CYFS features Pianta presentation Feb. 26

11 Feb 2013    

The University of Virginia’s Robert Pianta, a nationally recognized scholar in early childhood and K-12 education, will address research on the improvement of teacher-child interactions in the classroom during a Feb. 26 visit to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A featured presentation of The Helen Kelley Symposium for Excellence in Education, “Elevating the Capacity of Classroom Experiences for Promoting Children’s Learning and Development: Observation and Improvement of Teacher-Child Interactions” will take place from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Great Plains Room of the Nebraska East Union.

Pianta, dean of UVa’s Curry School of Education, will describe results from more than a decade of research on the measurement and improvement of teacher-child interactions. In addition to covering the technical aspects of measuring and coding them, the presentation will address the process of developing and evaluating professional development tools for fostering more effective interactions. Pianta will pay particular attention to the mechanisms underlying the impacts of these tools, along with their implications for scale, policy and teacher preparation.

Following the presentation, a set of four spotlight sessions will enable attendees to discuss specific applications and facets of Pianta’s research. Pianta will alternately join each of these concurrent sessions, which run from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. and include lunch. Because seating for these roundtables is limited, those interested in participating should see the attached document to register for one of the four sessions by Feb. 18. The presentation itself requires no registration.

The Helen Kelley Symposium is coordinated by the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies at UNL’s College of Education and Human Sciences. Pianta’s talk is presented in conjunction with UNL’s Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.

A video of Pianta’s presentation will appear on the CYFS web site by mid-March.