Research and Grants
Our vision is to assist faculty, staff, and students obtain and administer sources of support for the conduct of mission-related research within the College of Education, to help shape both the research and academic programs within the college to support the pursuit of new knowledge, and to foster a research culture.
Currently Funded Projects
Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia Barbetta
Funding Amount: $92,481.00
Funding Source: FIU Technology Fee Grant
Project Period: 2012-2013
Purpose: This grant will help to extend previous efforts from Interactive Technologies initiative I. With this grant the COE will install 6 more SMART boards dell desktops, 10 laptops, 10 LCD projectors, and 30 Ipads. With this enhanced technology COE will offer, student learning will be improved because these devices increase classroom engagement, and provide instructors with more immediate feedback. In addition, students will learn how to use these technologies in their classrooms in new and innovative ways. Approximately, 2700 students and 80 faculty will be impacted by this grant.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia Barbetta
Co-investigator: Dr. Linda Spears-Bunton
Funding Amount: $81,417.00
Funding Source: FIU Technology Fee Grant
Project Period: 2011-2014
Purpose: Provide opportunities for education majors (future and current teachers) to learn from instruction using mobile learning devices (iPads specifically). The iPad can be used for dynamic presentations of course content with the added benefit of interactivity and it can serve as an active student response system. The Ipad is also useful for active, small-group and/or individualized instruction and learning with access to a multitude of learning tools and information. This grant is important for FIU cause the international society of technology in education states that teacher who effectively integrate technology demonstrate the relevance of 21st century education, and keep more students engaged to graduate, and to be a highly effective teachers, teachers must be able to use modern information tools, digital content and assessment strategies. Up to a potential 1000 Education majors will benefit in a multitude of ways, they will expand their abilities to teach with technology thus improving their teaching outcomes. In addition, this fee will have a positive impact on COE majors because it will have them learning and prepare them to use this technology in their teaching with a variety of students across varied curricular areas.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia Barbetta
Funding Amount: $65,880.00
Funding Source: FIU Technology Fee Grant
Project Period: 2010-2013
Purpose: This grant provides opportunities for education majors to learn from and be exposed to effective, universally-designed instructional technologies that increase their opportunities to actively engage in instruction. UDL is a set of instructional principles that improves student learning by providing guidelines for instruction and assessments that work for all learners—not a single, one size fits all solution—but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjust for the individual needs. The proposed initiative will provide technologies that will allow COE students and faculty to use UDL technologies in their teaching. This initiative installed 4 SMART boards. This initiative will benefit students by making lesson preparation and assessment more cost effective and time efficient.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia Barbetta
Funding Amount: $65,514.00
Funding Source: FIU Technology Fee Grant
Project Period: 2010-2013
Purpose: The interactive technologies initiative will provide the COE undergraduate and graduate students with learning experiences in interactive classroom and e-learning technologies. This project specifically is aimed at purchasing four activboard interactive white board systems and associated systems and software. With this project students and faculty will be exposed to and learn how to use effective, interactive instructional technologies for teach in traditional and online settings. This project will effect thousands of students each year and all current COE faculty.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Patricia Barbetta
Co-investigator: Dr. Melanie Morales
Graduate Assistant: Cigdem Catmali ZEB 249A/B, 305-348-6149, ccatm001@fiu.edu
Funding Amount: $325,000.00
Funding Source: FL Department of Education
Project Period: 10/01/2012 to 09/30/2013
Purpose: The purpose of the ESE Tuition Support Program is to increase the State’s capacity to prepare and retain highly qualified personnel to provide instructional and related services to students with disabilities. The initiatives for this project include the provisions of financial support to prepare teachers of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), with Severe and Profound Disabilities, and those of prekindergarten students with disabilities. The project will provide tuition support for ESE teachers to an autism, severe/profound, and prekindergarten disabilities endorsement through the Tuition Support Program. These statewide programs will provide tuition support to teachers who currently hold a certificate in ESE and who meet either the SBE Rule 6A-4.01796 for Specialization for the Endorsement in Autism, the SBE Rule 6A-4.01790 for Specialization for Endorsement in Severe or Profound Disabilities, or the SBE Rule 6A-4.01792 for Specialization for the Prekindergarten Disabilities Endorsement.
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Principal Investigator: Dr Elizabeth Bejar
Student Assistant: ZEB 363A - Tekla Nicholas
Funding Amount: $496,627.00
Funding Source: Lumina Foundation for Education
Project Period: 10/1/2009 to 3/31/2013
Purpose: Project plans to submit FIU's first year student success initiatives to rigorous evaluation and then utilizing an inquiry-based collaborative process use the evidence from the evaluation for further program enhancement. During this initiative will provide professional development, expert consultation, or program adjustments. During this study a rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis will be conducted on first to second year students. The results of this analysis will be used to make recommendations for program adjustments and engage a pilot testing for those adjustments. This is all done with the hopes of retaining more students till graduation.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Linda Blanton
Co-investigator: Dr. Elizabeth Cramer, Dr. Diana Valle-Riestra
Grant Assistant: Erica Lovett; ZEB 249A/B - 305-348-6149
Funding Amount: $1,131,175.00
Funding Source: US Department of Education
Project Period: 1/1/2011 to 12/31/2014
Purpose: Florida International University (FIU), uniquely situated in Miami-Dade County, Florida, proposes Project EDUCATE to respond to a critical need to prepare doctoral level special education leaders to meet the demands of high need communities and students. The project will recruit a diverse cohort of doctoral students, including those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and those who have disabilities, from the local community, the state, and nationally. Students may choose to focus their program on one of two roles: higher education teacher education (HETE) or community agency leadership/advocacy (CALA). Retention strategies will include full tuition support and stipends, faculty mentors, and ongoing engagement in cohort activities. Connections will continue past the life of the grant to support graduates in assuming roles as teachers and researchers in higher education and in direct service to high need children and families to positively impact change in the lives of children with disabilities.
These emerging leaders will bring and acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable them to address the needs of CLD learners with disabilities and their families in terms of ethnic/racial, language, values/beliefs, and interpretations of disability. EDUCATE offers a unique graduate curriculum focused on collaboration among an interdisciplinary faculty, urban community partners, and CLD families to meet the needs of students who have disabilities in inclusive environments. The cohort-based, interdisciplinary program will be composed of professional studies, a core of special education advanced courses, a cognate focused on CLD learners and urban settings, and a strong emphasis on research. Courses will include activities and projects that lend themselves to supporting students in the roles they plan to assume upon graduation from the program. Further, the program will offer academic year and summer internships that engage doctoral candidates in working in role-related settings.
While both groups will have experiences in community agencies and with families, the HETE group will focus their research and teacher education experiences with faculty on evidence-based practices for students who have mild disabilities and who spend the majority of their school experiences in general education classrooms. The CALA group will focus their research and community-based experiences on students who have mild disabilities and work with agencies such Parent-to-Parent of Miami, Inc. where doctoral candidates can work on projects related to research and evaluation, family advocacy, parent trainings, project development, and fundraising.
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Lenoard Bliss
Research Assistant: Fabiana Bornmann ZEB 237B - 305-348-2611
Student Assistant: Akil Shabazz ZEB 237B - 305-348-2611
Funding Amount: $448,153.24
Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Project Period: 8/15/2011 to 7/31/2014
Purpose: Howard University (HU) and Florida International University (FIU), have developed a partnership with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) and University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) to conduct emerging research in a large, empirical, collaborative research study focused on Black and Hispanic engineering undergraduates recognizing that one of the keys to increasing the numbers of minority engineers—a compelling national concern—is an understanding of the pathways that they travel and the identity that they acquire on their way to becoming an engineer. This three year study is divided into three major areas of examination: the study of persistence, identity, and pathways in undergraduate engineering education for underrepresented minority students matriculating at a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) where they are the majority. Although there are several documented studies that examine the persistence and pathways of underrepresented students, most of these investigations have been conducted at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and the findings have been generalized, perhaps inappropriately, to the larger minority engineering student population.
The importance of this study lies in increasing the body of knowledge of the factors that are related to greater persistence for underrepresented minorities studying engineering at a MSI. The study is being conducted by a collaborative interdisciplinary research team of engineers and educational researchers. In the past, members of this team have overseen a mixed method longitudinal study in engineering education and STEM education, both funded by NSF. Preliminary findings from those studies sparked the interest in studying these important issues on a diverse population. Using a triangulation mixed method research design, while focusing exclusively on Black and Hispanic engineering students, this longitudinal study will (a) identify the factors that relate to persistence; (b) examine the role that culture, ethnicity and/or gender plays on their educational pathways and identity; and (c) explore the factors that relate to their post-baccalaureate plans. Surveys are being used to gather quantitative data and interviews (semi-structured and focus groups) are being the source of the qualitative data. The quantitative and qualitative data is being collected and analyzed separately. Interpretation of the results will be corroborated at the end of each study year for congruence. This work will build on the literature in the fields of engineering, engineering education, education and cultural studies.
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Principal Investigator: Eric Brewe
Co-investigator: Dr. Laird Kramer; Dr. Renee Goertzen
Funding Amount: $ 200,000.00
Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Project Period: 7/15/2012 to 6/30/2015
Purpose: This is a Phase 1 project that will develop a comprehensive set of learning materials to implement Modeling Instruction in introductory university mechanics. Modeling Instruction is a unique approach to introductory physics in that it employs a model-centered curriculum that explicitly engages students in a cyclic process of creating models of physical phenomena rather than iterations of quantitative problem solving. The goals of this grant are to adapt and develop (1) student learning materials, (2) in-class activity guide, and (3) video training materials.
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