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The feeding tube?

BY DEANE MORRISON
A KINESIOLOGY PROFESSOR has discovered a link between TV viewing and future eating habits in older adolescents.

Teens who watched much more television than their peers were likely to have worse eating habits in young adulthood, according to a study led by assistant professor Daheia Barr-Anderson, published online in the Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. The findings garnered widespread interest, including stories in the Washington Post and multiple television appearances.

Barr-Anderson and colleagues in the School of Public Health surveyed 1,366 Twin Cities adolescents on their TV viewing habits at the average age of 15.9 and on their eating habits five years later. They discovered that the quality of diet decreased as TV watching increased. For example, the total daily servings of fruits and vegetables ranged from 3.41 among limited viewers (less than two hours of TV per day) to 2.53 for heavy viewers (five or more hours of screen time), as opposed to the nine servings that are generally recommended.

“There are lots of individual, social, and environmental variables at work,” says Barr-Anderson. “But even though the intake of fruits and vegetables was suboptimal [for study participants] to start with, they were even lower for those watching a lot of TV.”

Study participants were getting more of what they didn’t need, though. Weekly visits to fast food outlets increased from 2.03 to 2.33 over the five years; daily servings of snack foods rose from 1.93 to 2.20, and daily servings of sugar-sweetened beverages grew from 1.14 to 1.33.

Several possibilities may exist for the correlation between TV watching and future diet. For example, repeated exposure to advertising for unhealthy foods may have an impact, Barr-Anderson speculates. She cautions that more investigation is needed to pinpoint a culprit, however.

Parents who want to guide their children toward healthier habits should limit TV viewing and monitor the types of food they eat, says Barr-Anderson, while watching their own habits. “Until it becomes the norm in the family not to sit in front of the TV for hours or eat junk food, it’s not going to change.”

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Shout outs for justice

THIS FALL, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS in the social justice minor broadcast their take on the social and cultural norms that create inequities in society. In 35- to 60-minute podcasts, student teams wrestled with complex topics such as the values of whiteness, barriers created by religion, access to water as a matter of justice, and public subsidies for commercial development.

Teams of five students recorded individual podcasts, with one member serving as a director and editor, adding music, sound effects, narration, and other elements to create a cohesive whole. The students played their recordings for University community members, with the goal of collaborating with listeners on possible response actions.

Lisa Arrastia, a community instructor in the School of Social Work, designed the assignment—entitled The Cultural Biography of a Thing—to be an act of critical learning. “I believe ‘social change’ comes out of producing great shifts in attitude, belief, and imagination,” she explains. “Students need opportunities to dream differently while using social theory and the experiential to understand the kind of work that’s needed in various communities.”

Besides the recordings, Arrastia’s students created new media and public art installations that prompted them to contend with their own social conditions. The projects help satisfy the service learning requirement embedded in each of the social justice minor’s courses.

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Educating for the 21st-century

IMAGINE BEING A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT, getting handed an IPod Touch, and told to go do your homework. Such was the assignment for students in Roosevelt High School’s Digital Media Studies program, who used Google Maps and a built-in GPS to map their Minneapolis neighborhood.

Known as DigME, the new learning community gives students a chance to work with the kind of audio, video, and computer technologies that are shaping society. The program, which was the brainchild of Roosevelt English teacher Delainia Haug and Dean of Students Damien Poling, tapped the expertise of faculty and students from the College of Education and Human Development.

The DigME curriculum emphasizes using critical thinking and hands-on technical skills across subjects. For example, while students mapped their neighborhood for teacher John Wood’s 9th-grade geography class, they also worked with artist Wing Young Huie to document the area via digital photography. In social studies, they evaluated data about neighborhood crime and used digital tools to evaluate neighborhood water quality for science class.

DigME students also create audio, video, blogs, and wikis—essentially online collaborative communities. In the process, students learn essential group work skills, along with organizational, management, and communication abilities, Haug explains. Teaching students to use the Internet responsibly and critically also develops creative and independent thought, she adds.

Research shows that people will need critical media literacy to succeed in 21st-century society, says Haug, who has discovered a significant gap in digital literacy among the students in DigME. At the start of the school year, the skill level ranged from those who knew how to write html to some who didn’t know how to send an attachment with e-mail.

“Our kids come from backgrounds where they don’t have access [to digital technology] outside of school,” Haug explains. “It’s our obligation to provide them with access.”

Roosevelt’s student body comprises many lower income students and English language learners. About one-third of DigME’s 150-plus students do not have a computer in the home. The program recently acquired 30 laptops, along with the IPod Touches.

“There is a social justice aspect to the program,” says curriculum and instruction professor Cynthia Lewis, who helped Haug shape DigME’s goals and leads the partnership with the University. Lewis and her colleagues intend to research how the digital media curriculum helps drive achievement, persistence, and postsecondary plans.

Students faced a steep learning curve during the fall term but are starting to make the media their own, says DigME program coordinator Poling, who is pursuing his M.Ed. at the college. “They’re engaged when they’re working with the technology. It’s been huge leaps for them as far as what they’re used to.” Roosevelt Principal Bruce Gilman and Executive Director of Technology Coleen Kosloski have likewise been critical to getting DigME off the ground, says Lewis.

DigME also helps students realize that college attendance is possible. In October students visited campus and attended seminars related to digital media in the classroom, in the arts, and in the workplace. The visit helped fulfill the University’s commitment to connecting with diverse potential students, as well as Minneapolis Public Schools’ goal to prepare every student for college.

In addition to Lewis’s ongoing work, Rick Beach, Aaron Doering, and Cassie Scharber from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Shayla Thiel-Stern from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, along with doctoral students Jessica Dockter and Candance Doerr, have offered ongoing professional development.

“[University of Minnesota faculty and students] have been absolutely a huge part from the ground level,” says Haug. “If we need something we can call them, and they’ll help us find it, or they’ll come in and help us hash things out.”

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Legislative challenges in 2009

BY RICHARD WASSEN

THE 2009 SESSION is hardly business as usual for the Minnesota State Legislature. The severe state budget deficit and uncertainties related to the federal stimulus create major challenges for legislators. Targets are moving, and the complexity of the task is increasing. Predictions of the need for a special session—beyond the scheduled adjournment of May 18—are growing given these challenges and the different approaches of our executive and legislative branches.

The potential impact on our college from policies related to K–12 and higher education, as well as human services, require us to be involved. We do this by communicating the value of the work we do in education and human development disciplines.

Our efforts seem to be paying off for legislators who frequently use research in their decision-making. (The chair of a legislative committee referred to a college faculty member as a “treasure” after his testimony during a public hearing.) This presence has also improved recognition of the college’s value.

To date in the 2009 session, faculty and staff have testified at legislative hearings or participated in work groups on topics including:

• school accountability
• struggling readers
• revising the state assessment system
• finding ways for schools to share services
• improving college readiness for high school students
• expanding early childhood education
• improving the effectiveness of teaching
• linking social services to schools
• creating new opportunities for learning in science, math, and technology
• articulating the value of school counseling
• solving educational disparities
• addressing the problem of childhood obesity
• reforming school finance

A grassroots group of community stakeholders is advocating with legislators for a research center in the college that would provide even greater access to faculty/staff expertise. The college is promoting an interdisciplinary institute to meet this need. Many policy issues cross disciplines, and linking them through a shared research center will assist decision makers in addressing complex challenges in education and human development.

As the session progresses, the college’s Office of Research and Policy will continue to articulate the value and needs of the college, where appropriate, and to advocate for the use of our research and expertise. Friends and alumni may wish to contact their legislators to express their support for the college and the University. Legislative information is available at: www.leg.state.mn.us. Contact Richard Wassen, r-wass@umn.edu, external relations liaison in the Office of Research and Policy, with any questions about the college’s interaction with policymakers.

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Changing Landscapes

Changing Landscapes, sponsored by the Institute on Community Integration, features a revolving display of artwork by visiting artists with disabilities. The current exhibit by artists from Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts will be on display in Pattee Hall through the end of April. Look for a new exhibit by VSA Arts of Minnesota later this spring. Details at can be found at the Institute on Community Integration Website.
For a slideshow of some of the other artwork, click here

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Forum blends reading research with policy

ON ONE OF THE COLDEST DAYS IN JANUARY, a group of about 100 hearty representatives from Minnesota’s K–12, policymaking, and University communities gathered for the third CEHD Policy Breakfast, which covered the topic of reading, teaching, and learning. Cathy Roller (Ph.D. ’79), director of research and policy at the International Reading Association, provided the keynote address, Reading as a Gateway: Success in Work and Postsecondary Readiness. For a Minnesota perspective, Deborah Dillon, Guy Bond Chair in Reading and a co-organizer of the breakfast, presented reading research and initiatives in the state.

Roller, who is one of the college’s 100 Distinguished Alumni, focused on the necessity of informing policy with research to help define outcomes and ensure success. However, she cautioned that research must be structured correctly and coordinated or else proven approaches won’t work. To illustrate her point, Roller reviewed the findings of a number of recent large-scale interventions that each had their upsides but suffered from inconsistencies in implementation and results.

“You can know what needs to be done; you can try to do it, but it really comes down to what the teacher does in the classroom,” Roller said, emphasizing the importance of professional development.

Roller also cautioned against looking for one solution for all readers. Coaching was shown to be effective with average level and upper level readers, for instance, but did not have an impact on the lowest performing students, she said. “This is a warning,” Roller said. “An intervention can only do what an intervention can do.” Some students need additional support, such as one-on-one tutoring, she added.

Finally, Roller reviewed two separate studies on teacher preparation, including findings that explicit teaching at the university level translates directly to classroom practice. She emphasized the need for early and ongoing practicums tied directly to reading. Giving future educators direct experience with how children learn can have a powerful effect, she explained.

Dillon’s presentation reinforced Roller’s conclusions about teacher preparation. She reviewed work happening across Minnesota in regards to reading research and teaching and learning, including the Minnesota Reading Teacher Standards recommended by the Board of Teaching Task Force, workshops for higher education, and professional development in the K–12 community.

She and Roller then joined other reading experts from across the college—Lori Helman (curriculum and instruction), Jeanne Higbee (postsecondary teaching and learning), David O’Brien (curriculum and instruction), Kristen McMaster (educational psychology), and Ross Moen (Institute on Community Integration)—to respond to questions. Deb Peterson, acting co-director of the Minnesota Center for Reading Research and co-organizer of the breakfast, served as moderator. Topics included effective approaches in other states, dedicated reading coaches, professional development, and the role of diversity in teaching standards.

The Policy Breakfast Series, sponsored by the CEHD Office for Research and Policy, focuses on data and new knowledge derived from research to inform policy in education and human service. Full audio of the January breakfast and copies of Roller and Dillon’s presentations are available online at the CEHD Website.

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Deno tops AERA research

AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED in 1984 by educational psychology professor Stan Deno, co-authored with former students Lynn Fuchs and Phyllis Mirkin, is the most frequently cited article in the field of educational research in more than 50 years, according to the American Educational Research Association. Deno’s article, “The Effects of Frequent Curriculum-Based Measurement and Evaluation on Pedagogy, Student Achievement, and Student Awareness of Learning,” is considered seminal in the field of special education.

Curriculum-based measurement provides those who teach children with learning disabilities with a simple set of evaluation procedures that allow them to track a child’s academic progress. Research and testing have shown this approach to be among the most reliable tools for accurate measurement and evaluation of academic development, both to compare students to one another and to chart individual student progress. Curriculum-based measurement enjoys support from the U.S. Department of Education and has been the measurement and assessment tool of choice in numerous federally funded studies.

A detailed description of this research was featured in the college’s publication ResearchWorks, most recently updated in 2005 and archived online.

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