Hamilton

The University of Georgia College of Education will host the Design, Implementation, and Analysis of Randomized Experiments in Education workshop series May 29-31 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

This three-day workshop on the design, implementation and analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) is designed as an introductory session for people with an interest in trials, but with limited experience in undertaking them in educational settings. The goal is to increase the capacity of researchers to develop and conduct rigorous evaluations of the impact of education interventions.

The workshop will be interactive, with individual and small group assignments, and will include real-world examples from both the literature and the presenters own experience. It will provide intensive training on planning, implementing and analyzing data from an RCT. Participants will learn to describe the principles underlying randomized experiments and their advantages for making causal inferences and adequately describe the treatment and counterfactual, and measure implementation fidelity. Attendees will learn how to design an RCT, taking into account the practical limitation of the field, as well as the hierarchical structure of populations in education, and understand many of the common pitfalls in implementing RCTs in the field.

The instructor will be Jennifer Hamilton, senior study director at Westat, recognized as one of the foremost research and statistical survey organizations in the United States.

Hamilton more than 20 years of experience managing a variety of research studies in education. She specializes in evaluation methodology with a focus on experimental and quasi-experimental designs. She has designed and managed rigorous, high-stakes evaluations for clients that include the U.S. Department of Education, school districts, and city agencies such as the New York City Mayor’s Office. She is a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer, a peer reviewer for numerous journals, and a board member of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society.

Her chapter on program evaluation is forthcoming in a major textbook. In addition to her methodological expertise, Hamilton is adept at analyzing, interpreting and presenting complex data in ways that are understandable to a non-technical audience. Her analytical experience includes hierarchical linear modeling, logistic and multiple regression, and factor analysis, as well as complex modeling techniques such as structural equation modeling, including longitudinal analytic models. She graduated with a Ph.D. in measurement, statistics and evaluation from the University of Maryland, College Park.

The registration fee is $799 and includes workshop materials, refreshment breaks, lunch and parking passes each day. The registration deadline is Wednesday, May 15.  For more information or to register for these and other COE workshops, visit: www.coe.uga.edu/events/.

Cramond

Bonnie Cramond, director of UGA’s Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, is interviewed on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” in the second of a three-part series about education and the arts which aired on April 17.

Sawyer

R. Keith Sawyer, one of the nation’s leading scientific experts on creativity, will discuss group creativity and the power of collaboration in the 2013 E. Paul Torrance Lecture.

Sawyer, a professor of psychology, education and business at Washington University in St. Louis, will give a lecture titled, “Group genius: The creative power of collaboration.”

The event will begin with a coffee at 5:30 p.m. A book signing and reception will take place immediately after the lecture from 7-8 p.m.

Room S151
Lamar Dodd School of Art

Website

Press release

Callahan

Sean Callahan (MEd ’03, PhD ’12), who teaches at Georgia Highlands College’s location on the Southern Polytechnic State University’s campus, uses music, specifically hip-hop, to teach various psychology lessons to his students. He is featured in an April 8 Marietta Daily Journal story. Callahan received his master’s and doctorate in educational psychology.

Full Registration Fee:  $250
Discounted Full-time Graduate Student Registration Fee:  $10

Discounted Full-time UGA Faculty/Staff Registration Fee:  $200

For more information or to register online, visit:
www.coe.uga.edu/torrance/training-opportunities/at-uga-ttct-verbal/

Includes all training and materials plus morning and evening breaks
Registration fee does not include lodging (2 nights) and other meals.

Registration deadline is March 8, 2013.

Sawyer

R. Keith Sawyer, one of the nation’s leading scientific experts on creativity, will discuss group creativity and the power of collaboration in the 2013 E. Paul Torrance Lecture on Thursday, April 18 at the University of Georgia.

Sawyer, a professor of psychology, education and business at Washington University in St. Louis, will give a lecture titled, “Group genius: The creative power of collaboration,” at 6 p.m. in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Room S151. The event will begin with a coffee at 5:30 p.m. A book signing and reception will take place immediately after the lecture from 7-8 p.m.

Sawyer has published 12 books, including Group Genius (2008) and Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (2006), and over 80 scientific articles. His newest book, expected to be released in March, is titled, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. His research has been featured on CNN, Fox News, TIME Magazine and National Public Radio.

Sawyer’s research reveals that creativity is always collaborative—even when you’re alone. He draws on his own scientific studies of jazz ensembles and improv theater groups, as well as examples of famous inventions like the ATM, mountain bike, and board game Monopoly. In each case, Sawyer shows the true story of creativity: In spite of the lone genius myths that always spring up after an invention’s success, these important inventions always originate in collaboration.

The lecture is free and open to UGA faculty, students, staff and the general public.

The E. Paul Torrance Lecture annually brings scholars to UGA to discuss research and issues concerned with creativity. It was established in 1985 in honor of Torrance, a native Georgian and pioneer in research on the identification and development of creative potential. He is most noted for the development of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, which is still used worldwide.

The lecture is sponsored by the College of Education’s Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, which was established in 1984 by the late UGA educational psychology professor Mary Frasier, to continue the tradition of scholarship and excellence exemplified in Torrance’s work.

For more information, visit:
www.coe.uga.edu/torrance/news-events/

Thomas

Gretchen Thomas, a learning, design and technology instructor in the College of Education, and her course which teaches students how to apply technology in the classroom and workplace, is featured on UGA’s Home Page the week of March 4.

“Innovating with Technology in the Workplace,”  funded with a Summer 2012 Innovative Instruction Faculty Grant, is designed for students of all majors. The course takes the concept of individualized learning contracts, often used within COE, and applies it toward professional-style class projects related to each student’s field.

Reeves

Professor emeritus of  instructional technology Tom Reeves,  one of several UGA faculty members and students on a panel discussing massive online open courses,  said he would like to enlist a group to establish such a course from UGA, reported a story in the February 28 edition of the Athens Banner-Herald.