Inside Vanderbilt

Hi, everybody!

Now that I am completely settled in this side of the Atlantic, I will provide you some information about my classes. First, a brief note on their physical features. Classrooms are very warm and comfortable. All seats are padded, the floor is carpeted and there are Macs everywhere! Regarding the courses, I am attending four completely different courses: Social and Philosophical Aspects of Education, Introduction to Single-Subject Research Methodology, Research Group: Approaches to Fostering Language Learning, and Academic Writing.

In the Social and Philosophical Aspects of Education we are exploring social, historical, contemporary, and philosophical issues and perspectives around public education in US. This course demands us a lot of critical thinking about education-related issues such as goals of education, teacher professionalism, school reform, educational policy, and students’ diversity. In the last two classes we had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with school Principals.

The Single-Subject course is focused on the use of single subject research methodology within Special Education. Among others, some of its topics are: single-subject research methods foundations and rationale; threats to internal validity and methods for detecting, minimizing, and controlling them; measurement of social validity; requirements, advantages, uses, and limitations of single subject designs; writing introduction, method, and data analysis procedures for single subject studies. As I have a big interest in research methods this course is one of my favorites!

The Research Group is a very small class with 8 doctoral students. During the semester each student will make a presentation about some issue related to its doctoral project. Moreover, we will also discuss some important issues research-related. For instance, last week we analyzed several conferences related to literacy. We compared their missions, coverage, session’s format, and proposal requirements. Additionally, those who had already attended one of the conferences also presented its personal experience.

Finally, I am also attending an Academic Writing course to improve my writing skills. We have been doing several interesting exercises to enhance our writing accuracy and clarity when writing scientific papers. This course is totally individualized. It is very focused on each student needs and goals within his/her research field. Whenever I can, I also attend some interesting journal clubs and conferences. VU provides its students several opportunities to learn new things and meet new people!

On weekends, I try to do some cultural activities. Last weekend, I went to the inaugural parade of the Tennessee's 49^th Governor, Bill Haslam. See here a little piece of it. Besides the freezing weather, it was awesome! We have no things like this in Portugal. Tomorrow I am going to Graceland. If you are an Elvis fan, please do not desperate. I will tell you everything in a few days!

First week at the Vanderbilt University

Hi, everybody!

My name is Teresa Limpo and I am a PhD student at the University of Porto. I am also a GEDS fellow and for the next four months I will tell you everything about my exchange experience at the Vanderbilt University. For those who are not familiar with it, GEDS is a transatlantic consortium on early childhood intervention. This international cooperation between EU and US allows graduate students to study in a partner university during one semester. I am very pleased to be one of those privileged students.

Vanderbilt University (hereafter VU) is located in Nashville (State of Tennessee). It was founded on 1873 thanks to Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt who provided its initial $1 million funding. Today, VU is a private research university that comprises 10 schools. You can check some quick facts about it here.

I am in Nashville since January 6 and a lot of things have already happened! I have not got the time to go to the downtown, but as soon as I go there I will give you a personalized description of it. For curious readers, please click here. Besides I don’t know the city, I am starting to know pretty well the campus. I am studying at the Peabody College of Education & Human Development – Teaching and Learning Department. During this week I woke up very early (jet lag was a great help!) and walked through the snow to the Wyatt Center – Peabody Research Institute. This is a beautiful building with enormous Corinthian columns (see below) and comfortable carpets. My first thought when I entered in it was: in a place like this, who doesn’t want to go to work?

Don’t miss the next newsletter. I will talk about my first experiences inside Vanderbilt classrooms!