Four HDFS graduate students received the Ph.D. degree and two received the Master’s at the May 2012 Graduate School Commencement at Texas Tech. The above slideshow depicts the degree recipients and, for the Ph.D. students, their faculty advisors who “hooded” them. Photos were not available at present for one Master’s recipient, Gwen Gerber. Captions for the rotating photos, in order following the two general arena shots, are listed below:
Kristina Keyton, with her dissertation chair Alan Reifman, sits in the preliminary staging area before entering the arena floor. Later, as shown on the scoreboard, Kristina is hooded by Professor Reifman.
Professor Nancy Bell (center) sits with two of her Ph.D. students, Danielle SoRelle (left) and Karen Aranha (right). Danielle’s hooding is also shown.
Tina Brooks (right) sits with her dissertation chair, Dr. Malinda Colwell.
Xiaohui Tang (left), who received her Master’s, poses after the ceremony with Kristina and Dr. Reifman.
Back in April, three HDFS students participated in Texas Tech’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference, presenting studies they had conducted. Here are brief summaries of the papers, quoting from the abstracts (*faculty mentor, ^graduate-student collaborator).
Links Between Parent-Child Relationship and Teachers’ Perception of Child Behavior
La’ Toya Broughton, Francisco Debaran^, & Sybil Hart*
This research examined the “link between parents-child relationship and teachers’ perception of child behavior to language ability … among children of low socioeconomic status.”
Developing Effective Community Partnerships
Matthew Carroll & Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo*
This project involves a “research approach to examine community needs and youth adjustment behaviors among several counties in West Texas … to assist a community-based program better serve their population.”
Sexual Abuse Characteristics and Their Relationship to Age and Closeness to the Perpetrator
Jeffrey Wherry* & Kristin Tovar
This project “sought to understand the severity and total sexual abuse experience in relationship to the closeness of the relationship with the perpetrator and with the age of the child.”
Current and prospective HDFS undergraduates interested in possibly conducting research are invited to view this information from TTU’s Center for Undergraduate Research.
Jackie Wiersma, who received her Ph.D. with us in 2008 and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Penn State before joining the faculty of the University of Arkansas in 2010, is making news in her (relatively) new job. She was just featured in the school’s Research Frontiers, as shown in the screen capture above. As discussed in the article, which can be accessed here, Jackie studies the role of alcohol use/misuse in mate selection and relationship functioning. Interpersonal violence is also a related research interest of hers. Further information on Jackie’s research can be gleaned from her online vita.
HDFS graduate students continue to excel in both research and teaching, garnering university-level recognition for their talents.
The Texas Tech Graduate School held its 11th annual Graduate Student Research Poster Competition the week of March 26-30. In the category “Human Sciences 1,” Satabdi Samtani won first place for her study “Perceptions and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS among Citizens in Kolkata.” (Kolkata is a city in India, known also as Calcutta.)
HDFS Ph.D. student Jennifer Rojas-McWhinney is featured in a rotating photo montage on the Graduate School website, depicting students’ research interests. Here is a screen-capture.
1. Snow-capped mountains in the background, Vancouver, Canada hosted this year’s biennial conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence.
2. Representing our department were (from left to right) graduate student Paulina Velez-Gomez, and faculty members Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo and Alan Reifman.
3. Dr. Trejos and Paulina, with collaborating Colombian scholar Diego Restrepo, standing by their poster, “Examining Depression and Neighborhood Violence Using a Mixed Method Approach: Children and Early Adolescents in Medellin-Colombia.”
4. Dr. Reifman stands by poster for research he did with grad student Tim Oblad (not in attendance), titled “Support or Developmental Hindrance? College Students’ and Parents’ Views of Parental Involvement in School-Related Matters. “
5. No photo essay on Vancouver would be complete without a shot of the Canucks’ hockey arena.
The next SRA conference, in 2014, will be held relatively close to Texas Tech, in Austin, Texas.
Wendy Watson, a 2006 Ph.D. recipient from our program, and Charlie Stelle, a former faculty member with us, had their research on older persons’ use of online dating services cited in the Toronto Sun. The two currently are faculty members at Bowling Green State University in Ohio (original source: NCFMR February 2012 newsletter).
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Lenae Moore writes in that, after graduating in 2000 with a Family Studies B.S. here at Texas Tech, she then received an M.A. in counseling in 2004 from Denver Seminary. Says Lenae, “I currently work for the Dallas Co. probation department as a substance abuse counselor and see clients at a private practice on the side. Somehow I developed a specialty in teenagers and ex-offenders!”
Balancing and Integrating Teaching and Research Responsibilities: Motivating Graduate Students to Apply Productive Strategies
Monday, February 27, 2012 3:00-4:00 PM Student Union Building
Dr. Elizabeth Sharp and Ms. Rachel R. Engler, Texas Tech University
Perceived conflicting demands can create divided identities, exacerbating the misconception that teaching and research are mutually exclusive. The scholarship of teaching helps remind professionals that a coherent teaching-scholar identity is possible and mentors can have a lasting impact in terms of motivating graduate students to work towards such integration. Drawing on the larger literature informing best practices for new faculty, this workshop will address issues specific to graduate student instructors, offering perspectives from both a faculty mentor as well as graduate student instructors. Empirical, evidence-based solutions will be discussed and modified in ways that specifically address unique challenges faced by graduate students, and practical tips for striking a productive balance will be shared. Interactive elements of the workshop will include the creation of “Time Logs” and “Goal Charts,” emphasizing the importance of developing a solid and specific plan-of-action.
Incorporating current events into one’s teaching can be a good way to capture students’ interest and increase their understanding of course concepts. In late December 2011, a few weeks before the current Spring 2012 semester would be starting at Texas Tech, the YouTube video below went “viral,” garnering extensive media coverage.
The video presents a four-year-old girl from New York State in a toy store, critiquing how young girls are expected to like playing with “princesses” and boys, with “superheroes.”
HDFS associate chair Alan Reifman saw the video on TV and passed along the YouTube link to the four people who would be teaching the sophomore-level course HDFS 2300 “Gender Development: Life Span Perspectives” in Spring. Reifman suggested to these instructors — lecturers Lynda McBride, Ph.D., and Ronda Eade, Ph.D., and doctoral students Erika Brooks and Jennifer Rojas-McWhinney — that playing the video to their classes on the first day might be a good way to generate discussion on the development of gender stereotypes or expectations.
All of the instructors played the video, either on the first day or a later day, if they already had other activities to launch their classes. Now is a good point to view the video, by clicking on the play button of the following image. Below the video image, we’ll see from the four instructors how their students reacted.
One instructor, who played the video at the end of the second meeting of the class, described the proceedings as follows:
I gave students an introduction to gender development… As the students watched the video some of them laughed. Once the video was over we briefly discussed what they saw. I explained to the students that gender messages are everywhere and that young children pick up on these messages. This in turn shapes their development and outlook on behavior (their own and others’). As I explained this to the students they nodded their heads in agreement indicating they understood what I was saying.
Laughter apparently was a common reaction among students. According to another instructor:
It was received with a lot of laughter initially, but led into great discussion. The class discussed how the pink/blue and princess/superhero ideals [the girl in the video] was talking about carry forth from childhood. While as adults, it is not princess and superheros, it is still a constant challenge to meet the “gender goals” in society. Females having children and males the appropriate career, etc., were points of discussion
In a third instructor’s class, the students seemed resistant (outwardly, at least) to the idea of social forces (e.g., advertising) affecting their behavior:
My students insist that their families allowed them to make their own toy choices and that they themselves were not affected by advertising. This is why we teach Gender Development to prompt them to think. It does take the entire semester to encourage them to look at the effects of socialization.
Finally, one instructor found the video to elicit the usual laughter, but apparently because the first class period was largely used to introduce the course, not as much discussion ensued:
I showed the clip in the first day of class and the students laughed and thought that the little girl was quite articulate. It was the first day so the class were still warming up so they did not talk very much.
The video only takes a little over one minute, so it should be easy for instructors to use in class. It seems like a very reasonable investment for some potentially rich class discussion!
