the University of Connecticut, but an Excellence in Nursing Research Award from the Connecticut Nursing Research Alliance.

The award came from the study Edelen conducted in 2009 to write her dissertation, which showed how reflective journaling can help nursing students better retain information, as well as make better clinical decisions. It was a strategy Edelen learned as a student in UConn’s Neag School of Education Adult Learning program.

“I use the skills I learned at UConn every day,” said Edelen, “and I get really excited when I start talking about it. The critical thinking and reasoning skills I learned in the Adult Learning program, and am now able to pass on to the students I teach, have led to increased test scores and enhanced abilities.”

“Fellow teachers say that strategies like reflective journaling that I learned at UConn, and then passed on to them, have also changed the way they teach–and, more importantly, the way students learn. Test scores are higher, our nursing students practice medicine better, and the ultimate result of that is better patient care. That’s exciting!”

At any given time, approximately 30 graduate students–most of them full-time working professionals–are enrolled in Neag’s Adult Learning program.

Students can earn a graduate certificate, master’s degree or doctoral degree in the program, which provides both the proven principles and practical experience needed to more effectively create learning programs and teach other adult learners in their respective disciplines.

Approximately one-third of students are healthcare professionals like Edelen, who earned her doctorate in 2009. Each class, however, is made up of a diverse range of mid- to senior-level personnel from a variety of fields. A manufacturing executive may sit next to a human resources trainer, or a physician next to a technology specialist or agricultural educator.

Students attend classes at UConn’s Storrs campus, within the Neag School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership, where they work together to learn the theories and best practices needed to:

  • Critically assess the learning needs of individual adults, groups and organizations
  • Design supportive learning environments and systems
  • Effectively facilitate individual and group activities designed to optimize adult learning
  • Evaluate learners’ successes and organizational outcomes

Doctoral students take studies a step further, conducting rigorous research and examining methodologies to both identify, and suggest corrective measures for, issues that impact adult learning–something Edelen did when she wrote “Measuring and Enhancing Clinical Decision-Making Ability Among Students in an Associate Degree Nursing Program”–the dissertation that led to both her doctorate and Excellence in Nursing Research Award.

In it, she shows how reflective journaling–the process of reflecting, in writing, on how new experiences relate to prior experiences and knowledge–helps clarify ideas and actions, and promotes changes in perspectives.

“Our students tend to be as diverse as our faculty, which makes our classes interesting and exciting,” said Sandy Bell, Ph.D., a Neag associate professor and section head of the Adult Learning program. “One of the principles of the program is that the knowledge students bring is just as important as the knowledge faculty have to share, so we stress the idea of respecting, and learning skills from, each other. Adult learning is different in that the classes are a bit more relaxed and customized to meet students’ needs, goals and interests. We encourage students to think about how everything they learn is relevant to their profession and the adult learners with whom they’re going to work.”

For Tim Speicher, Ph.D., an athletic trainer and faculty member at several Utah universities, that meant learning not just how to best engage adult students, but understanding why certain techniques and practices do and don’t work.

“The great, extra benefit was that I was also learning more about myself, and how the manner we’re taught impacts what we retain and remember,” said Speicher, a 2010 graduate who used the expertise he gained at the Neag School of Education to found the Positional Release Therapy Institute in Utah. There, he and five other clinicians provide hands on, manual physical therapy instruction to both fellow healthcare providers and the general public.

“One of the things I love about UConn’s Adult Learning program is that for the motivated student, there are no limits. You take the lessons you learn and apply them to your own goals. There’s also no real focus on grades, but instead a focus on making you the best researcher and educator you can be. I spent my time there surrounded by exceptional mentors, scholars and peers.”

To accommodate work schedules, classes take place evenings. Topics range from “Influences on Adult Learning” and “The Brain, Experience, and Adult Learning” to “Strategic Applications of Adult Learning Principles.” Some students have regularly scheduled class meetings; others center on small group research or consulting projects, and may include online learning formats as well. Graduate certificate students take 12 credits; master’s students 24-30 credits; and doctoral students 54-57, including a minimum of nine research credits and 15 to research and write their dissertation. All must maintain a minimum B average.

“As a field of study, adult learning is unique in that it offers opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, and values that you can apply to any other academic discipline, profession, or career,” said Bell, who’s recognized as a pioneer in applying adult learning principles to improve agriculture and conservation practices. At its most basic level, it’s a program that teaches the teacher. But instead of just teaching what certain strategies work, we teach why certain strategies work.”

Healthcare professionals can especially benefit, Bell said. Graduates find that the critical thinking and inquiry skills they learn in the program help them make better clinical decisions as caregivers. They conduct more effective research and professional development opportunities, such as those related to occupational health and wellness; and are able to develop effective educational programs for both students in health care professions and large health care institutions.

“Students learn best practices,” said Bell, “and every student brings something unique and different to the program, which only makes the experience richer. Some are new graduate students, others have many years of experience. But their goals are the same: to become the best  facilitators possible for adult learners.”

For more information about the program, visit http://edlr.education.uconn.edu/.

States Face Challenges to Improve Writing Standards

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Stock image -- classroom According to an initial sample of seven states, the existing standards for teaching writing vary widely in comparison to a new set of common standards that are in the process of being implemented by most states.

Study co-director, Dr. Natalie Olinghouse at the University of Connecticut, along with Michigan State University’s Dr. Gary Troia, said educators and policymakers in many parts of the country will have to make significant changes to bring existing curriculum, materials and teacher training in line with the Common Core State Standards for writing and language.

The new K-12 standards are intended to improve instruction in mathematics and English language arts, including writing, nationwide.

“Everyone needs to know how to write well, and we are not doing a good enough job to prepare students,” said Troia, associate professor of education at MSU. “What we are finding is that states are going to be faced with a misalignment between the content standards and curriculum materials they are using and what the Common Core requires them to cover.”

“It’s important to evaluate the Common Core State Standards because these are the standards that are guiding the majority of K-12 students’ writing instruction,” said Olinghouse, assistant professor of educational psychology at UConn’s Neag School of Education. “Given that this is the first iteration of the standards, I’m not surprised to find gaps. I hope that the architects of Common Core State Standards will consider addressing these gaps when the standards are revised.”

“It is particularly important that we also understand the relationship between previous states’ writing standards and the Common Core State Standards,” Olinghouse continued. “States are transitioning, and there may be many mismatches between their previous standards and the Common Core State Standards. This can cause problems for instruction, curriculum, and assessment during the transition.”

The research team has a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study writing standards, assessments and student performance in all states except Maryland, Texas and the District of Columbia, which elected not to participate. Their first findings, presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting April 17, reflect an analysis of states representing a range of demographics and writing test results: California, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, New York and Massachusetts.

The researchers also evaluated the scope and quality of the Common Core writing standards, expected to be implemented in 46 states – including Connecticut — by 2014. They found the common standards are easy to interpret, succinct and balanced in terms of covering content across grades and topic areas. However, some important aspects of writing, such as student motivation, peer and teacher feedback, and mastery of an expanded range of writing purposes, are not included in the Common Core.

“Things that do matter at an early age like spelling and handwriting are not addressed very well,” said Troia. “States have to think about whether they want to add anything to the common standards as opposed to implementing them as is.”

Policy research has shown that content standards affect what is taught and how students perform. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, up to two-thirds of U.S. students are not considered proficient in writing.

“That presents a pretty bleak picture, and yet the expectations for writing in college and the workplace are being ramped up,” Troia said. “The Common Core can provide consistency and a lot of opportunities to enhance instruction, but there are gaps as well and we don’t want those to be ignored.”

The four-year study also is exploring how states’ writing standards and assessments reflect research knowledge about best practices as well as the types of writing skills students are expected to demonstrate after graduation.

“The larger study focuses on identifying features of standards and assessments that are related to increased student writing achievement,” said Olinghouse.  “While standards-based reform has been around for a few decades, the field still does not understand how to best design standards and assessments in a way that helps teachers raise student achievement. We hope our study will contribute to this understanding.”

 

Neag School Hosts 2012 Commencement

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Commissioner Stefan Pryor
Commissioner Stefan Pryor addresses the crowd during Neag School of Education’s 2012 Commencement.

The Neag School of Education recognized graduates from the Class of 2012 during two ceremonies the weekend of May 5-6. The Neag School undergraduate and sixth-year commencement took place at the Jorgensen Auditorium on Sunday, May 6. Commencement for Neag School graduate students took place on Saturday, May 5, at Gampel Pavilion.

The Graduate School commencement speaker on Saturday was Robert Gallo, who discovered that the HIV antivirus is the cause of AIDS. Gallo is founding director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He previously spent 30 years at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, where he was head of its Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology.

The undergraduate and sixth-year ceremony on Sunday featured commencement guest speaker Stefan Pryor, Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education. Before becoming the youngest leader to fill the state’s most influential educational leadership role, he had already made a name for himself as founder of one of Connecticut’s most successful charter schools, the Amistad Academy in New Haven. Pryor is also former deputy mayor for Economic Development in the City of Newark, N.J., and a past president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the post-September 11th rebuilding agency.

Dean Thomas DeFranco provided insight into Commissioner Pryor’s responsibilities by giving an unofficial job description that included “overseeing around 567,000 K-12 students, approximately 48,000 teachers across 1179 K-12 schools, 18 charter schools and 17 technical high schools in 166 districts. Qualified candidates must have experience with low-performing schools and districts. In addition, this educational leader must be intelligent, dynamic, courageous and politically savvy and will need to work cooperatively with a diverse group of stakeholders.”

“Finally,” the dean continued, “the applicant must dress appropriately. (He must wear) a cape, blue tights with a big ‘S’ across the chest.”

Dean DeFranco acknowledged that while that was not exactly how the official posting for the commissioner’s position read, a person with all those qualifications was selected and “now we are honored to have him as Neag School’s commencement speaker.”

DeFranco also talked about the challenges Commissioner Pryor will face. “On a national level, the most serious challenge involves student achievement and the achievement gap.”

“Over the years, there has been little progress in narrowing the achievement gap … and this is of particular concern in Connecticut. I believe that closing the achievement gap is both an economic and moral imperative for the future of our state, as well as the children of Connecticut,” he said. “Closing the gap will take strong leadership and a commitment to working collaboratively with stakeholders across the state.”

Dean DeFranco offered the following question, “Is Stefan up for the challenge?” He went on to describe him as a collaborator, skilled consensus builder, strong communicator, highly intelligent, outcome-oriented and respectful of people and their opinions – all the qualities needed to close the achievement gap and improve the academic performance and well-being of Connecticut’s children.

After this introduction, Commissioner Pryor welcomed the audience and enthusiastically started his commencement message.

“Today, Connecticut is in the midst of a conversation about how best to revitalize its schools,” he began. “This is a debate about how best to support and empower you – the rising leaders of our classrooms and school buildings. Our educators are our society’s greatest assets as we seek to better the world we live in.

“So in addition to saying congratulations, let me say thank you – for choosing a calling so noble, and so essential, to the future of our state and our country,” he continued. “As the child of two public school teachers, I stand here in deep gratitude for your commitment to serving the next generation of schoolchildren.”

He offered words of support and advice for the graduates as they chart their careers. He suggested they take note of the gravity of the situation before them; that they embrace it as a mandate for change. He also compared his experiences with witnessing disasters like 9/11 to the disastrous educational conditions in Connecticut — and how these conditions can be used to mobilize great people to achieve great things.

“Our state is home to the nation’s largest achievement gap between rich and poor, and between white students and students of color,” he continued, urging graduates to consider dedicating themselves to serving students in greatest need – helping them beat the odds – as a way to maximize both their impact and own sense of professional satisfaction.

He encouraged the next generation of educator-leaders to redefine education reform to what it should be: “a good-faith search for strategies that put educators in the best possible position to transform students’ lives.”

Commissioner Pryor ended with the promise that “if we work together, we can make Connecticut a national model for closing the achievement gap and creative academic excellence for all.”

Prior to Commissioner Pryor’s speech, but before the more than 280 graduates received their diplomas, the platform party was introduced and the Neag Alumni Society President offered a welcome. In addition, four faculty members were recognized with university-wide honors: University Teaching Fellows, Dr. Doug Kaufman and Dr. Catherine Little; University Teaching Scholar, Dr. Renee Roselle; and the Letitia Neag Morgan Endowed Chair for Educational Psychology, Dr. Sally Reis.

After both commencement ceremonies, graduates, family and friends were treated to receptions at the Gentry Building, offering a time for celebration and reflection.

For a slideshow from May 5, visit here. For a slideshow from May 6, visit here.

 

 [CWB1]antivirus or virus??

Op-Ed — School Choice: Grappling With The Parameters Of Education Reform

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Renzulli AcademyThe majority of the brightest and best students at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut want to teach in high-need schools and focus their clinical experiences and academic work toward that goal. Yet instead of being actively recruited by urban districts, they must wait in the back of the hiring line.

Each April, high-achieving districts come ready to interview and offer contracts. Priority schools attend, but are not able to offer contracts. In high-performing districts, budgets are set early, so leaders can plan. In our most challenging districts, however, budgets get set late and in-district transfers must take place before new teachers are hired. Then, in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, which have agreements with Teach for America, TFA students must be hired first.

So imagine. You’re a fully certified new teacher, holding a boatload of loans because you’ve gone the extra year to be the most qualified. A high-performing district offers a contract in April or May. You want to work in a high-need school, but won’t know until late August if there’s an opening. What would you do? I can tell you what my students who want to work in urban areas do. They go out of state to Boston and New York City, where they are heavily sought after and know they’ll have a job.

We must provide Connecticut’s priority schools with a solid budget in early spring, so they can recruit early. Next, we must employ sound hiring practices with teachers, parents and the principal engaged in the selection. Finally, we must make it a level playing field, where the most qualified candidates get hired first.

Dr. Richard Schwab is a Neag alumnus and dean emeritus in the Neag School of Education. He currently serves as a faculty member with the Department of Education Leadership.

Copyright © 2012, The Hartford Courant

 

Engineering Students Go Beyond the Books to Assist Massachusetts Girl

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Last spring, biomedical engineering students Kevin Franzino, Jeffrey Peterson and Kelly O’Neill often found themselves working late into the night on a very special project.

Fueled by pizza and coffee brought in by a supportive parent, the trio worked into the early morning, pushing the limits of their engineering knowledge and skills to plot, design and build three pieces of customized equipment for a little girl from Boston, then 3 years old.

The girl, Samantha Gillard, has Rett syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system that occurs mostly in females and can limit a child’s mobility, speech  and cognitive development.

The students were introduced to Samantha through her grandmother, Jane Gillard, a program assistant at UConn’s Nayden Rehabilitation Clinic in the Neag School of Education. Gillard had heard about UConn’s biomedical engineering program, in which seniors tackle real-world problems and create innovative devices to fulfill their graduation requirements, and she wondered whether the students might be able to help Samantha.

Gillard refers to her granddaughter as a “sunny kid,” and the engineering students recall being drawn to Samantha the moment they met her.

“Sam is very social. She likes people, and she loves going to school, where she is well-liked by her peers and teachers alike,” says her father Geoff Gillard, a laboratory scientist at Harvard.

After speaking with the family and meeting Samantha, the students decided to design and build for her a customized chair, a personalized ski sled, and a remote-controlled, battery-powered car. The students say the equipment gives Samantha a degree of freedom she never had before.

While similar devices are available commercially, the students modified their designs so the equipment Samantha received was tailored to her specific needs.

Geoff and his wife, Jenny, say they are grateful for the students’ efforts. The family members hike and ski in the mountains of New Hampshire in their free time, activities Samantha can now also enjoy with her new gifts from UConn.

“We use her chair every day for a variety of functions,” Geoff Gillard says. “It fits everything we asked for and more.”

Peterson, one of the student designers, says, “The assistive skiing device is essentially a stroller on skis with a hinge that replicates the articulation of the knee. It allows the device to stand up and sit down on chair lifts.” Peterson has since graduated and is now pursuing a master’s in biomedical engineering.

And as for the battery-powered car, Jane Gillard says Samantha could not be happier.

“It’s great. It’s screaming pink. The car has room for two kids,” she says. “It’s remote-controlled, so her parents can control it for her. She loves it. It makes her smile. She grins like crazy.”

The car includes a five-point restraint harness to ensure Samantha’s safety.

The family first used the finished products at the School of Engineering’s Senior Design Demonstration Day, an annual event held in Gampel Pavilion at the end of the academic year. It was a moment the family and the students will remember for some time.

“The day of the fair, Geoff was just learning to navigate the car, so Sammy was all over Gampel,” Jane Gillard recalls. “People were laughing and cheering.”

“Seeing Samantha at Senior Design Day was absolutely the most rewarding part of the project,” says O’Neill, who graduated with a biomedical engineering degree and currently does clinical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We were able to apply our knowledge base to implement a solution to a real-world problem and physically see the results.”

“Every project has a real-world function,” says retired engineering professor John Enderle[CN1] , Ph.D., who oversaw UConn’s biomedical engineering program for more than 20 years before stepping down from the post last year. “Many of our students elect to get valuable work experience by working on a design project with local companies.”

As a result of their senior design involvement, quite a few UConn seniors are offered jobs by their company sponsors before graduation. Assistant Professor Donald Peterson, Ph.D., currently serves as the biomedical engineering program’s interim director.

Other projects UConn students have developed include digital hearing aids, assistive learning devices and environmental control systems for individuals with disabilities. The equipment is given to the clients free of charge.

Franzino says he opted for an adaptive devices project because that was where his interests lie. “The whole reason I elected to study biomedical engineering was for the opportunity to design and create parts that would help people,” says Franzino, who graduated in May 2011 with a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering.

O’Neill says that despite the hard work and long nights, the senior design project was the most memorable experience of her college career: “Being able to present the Gillards with projects that would make a difference in their day-to-day lives and seeing how thrilled they were was the best feeling of my undergraduate career.”

Even Mild Dehydration Can Alter Our Moods

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Stock photo: water pouring into glass.Most people only think about drinking water when they are thirsty. But by then, it may already be too late.

Even mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy level and ability to think clearly, according to two studies recently conducted at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory.

The tests showed it didn’t matter if a person had just walked for 40 minutes on a treadmill or was sitting at rest—the  adverse effects from mild dehydration were the same. Mild dehydration is defined as an approximately 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body.

The test results affirm the importance of staying properly hydrated at all times and not just during exercise, extreme heat or exertion, says Lawrence E. Armstrong, one of the studies’ lead scientists and a professor of physiology in UConn’s Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education.

“Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1 or 2 percent dehydrated. By then, dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how our mind and body perform,” says Armstrong, an international expert on hydration who has conducted research in the field for more than 20 years.

“Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners, who can lose up to 8 percent of their body weight as water when they compete,” he adds.

Separate groups of young women and men were tested. Twenty-five women took part in one study. Their average age was 23. The men’s group consisted of 26 men with an average age of 20. All of the participants were healthy, active individuals, who were neither high-performance athletes nor sedentary and typically exercised for 30 to 60 minutes a day.

Each participant took part in three evaluations 28 days apart. All of the participants walked on a treadmill to induce dehydration, and all of the subjects were hydrated the evening before the evaluations commenced. As part of the evaluation, the subjects were put through a battery of cognitive tests that measured vigilance, concentration, reaction time, learning, memory and reasoning. The results were compared against a separate series of tests when the individuals were not dehydrated.

In the test involving the young women, mild dehydration caused headaches, fatigue and difficulty concentrating, according to one of the studies, which appeared in the February issue of The Journal of Nutrition. The female subjects also perceived tasks as more difficult when slightly dehydrated, although there was no substantive reduction in their cognitive abilities.

In the test involving the young men, mild dehydration caused some difficulty with mental tasks, particularly in the areas of vigilance and working memory. While the young men also experienced fatigue, tension and anxiety when mildly dehydrated, adverse changes in mood and symptoms were “substantially greater in females than in males, both at rest and during exercise,” according to the study. The men’s study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition in November 2011.

“Even mild dehydration that can occur during the course of our ordinary daily activities can degrade how we are feeling – especially for women, who appear to be more susceptible to the adverse effects of low levels of dehydration than men,” says Harris Lieberman, one of the studies’ co-authors and a research psychologist with the Military Nutrition Division, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. “In both sexes, these adverse mood changes may limit the motivation required to engage in even moderate aerobic exercise. Mild dehydration may also interfere with other daily activities, even when there is no physical demand component present.”

Why women and men are so adversely affected by mild dehydration is unclear, and more research is necessary. But other research has shown that neurons in the brain detect dehydration and may signal other parts of the brain that regulate mood when dehydration occurs. This process could be part of an ancient warning system protecting humans from more dire consequences, and alerting them to the need for water to survive.

In order to stay properly hydrated, experts like Armstrong recommend people drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day, which is approximately equivalent to about 2 liters of water. People can check their hydration status by monitoring the color of their urine. Urine should be a very pale yellow in individuals who are properly hydrated. Urine that is dark yellow or tan in color indicates greater dehydration. Proper hydration is particularly important for high-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with diabetes  and children.

The dehydration studies were supported by Danone Research of France and conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, University of Arkansas, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital’s Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine in Dallas, Texas. UConn professor Douglas Casa, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor Elaine Lee, Ph.D., and members of the graduate student team at UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute for the prevention of sudden death in sport helped gather data for the two studies.

Exploring the New Literacies

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Don Leu, the John and Maria Neag endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology.
Don Leu, the John and Maria Neag endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology. Photo Credit: UConn Foundation

Is reading a school textbook and reading information online the same?

No, says Donald Leu, a prominent reading researcher, director of UConn’s internationally renowned New Literacies Research Lab in the Neag School of Education and the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology. “Children today are digital natives, familiar with digital technology very early on,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean they know how to read and evaluate information online.”

Leu believes he can help. “We’ve identified the skills and strategies for successful online reading and writing,” he says. “I care deeply about preparing our children for the kinds of reading and writing demands that will define their future.”

An affable and ambitious academic who is a graduate of Michigan State, Harvard and UC-Berkeley, Leu was comfortably ensconced as chair of the Department of Reading and Language Arts at Syracuse University when the Neag Endowed Chair came calling. He foresaw that the Neag chair would enable him to teach new ways of reading instruction and provide funding to create and run the literacy center.

During his tenure at UConn, the New Literacies lab has established itself as the premier center for research on new reading comprehensions and learning skills required by the Internet and other technologies. Leu recently co-published the Handbook of Research on New Literacies (Erlbaum, 2008).

Groundbreaking research has its perks. Leu’s reputation and the New Literacies lab’s discoveries have attracted the attention of a number of charitable heavy hitters, including the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Public Broadcasting System, the Annenberg Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others, who have combined to provide grants in excess of $10 million.

“The John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology allows me to pursue research that I care deeply about, preparing students for the new literacies that will define their future in an online world of information and communication,” says Leu who was appointed to the Neag chair in 2000.

“The freedom I have to work hard and make this world a better place is something that I treasure greatly. It is only possible with the resources that an endowed chair provides.”

For more information on giving to the Neag School of Education, click here or contact Heather McDonald at hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu.