Evidence for Education

Episode Description:

In this episode of E4E: Evidence for Education, we sit down with Dr. Josh Wilson, an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s College of Education, to discuss the evolving role of artificial intelligence in writing instruction. This is part one of a two-part series where we explore AI’s impact on writing. In this episode, the focus is on writing development—how AI tools can support students in organizing their ideas, improving transcription skills, and overcoming barriers in the writing process.

Dr. Wilson shares insights into both the opportunities and challenges AI brings to writing instruction, offering a balanced perspective on how these tools can be used effectively while addressing potential concerns. Stay tuned for part two, where we’ll dive into how AI is transforming feedback and formative assessments in education.

Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, or simply interested in the intersection of education and technology, this episode provides valuable insights into AI’s role in fostering writing development.

This podcast is presented by the Partnership for Public Education and is hosted and produced by Kristin Chisholm.

Guest's Work:

Wilson, J., & Czik, A. (2016). Automated essay evaluation software in English Language Arts classrooms: Effects on teacher feedback, student motivation, and writing quality. Computers & Education, 100, 94-109.

Shermis, M. D., & Wilson, J. (Eds.). (2024). The Routledge International Handbook of Automated Essay Evaluation. Routledge—Taylor & Francis.

Wilson, J., Delgado, A., Palermo, C., Cruz Cordero, T., Myers, M., Potter, A., Eacker, H., Coles, J., & Zhang, S. (2024). Middle school teachers’ implementation and perceptions of automated writing evaluation. Computers and Education Open, 7, 100231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2024.100231

More Information:

Dr. Wilson’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/joshua-wilson/

Dr. Wilson’s Google Scholar : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ly3EPOkAAAAJ&hl=en

Dr. Wilson’s Email: [email protected]

In this episode of E4E: Evidence for Education, we sit down with Dr. Elizabeth Soslau from the University of Delaware’s College of Education to discuss research-driven strategies for supporting novice teachers.

Dr. Soslau shares her insights on the strengths new teachers bring to the classroom, while addressing common challenges. She introduces her framework for teacher learning, focusing on growth confidence, collaborative expertise, and adaptive teaching practices, emphasizing the importance of reflective teaching, and community engagement.

Tune in for practical advice, strategies to avoid common pitfalls, and inspiring ideas for building collaborative and adaptive teaching expertise. Whether you're an educator, administrator, or policy influencer, this episode offers valuable takeaways to foster teacher growth and improve student outcomes.

This podcast is presented by the Partnership for Public Education and is hosted and produced by Kristin Chisholm.

Guest's Work:

• Episode Based on:
  • Soslau, E. (2024). When you're the new teacher: 28 strategies to align your good intentions with your teaching practices. Free Spirit Publishing.
  • Soslau, E., & Alexander, M. (2021). The comprehensive guide to working with student teachers: Tools and templates to support reflective professional growth. Teachers College Press.
• Projects the guest is working on:
  • Need in Deed Project: https://www.needindeed.org/
• More Information:
  • Dr. Soslau’s Faculty Page: ttps://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/elizabeth-soslau/
  • Dr. Soslau’s CV: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Soslau_CV_09_23-REVISED.pdf
  • Dr. Soslau’s X: @elizabethsoslau
  • Dr. Soslau’s Email: [email protected]

On this episode of the E4E Podcast we catch up with Dr. Mellissa Gordon, an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development. Mellissa’s research focuses on the ways that at-risk families and their communities impact adolescent and young adult developmental outcomes. She is particularly interested in the mechanisms underlying family and community relations, and explores the complex ways that interactions between these systems (families, communities, and youth) inform youth and young adult outcomes. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory, Ecological Theory, and Positive Youth Development, Mellissa aims to identify protective factors that can mitigate the adverse circumstances that emerge in the lives of ethnoracial minority youth, and to promote meaningful, sustainable, life-long success. Today, Mellissa discusses the impact of parental involvement on academic achievement, as well as other factors such as economic adversity and community disadvantage that can play a role in adolescent academic achievement.

Episode Based on:

• Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2018). The intersection of race and community poverty and its effect on adolescents’ academic achievement. Youth & Society, 50(7), 947-965.
• Gordon, M. S. (2017). Community disadvantage and academic achievement among Hispanic adolescents: The role of familism. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 3303-3311.
• Gordon, M. S. (2017). Self-perception and relationship quality as mediators of father's school-specific involvement and adolescent's academic achievement. Children and Youth Services Review, 77, 94-100.
• Gordon, M., & Cui, M. (2014). School‐related parental involvement and adolescent academic achievement: The role of community poverty. Family Relations, 63(5), 616-626.

More Information Section:

Mellissa’s email: [email protected]

Mellissa’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/mellissa-gordon/

Mellissa’s CV:

Mellissa’s Work:

Projects the Guest is working on:

1. Gordon, M.S. & Ohannessian, C. Social media use, internalizing symptoms and

externalizing problems: A conditional process analysis.

2.Garg, M., Gordon, M.S., & Ohannessian, C. (2023). Parent-child communication and

early adolescents’ coping strategies: The mediating role of sibling relationship.

3. Gordon, M.S. & Ohannessian, C. (2023). Social media use and early adolescents'

internalizing symptoms: The moderating role of family functioning.

On this episode of the E4E podcast we are joined by Dr. Christina Budde, an assistant professor specializing in language and literacy education in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Christina is a former elementary school teacher. Her research seeks to understand the classroom practices and contexts that build upon the cultural and linguistic diversity of students as well as promote social-emotional well-being. Specifically, her research looks at language and literacy development and instruction of children from diverse backgrounds in early childhood and elementary school. Christina also teaches courses related to literacy instruction and teaching bilingual learners.

Tags (episode-specific keywords): Multilingual Students, Text-based Discussions, Teacher-talk

More Information Section:

Episode Based On:

Budde, C., Marcus, M., Martin-Beltran, M. & Silverman, R. (2022). Exploring the Relationship Between Teacher and Multilingual Student Discourse During Small Group Text-Based Discussions. Language and Literacy / Langue et littératie, 24(2), 216–244. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29555

Christina’s email: [email protected]

Christina’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/christina-budde/

Christina’s CV: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Budde-Christina-CV-2023.pdf

On this episode of the E4E podcast, we catch up with Dr. Jason Hustedt, an applied child development researcher at the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and Cara Kelly, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Jason specializes in early childhood policy and practice. His research focuses on three lines of work: research with caregivers and children on parent-child interactions in low-income families, children and early care and education providers to investigate outcomes of public early childhood programs and school readiness, and research aimed at understanding the implications of state and federal early childhood policies.

Jason also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on topics such as Child and Family Policy, Research Methods, and Early Childhood Administration, Leadership, and Advocacy. Additionally, Jason serves as the Research Director for the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood (DIEEC). Cara’s research broadly focuses on understanding whether and how ECE programs and policies best promote children’s development. Her research primarily focuses on ECE quality, including gaining a deeper understanding of how ECE quality elements, like teacher-child interactions and classroom ratios, are related to children’s academic and social-emotional development.

UDaily Article: Starting at Home project https://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2016/oct/starting-at-home-101915.html

Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood

https://www.dieec.udel.edu/

On this episode of the E4E podcast, we catch up with Dr. Eric K. Layland, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. Eric works in LGBTQ+ developmental research, bridging his research to community impact through developmentally-informed, affirmative interventions. Eric’s specific research areas of interest include LGBTQ+ within-group differences in mental health and unhealthy substance use, the impact of stigma on LGBTQ+ development, strengths-based approaches to LGBTQ+ health, and LGBTQ+ affirmative interventions. Eric will be discussing some of his research in multidimensional stigma amongst sexual minority men of color, as well as the impact of intersecting sources of stigma in the sexual and gender minority community.

Episode Based on:

• Layland EK, Maggs JL, Kipke MD, Bray BC. Intersecting racism and homonegativism among sexual minority men of color: Latent class analysis of multidimensional stigma with subgroup differences in health and sociostructural burdens. Soc Sci Med. 2022 Jan;293:114602. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114602. Epub 2021 Nov 25. PMID: 34933242; PMCID: PMC9020748.
• Layland, E. K., Carter, J. A., Perry, N. S., Cienfuegos-Szalay, J., Nelson, K. M., Peasant-Bonner, C., & Rendina, H. J. (2020). A systematic review of stigma in sexual and gender minority health interventions. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 10(5), 1200-1210. DOI: 10.1093/tbm/ibz200

More Information section:

Projects the Guest is working on:

1. The Queer Joy Project (survey at tinyurl.com/QueerJoyUS)
2. LGBTQ+ Socialization Project (udel.edu/0010814)
3. Policy impacting LGBTQ health and development: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01818-2

Eric’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/eric-layland/

Eric’s CV: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LAYLAND-CV-August-2022.pdf

Eric’s Twitter: @eric_layland

Eric’s Email: [email protected]

In this episode of the E4E Podcast, we are joined by Dr. Tia Barnes, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Delaware. Tia teaches courses related to special education, guidance and behavior, and social-emotional learning to both undergraduate and graduate students. Her research focuses on the social-emotional well-being of minoritized populations, utilizing social-emotional learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, and special education. Tia discusses her research on SEL interventions in urban schools, offering evidence-based directions for further research and implications for policy and practice.

Episode Based on:

• Barnes, T.N. Changing the Landscape of Social Emotional Learning in Urban Schools: What are We Currently Focusing On and Where Do We Go from Here?. Urban Rev 51, 599–637 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00534-1
• McCallops, K., Barnes, T. N., Berte, I., Fenniman, J., Jones, I., Navon, R., & Nelson, M. (2019). Incorporating culturally responsive pedagogy within social-emotional learning interventions in urban schools: An international systematic review. International Journal of Educational Research, 94, 11-28.

More Information Section:

Tia’s email: [email protected]

Tia’s Twitter: @drtianbarnes

Tia’s website: https://www.drtiabarnes.com/publications-1

Tia’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/tia-barnes/

DDOE tools and crosswalk with SEL standards https://www.doe.k12.de.us/Page/4486

DDOE SEL instruction for adults https://www.doe.k12.de.us/Page/4351

CASTEL website, resource for SEL implementation https://casel.org/

Tia’s podcast for educators and parents talking about your own SEL wellbeing- The Scholarly Self Care Podcast https://www.drtiabarnes.com/podcast

On this episode of the E4E podcast, we are joined by Dr. Amanda Jansen, a professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Amanda’s research primarily focuses on students’ engagement in mathematics classrooms and teachers’ learning from their reflections on their own practice. Having experience as a junior high mathematics teacher prior to her time at UD, Amanda is passionate about continually improving UD’s elementary mathematics teacher education courses through research and development work. Amanda discusses some of her recent research on secondary mathematics teacher perspectives on student engagement and her findings’ policy and practice implications.

More Information Section:

Episode Based on:

Jansen, A., Curtis, K., Mohammad Mirzaei, A., Cullicott, C. E., Smith, E. P., & Middleton, J. (2023). Secondary mathematics teachers’ descriptions of student engagement. Educational Studies in Mathematics.

Amanda’s email: [email protected]

Amanda’s Faculty Page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/amanda-jansen/

Amands’s CV: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AJ_CV_2023.pdf

Amanda’s Recent Work

1. Rough Draft Math: Revising to Learn, Amanda’s book published by Stenhouse Publishers in March 2020.
2. Smith, E. P., Kelly, J., Sappington, S., Warren, K., & Jansen, A. (2023). Using judicious telling to strengthen literacy in mathematics. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PreK–12, 116(2), 115-123.
3. Middleton, J. A., Wiezel, A., Jansen, A., & Smith, E. (2022). Tracing mathematics engagement in the first year of high school: Relationships between prior experience, observed support, and task-level emotion and motivation. ZDM -Mathematics Education, 55(2), 427-445.

Projects Amanda is working on:

1. Jansen, A., & Center for Inquiry and Equity in Mathematics. (2023, accepted pending revisions). Entangling and disentangling inquiry and equity: Voices of mathematics education professors and mathematics professors. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education.
2. Mohammad Mirzaei, A., Jansen, A., Fullmer, L., & Middlton, J. (accepted with revisions) Using teacher and student noticing to understand engagement in secondary mathematics lessons. School Science and Mathematics.

On this episode of the E4E podcast, we catch up with Dr. Brittany Zakszeski, an assistant professor specializing in school psychology in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Brittany’s work focuses on students' mental and behavioral health via multi-tiered systems of support in schools. She discusses the use of school-wide positive behavioral supports to reduce discipline disproportionality and looks at the importance of equity-focused implementation of interventions.

More Information Section:

Episode Based on:

Zakszeski, B., Rutherford, L., Heidelburg, K., & Thomas, L. (2021). In pursuit of equity: Discipline disproportionality and SWPBIS implementation in urban schools. School Psychology, 36(2), 122–130. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000428

Resources mentioned:

1. Delaware PBS Project
2. Delaware Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

Brittany’s Email: [email protected]

Brittany’s Faculty page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/brittany-zakszeski/

Brittany’s CV: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Zakszeski-Vitae-2022-09-02.pdf

Projects the Guest is working on:

1. Project GROW (Growing Resilience, Opportunities, and Wellness in Delaware Schools) is a partnership between Delaware schools, university training programs and centers, and state and community agencies to advance training and practice in evidence-based, equity-centered school mental health service delivery within a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework. Funded by the United States Department of Education through the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, Project GROW seeks to address two documented societal crises: (a) the prevalence of mental health needs among children and adolescents and (b) the shortage of school-based mental health professionals.
2. The State Education Policy Analysis Project seeks to systematically identify, describe, and analyze the effects of state policies passed since 2016 that expand or restrict students’ access to racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual identity-affirming and -responsive policies and practices in educational settings.

Brittany’s Work:

1. Zakszeski, B. N., Rutherford, L., Heidelburg, K., & Thomas, L. (2021). In pursuit of equity: Discipline disproportionality and SWPBIS implementation in urban schools. School Psychology, 36, 122–130. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000428 [Honorable Mention, School Psychology 2021 Article of the Year]
2. Zakszeski, B. N., & Rutherford, L. (2021). Mind the gap: A systematic review of research on restorative practices in schools. School Psychology Review, 50, 371–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1852056

On this episode of the E4E podcast, we join in on a conversation with Dr. Ken Shores, Arielle Lentz, and Dr. Bart Gill. Ken is an assistant professor specializing in education policy in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. His research is focused on educational inequality and encompasses both descriptive and causal inference. He addresses racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality in test scores, school disciplinary policy, classification systems, and school resources. Arielle is a second-year PhD student in the Education Statistics and Research Methods program at the University of Delaware’s School of Education. Bart is the Education Associate, AgriScience for the Delaware Department of Education. He oversees all Agricultural Education programs in the state as well as the Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics programs. Bart is responsible for assisting to advance agricultural education forward through improving agricultural education curriculum and assessment. Today, Ken and Arielle discuss their research on postsecondary educational and employment outcomes for students involved in Delaware’s Secondary Career and Technical Education Program and Bart provides an overview of Delaware’s CTE program, its practical effects for Delaware students, and describes the research needs of the Delaware Department of Education surrounding concentrator designations.

More Information Section:

Learn more about Ken’s Work:

Ken’s faculty page: https://www.cehd.udel.edu/faculty-bio/kenneth-shores/

Ken’s Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x1gyyigAAAAJ&hl=en

Check out Ken’s articles for the Brookings Institution:

https://www.brookings.edu/people/kenneth-shores/

The New York Times 2018 The Numbers that Explain why the Teachers are in Revolt: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/upshot/school-funding-still-lags-after-recession-ended.html

The Economist 2019 What budget cuts during the Great Recession did to pupils’ test scores:

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/06/06/what-budget-cuts-during-the-great-recession-did-to-pupils-test-scores

Learn more about Arielle:

https://www.education.udel.edu/grad-student/arielle-lentz/

https://sites.udel.edu/ppe/about-us/our-team/entry/3/

Learn more about Delaware Pathways:

https://delawarepathways.org/

Add Bart’s email* [email protected]

Episode Based on: The Effects of Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs on Postsecondary Educational and Employment Outcomes: Preliminary Research Findings