PAL Faculty News

Dr. Maria Bacigalupo, AAUP District X Representative and PAL professor, served as a respondent/panelist at the MA State AAUP Conference held at Merrimack College.  The panel discussed the plenary presentation entitled "A Better Path Forward: How Corporate Culture Threatens the Quality of Higher Education and What We Can Do to Resist its Encroachment on our Campuses" given by Rudy Fichtenbaum, National AAUP President.  Dr. Bacigalupo is the first Curry College faculty member elected to National office.

Dr. Wendy Ostroff  recently signed a book contract with Pearson Education to write an Introductory Psychology textbook. This textbook will be distinctive in that it is being designed to showcase innovative teaching practices in traditional lecture-based classes, distance or hybrid courses, small group settings, and team-based formats. The goal of the new book is to challenge students to think critically, make informed decisions, and understand the connections between Psychology and other disciplines.  Additionally, Dr. Ostroff was a featured presenter at the peer-reviewed 2013 Annual Conference of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) . The title of her presentation was "Understanding Children's Learning: Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom."  In addition to being the publisher of her book, ASCD is an international leader in curriculum development, design and innovation.

Dr. Laurie Fox's  longitudinal research has been accepted for publication in Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, the journal of the Learning Disabilities Association of America.  Her article, entitled "Success Factors 40 Years Later:  The Pioneer Postsecondary Program for Students with LD/ADHD/EF," focuses on a mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) analysis of student response data collected over an 11-year period.  Dr. Fox's analysis makes a contribution to one of the seminal scholarly discussions occurring in the field of Specific Learning Disabilities: What works? 

Dr. Janis Peters presented at the 25th International Conference on the First Year Experience in Vancouver.  The title of her presentation was "Transition Skills of First Year College Students with Learning Disabilities."  Dr. Peters is the Student and Parent Concerns Coordinator for the Program for Advancement of Learning.

A presentation team was invited to the National Conference of the International Educational Consultants Association in Boston.  It included PAL professors Dr. Nancy Winbury and Paula Cocce,  Tish Pieper, PAL Admission Counselor, and Keith Robichaud , Curry Director of Admission.  The topic was:  "What Comes After High School for the Student with LD, ADHD &/or Executive Function Disorder? Finding the Right Fit."

PAL Professor Dr. Laurie Fox's article on Curry's Faculty Peer Support Program was published in the May 2012 edition of the Journal of Faculty Development.  Her article speaks to the radical simplicity of the program and results of research begun in 2000.  It is entitled, A Personalized Faculty Peer Support Program:  Less Can Be More.

PAL Senior Lecturer, Lynn Abrahams and Professor Vicki Nelson presented:  Partnerships with Parents at the 31st Annual Conference on First Year Experience in San Antonio, Texas in February 2012. The session examined the increase in parental involvement in college students' lives and described the development of a comprehensive series of workshops that educate parents at critical touch points in the college transition process. They had over 120 participants in their session - standing room only!

Dr. Wendy Ostroff's new book,  Understanding How Young Children Learn: Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom,  has just been published by ASCD (http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Understanding-How-Young-Children-Learn-overview.aspx). The field of developmental science is exploding with findings-some surprising, some counterintuitive, and most of great potential value to educators. In writing this book, Dr. Ostroff, Associate Professor in the Program for Advancement of Learning (PAL), as a researcher and teacher of teachers, set out to "distill the mountain of information in front of [her] down to a handbook of children's learning," one that would serve as a guide to teachers as they develop curriculum and pedagogy. Understanding How Young Children Learn succinctly presents research on children's learning in a way that is memorable and makes immediate sense to readers and enables educators to think like scientists to understand why these propellers serve to strengthen student learning when used effectively.

 Michelle Gabow's most recent play, "No End in Sight," premiered recently at Emerson College's Directing Perspectives.  Michelle is an Associate Professor in the Program for Advancement of Learning.