Hi everyone.
My name is Tiago and I'm from the University of Porto, Portugal.
More than two months have passed since I arrived in Nashville.
This international experience provided by the GEDS student exchange program has been very rich and productive.
I was warmly received by the staff of the Peabody Research Institute (PRI) at Vanderbilt University. These two months were very intensive, with lots of learning opportunities. I'm attending two courses: “The Social Context of Education” and “Practical Meta-Analysis”.
Fig.1: Peabody Campus
The first one is focused on exploring contemporary social, philosophical, and political dimensions of education, including issues related to democracy and diversity, equity and school organization, and the ecology of schooling. The second one, “Practical Meta-Analysis”, presents the major steps involved in conducting a meta-analysis, with particular emphasis on the technical issues and statistical analyses distinctive to this form of research.
Besides these two courses, I'm engaged in many other activities such as attending lectures, short term courses, statistical analysis training and panel discussions focused on early intervention topics. I’m also exploring one of PRI’s data bases in order to publish a paper focused on my research field: Peer relations in early childhood.
There are always a lot of academic events going on at the Peabody College, which is the school of education and human development at Vanderbilt. Recently I had the pleasure to attend a very interesting conference with Steve Barnett, Ron Haskins and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, which the main goal was to discuss evidence about the sustainability of the effect from early intervention on later development and academic adjustment. This conference was very appropriate, considering the current public debate in the United States focusing upon early childhood education. This public debate emerged from the State of the Union speech in which the President, Barack Obama has proposed "working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America...". For those who are interested, this conference can be entirely seen on the internet, using the following link:
Besides all the intense academic life I still have some time for great cultural experiences. For a music lover like me, Nashville is a very special city. It is no coincidence that it is called the Music City. I had the opportunity to attend some excellent musical events. The next one will be this Friday. Chick Corea and Béla Fleck on the same stage - It couldn't be better...
In summary so far my stay in Nashville has been excellent.
I intend to keep updating this blog with some of my experiences in USA.
Best regards
Tiago Ferreira
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