Campus News

UGA education faculty, students honored by American Educational Research Association

Rojewski
professor and associate head of the Department of Mathematics and Science Education

Athens, Ga. – Two University of Georgia College of Education faculty members and two graduate students were recognized for their work by the American Educational Research Association at its recent annual meeting in New Orleans.

Peter Smagorinsky, a UGA Distinguished Research Professor of English Education, was selected as an Outstanding Reviewer for his work in 2010 for the Review of Educational Research.

Smagorinsky has been recognized often during his career not only for his reviewing, but also for his research, publications and teaching.

Earlier this year, he received the 2011 SAGE Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for his work on behalf of the journal, Written Communication. He previously received the Outstanding Reviewer Award three times from the AERA (2006-08) for his work in the Educational Researcher and was named an AERA Fellow in 2010.

Bryan McCullick, a professor of physical education, was elected to serve as chair-elect of the Research on Learning and Instruction in Physical Educationspecial interest group of AREA. His three-year term begins this year.

McCullick, graduate coordinator of UGA’s health and physical education teacher education program, was one of only three scholars to serve on a prestigious National Association for Sport and Physical Education committee, which made recommendations on changes in master’s programs for physical education teachers across the nation based on current research on outcome-based education.

David Porcaro, a doctoral candidate in the learning, design and technology program, received the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award for his dissertation titled, “Omani Undergraduate Student Reactions to Collaborative Knowledge Building: A Design Research Study.”He received a certificate and a $300 award.

Mardi Schmeichel, a doctoral candidate in social studies education, was honored with the Outstanding Graduate Student paper by the Research in Social Studies Education special interest group. She was recognized for her paper titled, “Feminism, Neoliberalism and Social Studies,” which was published in the winter 2011 edition of Theory and Research in Social Education. The paperexamines the ways in which women and feminism were described and positioned in a social studies education magazine from the 1980s. She received a $500 scholarship towards her AERA travel expenses.

For more information about the UGA College of Education, see http://www.coe.uga.edu/.