LSI in October's Faculty & Staff Briefs

NOTABLE
Ana Marty, Ph.D. engaged the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in Teaching Practice Advisory Group meetings in both Malawi and Rwanda. This work is focused on improving the Teaching Practice framework for pre-service teachers completing their initial training. 

Marion Fesmire, Ph.D. led a pre-primary training and a feedback session with teacher educators in Rwanda. The training helped to teach the pre-primary curriculum in public schools, with an emphasis on developing early literacy skills through dialogic reading processes. 

Augustine Kamlongera, Ph.D. led the local Strengthening Teacher Education and Practice (STEP) team to host the second National Literacy Symposium in Dedza, Malawi. This activity was a celebration of teacher educators who completed intensive professional development through STEP. 

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. is the Principal Investigator on the USAID Tunoze Gusoma (Schools and Systems) activity in Rwanda. During this past quarter, LSI has collaborated with the local Tunoze Gusoma team and the Rwanda Basic Education Board to develop a plan for updating the teacher education curriculum for literacy-related topics in lower primary teacher education.

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. is the Principal Investigator on the USAID Strengthening Teacher Education and Practice (STEP) Activity in Malawi. Recently, over 50,000 books were labeled and loaded by STEP staff where they will reach 22 Teacher Training Colleges to support student teachers in preparing lesson plans and practice delivering instruction.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. traveled to Mexico City for the final week of the U.S. State Department’s Community College Administrator Program, which is administered by the Learning Systems Institute.

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. and Jennie Robinette have begun data collection on the "Large Class Pedagogy in Low-Income Contexts: Exploring Methods with Teachers in Malawi" project, which is funded by Florida State’s Council on Research & Creativity Seed Grant program.

GRANTS
The Florida Philanthropic Network awarded the Learning Systems Institute a grant to implement the “Afterschool Math Success: Developing the Vision and Support” project. The grant will be implemented by LSI’s Florida Center for Research in STEM, with Carrie Meyers serving as the Principal Investigator.

PRESENTATIONS, CONFERENCES, PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITS
Jennie Robinette presented, “Large Class Pedagogy in Primary Schools in Malawi: Preparing Student Teachers” at the 2nd National Literacy Symposium in Dedza, Malawi. This presentation is the first unveiling of findings from Adrienne Barnes-Story’s (Learning Systems Institute) Large Class Pedagogy research team.  

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. presented, “The Importance of Teacher and Learner Behaviors on Emergent Literacy Skills: A Study of Young Children’s Literacy Development in Kenya” at the 4th International Conference on Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Purdue University.

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. presented, “The Relations among Language, Socio-emotional Learning, Executive Functioning, and Literacy and Numeracy Outcomes: Evidence from a Preschool Readiness Program in Kenya” at the 4th International Conference on Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Purdue University.