Dr. Mitchell Chang will lead this discussion, which will augment Dr. Chang's main lecture later the same day.

This event will be from 9:30 am - 10:30 am in GSE's Room 120.

A teacher educator and counselor engaged in professional development projects for teachers of ESOL, Dr. Valerie S. Jakar will deliver this year's keynote address of the Nessa Wolfson Colloquium, “Effecting Change While Maintaining Identity: The Challenges of TESOL.”

“The region in which I live and work,” she writes, “is at the intersection of languages, cultures, histories and politics. We teachers of English in the region are faced with many challenges, as are our students, be they adults or young learners. In this retrospective of my professional development within the communities of TESOL, I identify significant issues which relate to the fields of sociolinguistics and pedagogy. With the collaboration of those attending the colloquium, I will explore some of these challenges, in particular with regard to teacher and student identity. Which of the problems are particular to our situation? Or are they all universal?”

The Nessa Wolfson Colloquium will be held on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Coffee and breakfast will be served from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., followed by the Colloquium. A buffet lunch will be served.

Please join us to honor the memory of Nessa Wolfson and to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year.

In this talk, Dr. Mitchell Chang will highlight findings from a longitudinal study of undergraduate biological and behavioral science majors, funded by both the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. A key objective of this study is to identify general principles for good practice in undergraduate science education that will improve the rate of both degree completion and advancement into graduate studies in related fields, especially for underrepresented racial minorities.

One of the studies that draws from these data examined whether "stereotype threat" contributes to the chances that a underrepresented racial minority freshman will change out of his/her initial science major at the end of the first year of college. The talk will focus on the findings from this study to illuminate how race can shape students' educational prospects.

Dr. Chang's talk will be from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm in Houston Hall's Golkin Room (2nd floor).

The annual GSE Picnic will be held in the GSE courtyard from 12:00 to 2:00 pm. Come enjoy lunch with students, faculty, and staff!

Come join Doug Lynch, Torch Lytle, and Alan Ruby for a brown-bag discussion of what education will look like in the future.

This is the first in a series of brown-bag discussions. The next topics will be Briefing Book for the Next Secretary of Education (October 17) and The Market is the Answer (November 21). All events in this series will begin at noon and end at 1:30. All are welcome.

Location to be announced.

In this talk, Drs. Susan Yoon and Lei Liu will describe the Nanotechnology and Bioengineering in Philadelphia Public Schools (ITEST-Nano) project, which is based on a curriculum and instruction framework that addresses the need to incorporate cyberinfrastructure-enabled learning activities and current nano-scale science in standard high school science curricula.

The project is premised on 5 component variables addressing nano-scale and science content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and workforce development goals:

• Real world science and engineering applications (e.g., current nanotechnology research);
• Educational technologies to build content knowledge (e.g., simulations and imaging);
• Information technologies for communication, community-building and dissemination (e.g., Web 2.0 tools);
• STEM education and careers investigations (e.g., industry field-trips, internships, speakers); and
• Cognitively-rich pedagogical strategies (e.g., problem-based learning, peer-to-peer interaction).

During a three-week 75-hour summer teacher professional development workshop in August 2008, 16 public high school teachers and 25 high school students in the School District of Philadelphia participated to learn to construct and pilot curricular units based on the ITEST-Nano framework. This talk reports on some preliminary findings from the summer workshop.

This event will be held from 12:00 to 2:00 pm. Location to be announced. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by September 23 to vl@dolphin.upenn.edu.

GSE professors Sigal Ben-Porath, Andrew Porter, and Howard Stevenson will present "Why Present at Professional Meetings? What Does a Good Presentation Look Like?" This event is part of the "Academic Profession Explained" series.

"Academic Profession Explained" is a professional development seminar series for Ph.D. students who wish to pursue a career in teaching and research. Addressing topics ranging from publications to balancing work and family life, this series attempts to prepare Ph.D. students for the demands of the academy.

The presentation will be from 9:00 am - 10:00 am in Huntsman Hall's room 250.

Professors Nancy Hornberger, Richard Ingersoll, and Stanton Wortham will walk Ph.D. students and others through the intricacies -- and importance -- of tenure review. This event is part of the "Academic Profession Explained" series.

"Academic Profession Explained" is a professional development seminar series for Ph.D. students who wish to pursue a career in teaching and research. Addressing topics ranging from publications to balancing work and family life, this series attempts to prepare Ph.D. students for the demands of the academy.

The presentation will be from 9:00 am - 10:00 am in room 322.