{"id":3615,"date":"2019-09-12T13:40:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T18:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/?page_id=3615"},"modified":"2025-05-16T13:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T18:53:25","slug":"2019-summer-research-assistantships","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/main\/faculty-development-for-student-success\/mentoring\/2019-summer-research-assistantships\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Summer Research Assistantships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Faculty Development for Student Success program is a U.S. Department of Education Title III funded activity that supports faculty development and emphasizes innovation in instruction. One focus of the program is the development of research on faculty approaches to teaching in the faculty members\u2019 individual academic disciplines, known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL research at HBCUs has been very limited, so the summer support for SoTL graduate research assistants is a first step in developing a campus culture that values research into innovative pedagogies in a variety of content areas.<\/p>\n

For the summer of 2019, four faculty members were awarded graduate assistants to assist with research on pedagogy in their disciplines and to take part in activities from research design, to data collection, to drafting articles or literature reviews.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Natalie Williams<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Psychometric Services<\/p>\n

Graduate Research Assistant: Ms. Sasha Williams, doctoral student in the Department of Psychology<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Williams\u2019s project involved the design of a SoTL research plan, drafting of a literature review, and drafting of another research article. The graduate research assistant, Ms. Sasha Williams, was able to contribute to the drafting of the literature review, complete the first step of the scoping review, complete a first draft of an article manuscript, and complete the methodology section for an article. Both manuscripts (\u201cAre African Americans with Cognitive Disabilities Striving to Work?\u201d and \u201cThe Pursuit of Employment among African Americans with Cognitive Disabilities: A Scoping Review\u201d) will be submitted to journals this fall.<\/p>\n

Dr. Williams wrote the following about how the experience changed the way that she works with students:<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s experience has prompted me to spend more time helping students expand and develop their writing skills. Beginning this summer, I have embedded a new practice to help improve students\u2019 writing and scholarship. In all of my classes, I have offered students the opportunity to submit their papers at least one week prior to the due date, to take advantage of detailed feedback and one-on-one support. I have also encouraged students, starting this fall, to start framing their own research agendas by selecting topics (for class assignments) that are of genuine interest to them, as scholars and as budding practitioners. Students\u2019 papers are also reviewed, on an ongoing basis, for presentation and publication opportunities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Shanna Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Speech Communication<\/p>\n

College of Liberal Arts<\/p>\n

Graduate Research Assistant: Mr. Anthony Gomes, master\u2019s student in computer science in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Smith worked with Mr. Anthony Gomes to conduct a literature review on the readings for her fall English composition class, which is the course on which she plans to conduct her SoTL research. In designing the online components of the course, Mr. Gomes assisted with the research on and organization of photographic images, film, music, and video to be used as supplementary material in the course. Having a graduate student help with the design of the Canvas course was particularly helpful as it provided a student\u2019s insight into the organization of the course materials. He provided input from a student’s perspective on the readings and other materials, giving suggestions on a breakdown and pacing for presenting the course materials.<\/p>\n

Dr. Smith was delighted with the work her graduate research assistant provided, preparing her for a thematic redesign of ENG 105 in collaboration with Dr. Arlette Miller-Smith of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. During this summer collaboration, the groundwork was laid for future SoTL research on student writing in HBCU composition courses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Nelson Atehortua De la Pena<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral and Environmental Health<\/p>\n

College of Health Sciences<\/p>\n

Graduate Research Assistant: Ms. Shaina McMillan, doctoral student in the Department of Psychology<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dr. Atehortua worked with his graduate research assistant, Ms. Shaina McMillan, on a systematic review of the literature using the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) for public health and social sciences. The two have a manuscript in process related to the SoTL on the pedagogy of study abroad programs in public health. There is also the possibility of expanding this to an application in clinical psychology, which is the field of the graduate research assistant. Dr. Atehortua says that he will be introducing adjustments to the teaching process because, for him, the summer research experience with SOTL was an eye-opening experience in ways of thinking about teaching and learning.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Talya Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning<\/p>\n

College of Science, Engineering, and Technology<\/p>\n

Graduate Research Assistant: Mr. Glenn Greer, a master\u2019s student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Thomas worked with her student on the completion of data collection and a literature review for a book chapter that was submitted for review in early September. Based on the work that Dr. Thomas and Mr. Greer completed during the summer, Dr. Thomas has begun exploring additional avenues for research on her current SoTL topic. The summer research project will also serve as the basis for a proposal for external funding to be submitted to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Faculty Development for Student Success program is a U.S. Department of Education Title III funded activity that supports faculty development and emphasizes innovation in instruction. One focus of the program is the development of research on faculty approaches to teaching in the faculty members\u2019 individual academic disciplines, known as the Scholarship of Teaching and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"parent":3833,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3615"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4279,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3615\/revisions\/4279"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsums.edu\/scholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}