Developmental and Educational Psychology

Developmental and Educational Psychology Research Team
Research Team 13
Supervised by Judith Pena-Shaff
Office: 119-D Williams

This research team focuses on issues related to human development and learning. Projects involve both qualitative and quantitative research to study human development and learning and to evaluate educational programs. Most of our research projects are community-based. Students in our team work at different stages of the research process to provide local organizations with valuable information to assess the quality of their program.  Students in our team attend different student and professional conferences (EPA, ECSC, American Evaluation Association Annual conference) and present to the boards of the local organizations we work with.

An advantage of conducting program evaluation research is that it provides our team members with an excellent experiential learning opportunity to apply what they have learned in their research methods classes and other classes in assessing the effectiveness of a community program or a business, which are skills you will use in many different settings, not only in academia or a research lab.  However, this type of experience is also time-consuming and demanding (as well as very gratifying).  Be mindful, when you enter our team, you are in a work atmosphere, not a college class.

Past projects include the evaluation of several after school programs, big-scale surveys in high schools and middle schools to gather students' perceptions of school climate and disciplinary practices; evaluation of financial education programs, and evaluation of youth employment programs for at-risk students, among others.

For the academic year 2012-13 we are conducting an evaluation of the Extended Day Program Academic Plus at Beverly J. Martin Elementary school.

This team is great for students interested in a career in early childhood education, special education, school psychology, social work, or related area.

To learn more, click on the name of this research team (above).