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Education
Wanted: Doctors for Africa
Education
By: Elizabeth Gehrman/
October 28, 2009
Harvard President Drew Faust hosts students from African countries to solicit their input and advice in advance of her November trip to South Africa and Botswana.
A lecture series at the Harvard Graduate School of Education explores the benefits of learning through entertainment. This most recent lecture featured Neal Baer, Ed.M.’79, A.M. '82, M.D. '96, executive producer of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” a network television crime drama.
New degree aims to transform American education
A new doctoral degree based at Harvard Graduate School of Education aims to train a corps of education leaders to enact system-level change and transform K-12 education in America.
Harvard joins in support for open-access publication
Five of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning — Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley—announced their joint commitment to a compact for open-access publication.
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In an interview, HGSE Lecturer Joe Blatt, Ed.M. ’77, director of the Technology, Innovation, and Education program, shares his thoughts on the amazing success of “Sesame Street” and its impact on education — and on the Ed School.
Bringing science back to Liberian classrooms
Adam Cohen, assistant professor in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Ben Rapoport, a student at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are bringing science to war-torn Liberia.
Despite years of study, schools’ success matter of contention
There wasn’t an empty seat in Askwith Hall Wednesday night (April 1) as students, educators, and researchers crowded in to hear “Informing the Debate: A Panel Discussion on Boston’s Charter, Pilot, and Traditional Schools,” sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the Rappaport Institute, and the Center for Education Policy Research.
International Education Program fetes 10th anniversary
A politician intends to revolutionize the educational system in Kenya. A husband-and-wife team offers professional development to teachers to reduce social violence, develop civic competencies, and help eradicate poverty in Mexico. A student hopes to work on international educational reform.
Playwright plumbs texts, ancient and modern
You know Noh, no? Chiori Miyagawa does. The Bard College playwright-in-residence, a Radcliffe Fellow this year, has steeped herself in Noh theater, a measured style of Japanese drama that dates back to the 14th century. It’s one of the many literary echoes — some old, some ancient — that she brings to her work. “I often time travel,” Miyagawa told a lecture audience March 16 at the Radcliffe Gymnasium. “It’s my favorite thing to do as a playwright.”
Picture this, and you will begin to understand
It has been almost 20 years since photographer Felice Frankel started working with scientists by helping them illustrate the intricate geometries of physical worlds too tiny to see. From the beginning, she was struck by one thing: To explain their ideas, scientists always start by drawing them. That gave Frankel an idea — “Picturing to Learn,” a project that requires students to draw basic concepts so that a senior in high school might understand them. Why is the sky blue? What do ions do?
An attempt to define ‘academic excellence’
Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and professor of sociology and of African and African American studies, analyzes the system of peer review in her new book “How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment.”
Group looks for creative ways to understand creativity
What is creativity? Does it depend on more than that red wheelbarrow that William Carlos Williams saw? Is creativity a creature of neuron bundles, brain size, daydreaming? Is it the capacity for metaphor or divergent thinking?
Harvard, ETS to study diversity at predominantly white colleges
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, has announced a collaboration with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) on a study of the experience of undergraduate members of racial and ethnic minorities on predominantly white college campuses.
HMS, HSPH Professor Kim named Dartmouth president
Jim Yong Kim, tireless advocate for bringing Western standards of health care to the world’s poor and a professor of medicine and of public health at Harvard, has been named the 17th president of Dartmouth College.
Teach For America’s Kopp describes what works, what will work
The woman who created a national teaching movement out of her college thesis was on campus last week to advocate for broader support for public education. Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach For America (TFA) addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Askwith Forum at Longfellow Hall on Nov. 3. Many in the audience were education administrators, teachers, and students.
Chall Lecture focuses on the future of literacy achievement gap
Research shows that there have been positive trends in literacy achievement in the past 25 years. These gains, however, have not included a significant closing of the gaps between racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, a fact that represents a serious issue in education today.
Princess Zahra outlines the work of Aga Khan Development Network
Princess Zahra Aga Khan ’94 came home to Harvard this week (May 13) to present a hopeful vision of what education in the developing world can be like.
Excellence in teaching is recognized
Allan M. Brandt acknowledged the pedagogical achievements of Harvard’s graduate students, as well as preceptors, lecturers, and undergraduate course assistants at the biannual Teaching Excellence Awards Reception last Thursday (April 24).
Cronin takes long view of Boston schools, from busing to the MCAS
Joseph Cronin ’56, MAT ’57, came to Harvard on April 16 to examine the Boston Public Schools system’s struggles and successes over the past 76 years, detailed in his new book, “Reforming Boston Schools, 1930-2006: Overcoming Corruption and Racial Segregation” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Geoffrey Canada — author, educator, psychologist, motivator, poet, black belt, sometime comedian, and founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone — spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of about 300 in the packed Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall last week (March 12).
Provost’s Fund for technology seeks proposals
The Office of the Provost makes funds available to faculty for University projects that promise to alter and improve teaching and learning through the use of technology. The Provost’s Instructional Technology Fund is made up of two funds: the Innovation Fund and the Content Fund. The Innovation Fund is for large-scale projects that propose to introduce a novel approach to teaching and learning using information technology. The Content Fund is aimed toward creating online content for educational purposes.
Late in January, a delegation from Chile visited Harvard to discuss “Un Buen Comienzo” (“A Good Start”), an early childhood education program undertaken in 2006 by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), with the Chilean Ministries of Education and Health and other local institutions that impart preschool education. The pilot project and its evaluation, sponsored by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Centro de Estudios Educar, the World Bank, and Unicef, grew out of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's stated commitment to make early childhood a priority in her administration.
The importance of early education
Forty-six years ago, a working-class town in Michigan began a program that changed lives. “Mind-blowing,” one scholar called it at Harvard last week.
Sanders Theatre features talk on building schools for peaceful world
In the remote and mountainous Baltistan region of Pakistan, the beverage of choice is paiyu cha, a mixture of green tea, salt, baking soda, goat’s milk, and a rancid yak butter called mar.
Multimedia Features
Congo: Panzi-HHI partnership
Harvard's partnership with a Congolese hospital seeks to understand the causes of the violence against women that hangs like a toxic cloud over a huge swath of this enormous country in Africa’s midsection.
Video
2:56 run time
November 15, 2007
Slideshow / Nov 4, '08
South Africa: Edendale Hospital
Video / Apr 17, '08
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Doctor of Laws
Video / Dec 1, '08
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