Groundbreaking Israeli Scholar Visits Bottge ’ s Institute of Education Sciences Grant Team
Dr . Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija , the first Israeli Arab woman to be appointed an associate professor at an Israeli research university , spent the day recently with Dr . Brian Bottge and his Institute of Education Sciences grant team in the Department of Early Childhood , Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling at the UK College of Education .
Nasser-Abu Alhija is a professor in the Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University , where she heads the Center for Advancement of Teaching . Accompanying Nasser-Abu Alhija was her husband , Adnan Abu Alhija , and Drs . Allan Cohen and Hye-Jeong Choi from the University of Georgia . Cohen and Choi are coprincipal investigators on Bottge ’ s four-year , $ 1.6 million grant from the National Center for Special Education Research ( NCSER ) to develop more sophisticated measurement tools for assessing the conceptual understanding and procedural skills of students with disabilities in math . NCSER is one of four centers within the Institute of Education Sciences , which serves as the research arm of the U . S . Department of Education .
The Israeli visitors had read about Enhanced Anchored Instruction , and they came to UK to learn more about it .
“ The work being done here is remarkable , and the results so far are very promising , not only in terms of the mathematics achievement but also in terms of the students ’ attitudes towards learning mathematics , their self-efficacy regarding doing mathematics , and their motivation to be engaged in mathematics learning ,” Nasser-Abu Alhija said after seeing several of the EAI units . “ Definitely the EAI ( enhanced anchored instruction ) units could be used in Israel after making some changes so they align with the Israeli contexts .”
Bottge ’ s UK grant team also displayed the new math assessments developed for the Institute of Education Sciences grant and discussed the research designs for evaluating them .
Cohen , professor of educational psychology in the quantitative methods program and director of the Georgia Center for Assessment , praised the work on the new assessments as being “ truly impressive .”
Cohen also noted that “ the use of the iPad makes these assessments more accessible to students who have difficulty in math . They have been developed to get at underlying cognitive processes of students so they can show us what they really understand about math concepts . Aligning what and how students learn in class to what and how assessments measure is very important . This information is sure to help teachers get a more accurate picture of their students ’ math skills .”
Nasser-Abu Alhija was a high school math teacher in Tira , Israel , prior to completing her Ph . D . in educational
First row : Megan Jones ( research assistant ); Second row : Dr . Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija ( Tel Aviv University ), Adnan Abu Alhija , Meg Gravil ( research assistant ); Third row : Dr . Hye-Jeong Choi ( co-principal investigator , University of Georgia ), Dr . Linda Gassaway ( project manager ); Fourth row : Dr . Allan Cohen ( co-principal investigator , University of Georgia ), Dr . Brian Bottge ( principal investigator ), Dr . Xin Ma ( co-principal investigator ); ( not pictured ) Enrique Rueda
psychology at the University of Georgia . During her studies at UGA , she was the research coordinator for the GRE testing program at the Educational Testing Service . She became the first Israeli Arab woman appointed to an Israeli research university in 2010 , about 30 years after she began her teaching career .
The UK grant team consists of Dr . Brian Bottge ( principal investigator ), Dr . Xin Ma ( co-principal investigator ), Dr . Linda Gassaway ( project manager ), Mr . Enrique Rueda ( multimedia artist ), and Ms . Meg Gravil and Ms . Megan Jones ( research assistants ).
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