College of Education and Human Development
CEHD Faculty News
Learning Abroad
May 10, 2019
Spring break program explores Assistive Technology in South Korea. Read more...
Robot Exclusive
April 30, 2019
Tourism and events management student helps promote Mason Dining through Starship delivery robots. Read more...
Counseling Duo Earns Top Honors
April 29, 2019
Rita Chi-Ying Chung and Frederic Bemak are two of just five at the university to receive Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence. Read more...
Award-Winning Research
April 29, 2019
Mason Researchers Contribute to Award-Winning Paper on Adaptive Teaching. Read more...
Congratulations to Michelle Gnoleba Seki, 2019 Academic Advisor of the Year
April 15, 2019
This annual award recognizes excellence in advising across campus. This year, 793 nominations were submitted for 108 different advisors, representing every undergraduate Mason college/school! Read more...
Kid-Sized ‘Traffic Parks’ Are D.C.’s New Playgrounds With A Purpose
April 11, 2019
Education and transportation officials say traffic gardens are one creative way to teach the next generation of pedestrians and cyclists. Read more...
He ensures firefighters work from positions of strength
April 10, 2019
Hunter Hautz's training manual for firefighter candidates in Prince William County was so valuable, the Mason master's student received a letter of commendation from the fire chief. Read more...
An online window into autism
April 10, 2019
Wiley multimedia gives online special education students unprecedented access to case studies. Read more...
Creating a Hub for Holocaust Education at Mason
April 5, 2019
For the past year, Mark Helmsing has been intensely studying the Holocaust. His research focuses on the affective and emotional dimensions of history — how people feel about the past, and how the past makes them feel in return. Read more...
CEHD Ranks Highly in U.S. News & World Report Graduate Program Rankings, Among Others
April 4, 2019
The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) has recently made a strong showing in a trio of prestigious rankings, each of which uses different metrics to rank schools and programs against others in the U.S.—and in one case, around the world. Read more...
AERA Review of Research Award
March 29, 2019
CEHD faculty members Seth Parsons and Allison Ward Parsons, in addition to doctoral students Melissa Gallagher and Melissa Pierczynski, received the AERA Review of Research Award. Read more...
Dance Medicine Program Thrives at Mason — and Beyond
March 20, 2019
Dancers’ medical needs, as athletes, have long been underserved. Jatin Ambegaonkar, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development, has made it his goal to change that. Read more...
Mason Teacher Educators Share Innovative Program with Chinese Teachers
March 1, 2019
In the spirit of collaboration—and self-reflection—two professors from the College of Education and Human Development gave a talk about an innovative new assessment model to a visiting group of nearly two dozen teachers and faculty from schools in China. Read more...
Graduate Students Teach Without a Net in Costa Rica
January 23, 2019
Andy Gilbert teamed up with colleague Kathy Ramos, who had an idea: to put together a dual program focusing on both English as a second language (ESOL) and science instruction. Read more...
Mason program too valuable to lose, school board says
November 20, 2018
How do you know a community values your involvement? It steps up financially to keep your program running. That is what happened in Prince William County, Virginia, which this academic year budgeted $180,000 to continue a George Mason University program that provides athletic trainers to nine of the county’s 16 public middle schools with athletic programs. Read more...
Harvard fellowship complemented her Mason experience
November 14, 2018
Patricia Kelshaw has been immersed in George Mason University’s Athletic Training Education Program for as long as she has been at the university. Kelshaw’s research endeavors to establish more specific baseline measures for children participating in sports to better manage concussions. Those measures could also enhance the Child Support Concussion Assessment Tool, a standardized evaluation instrument that helps assess whether concussions have occurred and informs care throughout recovery.
Read more...
Research that helps Teachers get with the (Computer) Program
October 26, 2018
Don’t worry Virginia teachers, Amy Hutchison feels your pain and is here to help.
The associate professor at George Mason University and director of Mason’s Division of Elementary, Literacy and Secondary Education understands that teaching the new mandatory Standards of Learning for computer science in Virginia’s public schools can seem daunting to those who do not have a computer science background.
Read more...
Mason LIFE Receives Funding to Test Innovative Scheduling App
October 25, 2018
Mason LIFE focuses on academics, employment, independent living, and community integration for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Life Sherpa is an app that aims to help students with disabilities become more independent in employment settings by creating routines for the students to follow while offering help, if needed. Read more...
Award Spotlights Mason Research, Outreach
October 12, 2018
Given a chance to use role-playing to solve real-world problems, middle schoolers who might be overlooked for advanced academic programs can perform just as well as their high-achieving peers, research by George Mason University assistant professor Anne Horak has shown. For the third consecutive year, the curriculum written for that research has won an award. Read more...
Remembering CEHD Professor Fred Schack
October 4, 2018
Fred Schack’s colleagues at the College of Education and Human Development described him as “steady,” “consistent,” and “dependable.” If there was work to be done, he would volunteer to do it. He was also remembered for always being on time, pitching in with colleagues, and always supporting students. Basically, “he was there,” says Rich Miller, a professor of kinesiology at Mason. Schack, who retired from his position as a professor of kinesiology and physical education this past June, died in September following a short illness. He was 76. More than half of his life was spent as a faculty member at George Mason University. Read more...
Fostering Student Computational Thinking with Self-Regulated Learning
October 2, 2018
Fostering Student Computational Thinking with Self-Regulated Learning is a new $3.5M (over 5 years) NSF-funded STEM+C grant that will advance research and development of new transdisciplinary approaches to computational STEM teaching and learning. Read more...
WEGO-RIITE: Writing Efficiently with Graphic Organizers - Responsive Instruction while Implementing Technology Effectively
October 1, 2018
Anna Evmenova, Kelley Regan, and Amy Hutchison won a $2.5M award (over 5 years) for “WEGO-RIITE: Writing Efficiently with Graphic Organizers - Responsive Instruction while Implementing Technology Effectively” funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education. Read more...
Preparing K-5 Teachers to Integrate the Computer Science Standards of Learning in Inclusive Classrooms to Support Students with High Incidence Disabilities
August 28, 2018
A new NSF award was granted to Amy Hutchison and colleagues for a project that brings together faculty from George Mason University and Old Dominion University, the non-profit group CodeVA and Norfolk City Public Schools (NCPS) to broaden participation in Computer Science in Virginia. Read more...
Professor Takes Teacher Research from Tennessee to Mason
August 28, 2018
For the past four years, Seth Hunter has been researching teacher evaluations and teacher observations in Tennessee. Before coming to Mason just a few months ago, Hunter worked in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education while he was a doctoral candidate at Vanderbilt University. It was his extensive work with Tennessee education standards that brought him back to the state in July, when Hunter was invited to a Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) summit to discuss his research findings. Read more...
Dave Wiggins, an Authority on the African American Experience in American Sport, is Retiring ... Sort of
August 2, 2018
When the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture began planning its sports gallery, the first call museum director Lonnie Bunch made was to Dave Wiggins. Wiggins, a professor of sport history at George Mason University, is Bunch’s longtime friend. But he is also an acknowledged authority on the African American experience in American sport. Read more...
Professor's Research Shows How the Digital Revolution is Creating an Evolution in Learning
July 23, 2018
Thanks to digital technologies such as laptops, smartphones and tablets, students are creating personal learning environments in which they choose the tools, times and methods by which they learn. Institutions should help students make the best use of those technologies, George Mason University professor Nada Dabbagh said. Read more...
Dave Wiggins, an Authority on the African American Experience in American sport, is Retiring ... Sort of
July 23, 2018
When the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture began planning its sports gallery, the first call museum director Lonnie Bunch made was to Dave Wiggins. Wiggins, a professor of sport history at George Mason University, is Bunch’s longtime friend. But he is also an acknowledged authority on the African American experience in American sport. Read more...
Using Music to Change the World
July 10, 2018
For Shelley Wong, an associate professor of multilingual and multicultural education at George Mason University, music is an important tool in the teaching of languages. “It’s a way to lose your inhibitions,” she said. Music, or songs, to be more precise, are central to the proposal Wong used to win a Fulbright Fellowship, which will allow her to travel to the West Bank in Palestine, where she will teach grammar to students majoring in English and instructors at Birzeit University in Ramallah and also engage them in discussions about justice, peace and reconciliation. Read more...
The Schar School and College of Education and Human Development Launch a New Master’s-Level Education Policy Track
June 18, 2018
Leading scholars and education policy practitioners from George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and the Schar School of Policy and Government will help students understand how education policy is debated, created, and implemented in a new master's level program this fall. The graduate-level emphasis area, Education Policy, is offered in the Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree program and is spearheaded by CEHD associate professor Spiros Protopsaltis, a former deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Education and senior Senate aide, and former Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, now a visiting professor at CEHD and the Schar School. Read more...
Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Business
May 2, 2018
In a career focused on learning design that has spanned decades, Shahron Williams van Rooij, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development’s Instructional Design and Technology program, has come to a realization: professionals in the world of education who want to make the jump to business often struggle. Read more...
April 30, 2018
Pablo Ramirez Uribe, a master’s student at George Mason University studying secondary education and English, said it was quite a revelation when he learned how to really be successful as teacher. More than planning, more than constructing assignments, is the ability to connect with students. “It’s go into a school and help these people grow,” Ramirez Uribe said. That was Ramirez Uribe’s takeaway from a program called “Through Students Eyes,” developed by George Mason education professor Kristien Zenkov. Read more...
Counselors Without Borders Provides Counseling Services in Puerto Rico
April 20, 2018
In March several faculty members from the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at George Mason University had the opportunity to travel to a rural area of Puerto Rico with a small team from Counselors Without Borders. Among the people they met was a 25-year-old who had begun withdrawing from society before Hurricane Maria hit the island last September. After the storm wreaked its devastation, his condition worsened. Read more...
Master of Science in Athletic Training Program Receives CAATE Accreditation
April 19, 2018
One of the College of Education and Human Development’s youngest programs has completed the accreditation process, providing further proof that the new classes are equipping students with the tools they need to succeed in the field of athletic training.
The Master of Science in Athletic Training (MSAT) program at Mason, housed on the Science and Technology campus, recently received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, or CAATE. Read more...
CEHD Helps Support Adjunct Faculty Self-Study Collaborative at Mason
March 25, 2018
More than 20 adjunct faculty from colleges and disciplines across the university—as well as an equally diverse group of facilitators—met on March 5 to talk, share their visions, practice as educators, and begin to design a self-study teacher research project. After brief introductions by the facilitators and warm welcoming remarks by College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) Dean Mark Ginsberg and Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning (SCTL) Director Shelley Reid (sponsors of the project along with Faculty Affairs and Development in the Office of the Provost), participants formed critical friend teams to create and share the initial sketching of a personal-situated teaching inquiry to improve their students’ learning. Read more...
Leading the Way for Schools, Businesses to Shape Students’ Career Paths
March 13, 2018
For Arne Duncan, the key to successfully educating and preparing students for career paths is relevance. “Students want to know what they are doing in the classroom is relevant in the real world,” the former U.S. Secretary of Education said. “Kids should know that if I take this class I can get this internship, and this internship will lead to a real job. If we can get to that point, we’re going to be in great shape.” Read more...
Mason Team Helps Heal Scars from Disaster
March 1, 2018
Fred Bemak remembers all the hugs and tears. They inevitably come, he said, when his Counselors Without Borders team is on location helping hundreds—sometimes thousands—of people healing from the emotional scars of a disaster. “It’s the person who is grabbing and hugging you, thanking you for being there,” the George Mason University professor said. “That’s huge.” For 13 years Counselors Without Borders has traveled the world into areas devastated by floods, wildfires and storms, offering culturally responsive humanitarian counseling in post-disaster situations. Read more...
Education in a Time of Divisiveness, Lessons on Listening at a Virginia School
February 27, 2018
One student questioned her father about his conservative views on gay rights. Another approached a friend from camp about their divergent opinions on President Trump. And a third pressed his cousin on his ardent support for guns. In a climate of political and social divisiveness, when social media often doubles as an echo chamber, educators issued a challenge to 12th-graders at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria that seemed, at once, simple and extraordinary — find someone different from themselves, with whom they disagree on a foundational issue, and talk. Read more...
Sport Diplomacy at the Winter Olympics
February 12, 2018
The 2018 Winter Olympics have officially begun in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and top athletes from around the world are currently competing in 15 events over more than two weeks. But there’s more than just sport at this worldwide mega event—there’s also diplomacy. Read more...
Mason's Fred Bemak Receives Outstanding Faculty Award from State
January 23, 2018
Fred Bemak, a professor and academic program coordinator of George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development counseling and development program, is a recipient of a 2018 Oustanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
Bemak, in the College of Education and Human Development, is one of 12 recipients selected from 83 nominees, and the 21st George Mason recipient since the award’s inception in 1987. Read more...
CEHD Professor Consults on App for Children With ‘Parents at the Center’
January 17, 2018
If you’re an enormous social media company looking to adapt some of your technology for younger children, you want to make sure you’re creating a fun user experience—but also a safe one. That’s what Facebook was recently looking to do. While preparing to put together what eventually became Messenger Kids, which launched in late 2017, the company consulted with experts on children and media. One of those experts was Kevin Clark, CEHD professor and director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity. Read more...
Could Spit be the Latest Key to Diagnosing Concussions?
January 11, 2018
As the scope of potential short- and long-term damage from brain injuries in football becomes clearer every day, the mad scramble is on to try to address the crisis, which threatens the very existence of the sport.
And while the leading chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, research at Boston University has made the most headlines, two scientists at George Mason University have been working on a potentially groundbreaking diagnostic tool that could change the way we test for and treat brain injury across the sports world and beyond. Read more...
CEHD Alumnus Appointed Virginia’s Next Education Secretary
January 5, 2018
A middle school teacher in Prince William County was appointed Virginia’s next education secretary by Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D). The announcement that Atif Qarni — a civics, economics, U.S. history and math teacher at Beville Middle School in Woodbridge — would join Northam’s Cabinet was made at the school Thursday by the governor-elect. Read more...
Mason Professor Receives Award for ‘Vision’ Research
December 19, 2017
When Seth Parsons arrived at Mason in 2008, he was curious about something. Teaching can obviously be a tough job. So what makes a teacher stick it out? “There has to be something that sustains excellent teachers who remain in the field,” says Parsons, an associate professor at CEHD.
Read more...
Mason Hosts Provocative Symposium on Research in Comparative and International Education
November 27, 2017
How can research practices be more socially and culturally inclusive? Are the values of our participants being recognized and honored? Does our research perpetuate systems of inequality or oppression? These were just a few of the challenging questions that over 200 researchers, professors, leaders, and graduate students wrestled with at the second annual Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) symposium hosted by George Mason University at the Arlington Campus last month Read more...
Anne Holton Adds to Her Family's Mason Legacy
November 27, 2017
The first time Anne Holton was on George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus after being hired as a visiting professor, the former Virginia Secretary of Education made sure to walk to the plaza dedicated to her father. A. Linwood Holton Jr. was Virginia’s governor in 1972, and signed the bill that separated then-George Mason College from the University of Virginia. “I’m a fan of George Mason for so many reasons,” Anne Holton said, “but especially because of the connection with my dad.” Read more...
Athletic Training Fellowship Breaks New Ground
November 15, 2017
Because of the physical demands they face, police and firefighters should be considered athletes, Shane Caswell said. So why not keep them on the job by providing them the same treatment and rehabilitation options that keep injured athletes on the field? Read more...
More Than 7,230 Miles Apart, Mason and Pakistani Professor Come Together
November 13, 2017
The conference, Innovation and Internationalization in Pakistani Higher Education, marked the culmination of a partnership between Mason and the University of Management and Technology (UMT) in Lahore. As Fox began her concluding remarks, it became clear that even as the formal project was winding down, the work was just beginning. Read more...
Mason’s ASL Program Moves Forward with ‘Native Speaker’
November 2, 2017
The hiring of Kevin Taylor as program coordinator of George Mason University’s American Sign Language Program is a milestone of sorts. Previously, the program ran primarily with adjunct professors, said Pam Baker, director of the Division of Special Education and disAbility Research in the College of Education and Human Development. Read more...
CEHD Professional Faculty Member Is One of 10 in the Country With All Three Research Administrator Certifications
October 25, 2017
There are only nine other people in the country like Jessica Guzzo. Guzzo has completed all three research administrator certifications, a professional achievement she accomplished just before school started this fall. "It hasn’t really set in yet that I actually passed it,” says Guzzo, Director of Research Administration at CEHD’s Office of Research Development, about the final test she passed in August. Read more...
Math Professor Takes Positive Ideas on Math to South Korea
October 13, 2017
In South Korea, students’ abilities in mathematics are extremely high. But there’s an issue. “The achievement is so high but the attitude toward it, the feeling toward it, is so negative,” says Jennifer Suh, an associate professor of mathematics education at Mason. “So they needed to do something.” Read more...