Showcasing Research in the School of Education With generous support from the IU School of Education's (SOE) Dean's Office, the Office of Research and Development hosts the Research Colloquium. Throughout the academic year, the Research Colloquium features different SOE faculty and highlights their outstanding research. Faculty and students are encouraged to attend the events and participate in our learning community. _________________________________________________________________________________________________   Joel Wong Assistant Professor Department of Counseling & Educational Psychology Walking From Darkness: Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Asian Americans’ Suicidal Behavior Monday, November 16,  2009 3:30 - 4:30 Education Building Room 2140 (at IUPUI, room 3138B)   Research on risk and protective factors associated with suicidal behavior in the United States has focused largely on European Americans rather than on racial and ethnic minority groups. Specifically, there is a paucity of research on Asian Americans’ suicidal behavior. In this colloquium, I present on my research program on Asian Americans’ suicidal behavior. The theoretical basis of my research is grounded in Joiner’s (2005) interpersonal theory of suicide, which is based on the premise that suicide desire is engendered by the thwarting of one’s basic interpersonal needs. I argue that the theory’s focus on unmet interpersonal needs is particularly congruent with Asian cultural beliefs that suicidal behavior is primarily a response to socially stressful situations. Next, I present my findings from two large-scale national studies on Asian Americans’ suicidal behavior. Finally, I conclude with future directions for my research on Asian Americans’ suicidal behavior, focusing in particular on adolescent and geriatric populations.

Meredith Park Rogers Assistant Professor of Science Education Department of Curriculum and Instruction Considering the Development of Science Teacher Knowledge Through Research AND Teaching Wednesday, October 28, 2009 3:30 - 4:30 Education Building Room 2140 (at IUPUI, room 3138E) Shulman (1986) proposed that teachers have a specialized knowledge for teaching that distinguishes them from subject matter specialists. This notion, referred to in the literature as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), is the knowledge developed by teachers to help others learn. Teachers build PCK as they teach specific topics to students at particular grade levels. “PCK is influenced by the transformation of three other knowledge bases: subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and knowledge of the context “ (Abell, 2007, p. 1107). The focus of my research is exploring how this transformation occurs, and for pre-service teachers mainly, what experiences are needed to scaffold the beginning of this transformation process.  As a science teacher educator my research and teaching interests intersect at this concept of PCK for teaching science. In this presentation, I will share an overview of a few small PCK oriented research studies I have conducted (or am still conducting) and will discuss the influence these have had on my teaching. The objective of my talk will be to engage the audience in a discussion on a) the implications of these studies with understanding how to better prepare beginning elementary teachers to teach science, and b) to explore the relationship between research and teaching with regards to developing our own PCK for teaching teachers.