November 2003 Faculty and Staff Spotlights
School of Education Office
Bonnie L. Taylor is the new development officer for the David O. McKay School of Education. She graduated from Brigham Young University in Humanities and went on to receive a Master of Social Work degree at the National Catholic School of Social Service in Washington, D.C. Her emphasis was children and adolescents, which included a one year internship in the Fairfax County Public School District. Her interest, however, is in fundraising. She worked at The Catholic University of America for nine years prior to coming to work for the LDS Foundation. She has spent the last two and one-half years in the BYU Annual Giving Office and is thrilled to be a part of the David O. McKay School of Education. Bonnie looks forward to increasing the number of scholarships and student learning mentorship opportunities, and to advance other priorities to strengthen the David O. McKay School of Education.
Counseling Psychology and Special Education
Tina Taylor Dyches and other members of a multi-disciplinary research team at BYU found that siblings of children with disabilities exhibit more self-control and cooperativeness than peers who do not have a disabled sibling. The research encompassed parent and teacher evaluations of the children of 78 families, half of whom had a child with a cognitive, developmental or compound disability. The article in the Y News has more details.
October 2003 Faculty Spotlights
Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
In collaboration with the Department of Communications and the Department of Music, Drs. Shawn Nissen and Christopher Dromey have analyzed the vocal characteristics of broadcasters and singers. For example, they have measured the effectiveness of the vocal techniques taught over a semester in advanced singing classes.
Counseling Psychology and Special Education
Dr. Tina Dyches and Dr. Lynn Wilder have recently conducted numerous studies examining the effectiveness of behavioral training programs. Drs. Dyches and Wilder have also examined in other studies the impact of a disability on family relationships.
Education Leadership and Foundations
Several faculty members have engaged in large-scale research projects analyzing the impact of school location and social demographics on the distribution of resources and student performance. For example, Dr. Buddy Richards and Dr. Julie Hite used visual mapping techniques to examine these issues in the United States, while Dr. Steven Hite used GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology on similar projects in Uganda and Nepal.
Instructional Psychology and Technology
Dr. J. Olin Campbell has studied the return on investment (ROI) of distance learning, particularly for asynchronous learning systems, where learners collaborate through electronic media without needing to be online at the same time.
Teacher Education
As part of a larger departmental focus on improving teacher capabilities by researching the effectiveness of specific instructional programs, Drs. Janet Young and Robert Bullough have refined mechanisms for evaluating teacher effectiveness.
