College of Education Health and Human Services
College of Education, Health and Human Services
Dr. Angela Ridgel, an associate professor of exercise science and physiology, and Joan Meggitt, an associate professor of dance, conducted a joint research project, "Optimizing dance interventions for people with Parkinson’s disease and healthy older adults”. Read more on Record-Courier.
Division of Research & Sponsored Programs
To infinity and beyond seems to be the goal for a dedicated faculty member committed to providing the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students with the resources and knowledge to lay the foundation for their future accomplishments within the field.
Joanne Caniglia, Ph.D, professor in the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies, recently received funding from the NASA Glenn Research Center, an institute located in Cleveland, to provide k-12 students with an immersive and educational experience focused on critical thinking, observation and innovation within the field of science and engineering.
The grant will be used to create activities that can be done remotely or independently by students. These activities include the creation of spaceship prototypes and parachutes and allows for each participant to be supplied with the necessary materials and directions to take part in the program.
“It’s important that these students be engaged and interested in what they are doing, so we make it as fun and creative as possible,” Caniglia said. “There is so much unlocked potential when we tap into a student's imagination through the activities.”
COVID-19 has unquestionably affected the way children receive their education, making Caniglia’s efforts particularly timely and important. “The remote environment has really put a damper on the collaboration between students and teachers,” Caniglia said. “Some districts that are unable to meet face to face really lose an important part of learning.”
Caniglia explained how similar programs assist school districts forced to do remote learning and encourage cognitive development in a fun and interactive way. Students are encouraged to report their findings and keep a log of observations.
This remote workshop takes place every other Saturday and encourages creativity and critical thinking for students involved in Proyecto Raices and the King Kennedy Center, two organizations in Northeast Ohio.
Proyecto Raices
This organization is currently providing around 30 to 40 children and families of Latino backgrounds with academic and social support within Summit County while celebrating their ethnicity and incorporating culture into the community.
King Kennedy Center
This organization currently provides around 40 to 50 children and families with opportunities and resources for cultural, educational, and social development. The King Kennedy Center is located in Ravenna and helps nearly 100,000 people each year with its services.
“The main priority will always be focused on the children's culture and ethnic background,” Caniglia said. “Diversity within the STEM field is something NASA is very much committed to.”
Learn more about the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies.
Kent Campus
Seventy-year-old Rudd (Ted) Bare II has the surprise of a lifetime planned for his children on Aug. 18, 2018.
On that day, Mr. Bare will don a cap and gown and walk across the stage at Kent State University’s Summer Commencement to accept his Bachelor of Science degree, completing the college studies that he began here 50 years ago.
“My wife (Linda) and I have kept this a surprise for our children,” says the elder Mr. Bare, who attended Kent State from September 1966 to May 1972. “I told them that they are going to see their Mom get an award. I am heartbroken that my son can’t attend.”
The elder Mr. Bare of Bath attended Kent State from 1968 until 1972. He said he earned 192 credit hours as a pre-dentistry student, however, he took several business and Spanish courses as well.
While he took classes at Kent State, Mr. Bare worked fulltime to pay his way through college. He and Mrs. Bare married in 1971 and he bought his first business in 1972. By 1974, Mr. Bare was 25-years-old and the owner of three businesses.
“My businesses started taking all of my time,” he says. “Life happened.”
Mr. Bare is the owner of Leonardo’s Pizza, the Highland Theater and the Linda Theater, all located in Akron. He is also the owner of residential and commercial real estate.
Mr. Bare says Mrs. Bare, a graduate of Kent State, is a lifelong, award-winning educator who teaches in the Revere School district. His children and their spouses are also well educated and accomplished in their fields. Mr. Bare wishes to join the long line of family members who are college graduates.
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” says Mr. Bare, who is earning a Bachelor of Science in Education Studies. “I’m its weakest link.”
Mr. Bare decided to return to Kent State earlier this year. Mindy Aleman, assistant vice president of the Center for Gift and Estate Planning, had contacted him after she read an article that chronicled his story. She told him about the programs at Kent State that would make it possible for him to complete his degree.
“I started thinking about all the hours that I had at Kent,” says Mr. Bare. “Then one thing led to another …”
The first step in completing a degree is contacting Kent State’s Department of Academic Engagement and Degree Completion in the Center of Undergraduate Excellence.
Mr. Bare’s pre-dentistry transcripts were reviewed and it was determined that he had sufficient credits to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Integrative Studies upon completion of a senior project or an intensive writing class, all done as independent study.
Ultimately, Mr. Bare will be earning a Bachelor of Science in Education Studies through the College of Education, Health and Human Services. However, David Odell-Scott, Ph.D., associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, reviewed and approved Mr. Bare’s senior writing project. Dr. Odell-Scott spearheaded the creation of the Center for Comparative and Integrative Programs.
“I work with business people who for a variety of reasons, usually related to their families, were unable to finish their degrees,” says Dr. Odell-Scott. “I am pleased to say, the College of Arts and Sciences and Kent State University has their back.”
Kent Campus
Anne Heller’s face was getting red as she pedaled the stationary bike.
The 59-year-old Cuyahoga Falls resident had agreed to take part in experiments at Kent State University using a bike developed by researcher Angela Ridgel, Ph.D., in Kent State's College of Education, Health and Human Services, to help ease the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
While Ms. Heller was doing her best to maintain the pedaling speed, it was actually the bike that was setting the pace. The automated Dynamic Cycle was trying to force Heller to keep up.
While the workout was a bit grueling at times, Ms. Heller said the effort was worthwhile if it would place researchers closer to finding a cure for those suffering from the debilitating neuro-degenerative disorder, which has afflicted her for the past nine years.
Ms. Heller volunteered to be a research participant after learning about the ongoing study at a Parkinson’s boot camp that she had attended in Akron.
“I want them to find a cure for Parkinson’s so I don’t have to deal with it anymore,” she said. “I want to do my part.”
While the therapeutic cycle may never cure Parkinson’s, researchers believe that it can dramatically improve the disease’s symptoms, including neurological weakness, tremors, and rigidity.
Dr. Ridgel has dedicated her research since 2006 to the impact of cycling therapy on Parkinson’s sufferers.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the complexities of the brain and how the brain does all the things that it does,” she said. “My background is in neurobiology, studying how the nervous system produces movement. If you think about how the nervous system produces movement it’s most interesting to look at instances where the nervous system is not producing movements correctly,” Dr. Ridgel said, explaining her research focus.
On Oct. 31, Dr. Ridgel and engineers working with her were awarded a patent for the next generation of the therapy cycle known as the SMART Cycle, for Speed Manipulated Adaptive Rehabilitation Therapy.
The connection between cycling and relief from Parkinson’s was something that one of Dr. Ridgel’s colleagues, Dr. Jay Alberts, discovered by accident.
Dr. Alberts is on staff at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Lerner Research Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Ridgel served as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Alberts’ lab from 2006 to 2008.
When she began her fellowship, Dr. Alberts, an avid cyclist, shared with Dr. Ridgel the story of how he had participated in the annual bike ride across Iowa known as RAGBRAI, riding lead on a tandem bike with a friend who had Parkinson’s pedaling on the back.
After the ride, the friend shared with Dr. Alberts that her Parkinson’s symptoms seemed to dissipate dramatically. “She told him, `I don’t feel like I have Parkinson’s when I ride with you,’ “ Dr. Ridgel explained.
The situation had Dr. Alberts wondering how his helping to pedal could prove more beneficial than his friend pedaling on her own on a single bicycle. He theorized that as an experienced cyclist he had a more efficient cadence, and wondered if his friend, perhaps, was having a reaction to someone forcing pedaling on her at a faster rate.
When Dr. Ridgel, also a cyclist, joined Dr. Albert’s lab, he proposed that they begin to study the effects of exercise on Parkinson’s patients to determine whether there was any science was behind his friend’s perceptions.
For weeks, Dr. Ridgel and another trainer pedaled a tandem bike with various study patients on the back, and in 2009 published her research, concluding that Parkinson’s symptoms – slowness of movement, rigidity, and loss of motor skills – were indeed improved when pedaling at a higher cadence or revolutions per minute.
Having trainers available to perform the front seat pedaling, though, was not a realistic option for therapy, explained Dr. Ridgel, who joined the Kent State faculty in 2008. Plus, studies were showing that at times the trainer was doing up to 75 percent of the work. The subjects were trying to help, but many were unable due to their physical limitations, she said.
Motorized exercise bikes already are available, but are not able to replicate the cycling dynamics of the tandem biking that proved so helpful in Parkinson’s therapy.
Working with engineers at Case Western Reserve University and Rockwell Automation in Cleveland, Dr. Ridgel set out to design a device that could perform the same function as a live trainer pedaling the front of the tandem.
In 2012, a grant from the National Institutes of Health provided the money needed to pay for the design and testing of the Dynamic Cycle. While the invention was successful, continued research showed ways it could be improved, so plans for the second version were developed and the patent was applied for in 2014.
Now that the patent has been obtained, Dr. Ridgel is in the process of looking for funding to help pay for the design and manufacture of a SMART Cycle prototype.
Unlike the Dynamic Cycle, the SMART Cycle will offer more advanced programming features. A trainer would be able to remotely control a bike in a patient’s home or physical therapy site. The new version, potentially, will have the ability for one trainer to control more than one bike at varied locations.
The controller box currently on the Dynamic Cycle, will become much smaller, about the side of a computer tablet. Perhaps most important, though, the cycle’s controls will be able to adapt to different patients’ abilities and needs.
As Dr. Ridgel explained, all Parkinson’s patients are different, with varying abilities depending on the disease’s progression. By making the controller adaptive, it would be able to predict what pedaling setting are best for which patients, and would be able to change the parameters mid-session to keep challenging the nervous system and challenging the patient to keep up.
The symptoms of Parkinson’s patients are diagnosed on scale of 0 to 109, Dr. Ridgel explained. After exercise, some patients saw an improvement of as many as 20 points, while others just a few.
The larger question, however, is why this particular type of exercise helps Parkinson’s patients. The cycle therapy will produce marked improvement in some patients, though not all. Dr. Ridgel suspects the exercise is resulting in changes in the brain, specifically, changes in the excitability of circuits in the brain.
In late November, Beth Fisher, PhD., professor of Clinical Physical Therapy in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California, began using the Dynamic Cycle as part of a long-term study using transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure how the neurons in the brain are talking to each other when a patient uses the cycle.
“This will help us to know what is happening at the brain level,” Dr. Ridgel explained. She is hoping the data from the study will be conclusive enough to help qualify for additional NIH funding to pay for the SMART Cycle’s development.
If research and funding are successful, Dr. Ridgel hopes that within several years the SMART Cycle could be produced on a wide scale so that Parkinson’s patients could have the bike in their homes for daily therapy.
That day won’t come soon enough for Heller, who is a volunteer in a study by Jay Jonas, senior lecturer and doctoral candidate in Kent State’s School of Health Sciences. Mr. Jonas is using the Dynamic Cycle to gather data on changes in motor skills in Parkinson’s patients.
The hardest part of her disease, Heller explained, is not knowing how rapidly it will progress. While medicine can be effective, she is eager for other solutions to help slow the progression of the disease, which already has impaired the movement of her right leg and foot and caused tremors in her right hand.
“I take it one day at a time and try to stay positive,” Heller said.
Every time Kenzie Carlson designs and creates a blanket for a child in the hospital, she is giving more than a fuzzy, colorful creation – Carlson is giving a piece of her heart.
Carlson started Angel Kisses Blankets in her hometown of Pickerington, Ohio (near Columbus) in 2015 to provide children and their parents with a comforting blanket in a delicate time of need.
Carlson is bringing her organization to Kent State University while she studies special education in the university’s College of Education, Health and Human Services.
The blankets have gone to children with cancer, babies born prematurely, an adolescent with an eating disorder, a pregnant teenage mother, and a child who had been abused – to name a few.
Read more in the Columbus Dispatch about how Carlson uses her own money in her quest to help children.
Today marks the one year anniversary of Pokémon GO’s worldwide release that sent crowds hiking through parks, meandering into streets and walking for miles in search of Pokémon, those cute little digital characters that appear in real locations on your smartphone.
Capturing the little monsters isn’t just fun for the players, it might be good for their health. Too often we sit at a desk all day, spend countless hours in the car, and with a smartphone glued to our hands, it is too easy to spend our free time watching videos, playing games and browsing the internet. Such sedentary behaviors cause us to sit more and exercise less.
However, Kent State University researchers found that playing a popular physically interactive, smartphone-based game, like Pokémon GO, may actually promote exercise.
Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., Andrew Lepp, Ph.D., and Ellen Glickman, Ph.D., from Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services assessed the ability of the popular, physically interactive, smartphone-based video game Pokémon GO to increase walking and decrease sedentary behavior, like sitting. More than 350 college students reported their physical activity and sedentary behavior the week before they downloaded Pokémon GO, the week immediately after downloading the game, and again several weeks later.
Results show that, relative to the week before downloading Pokémon GO, students doubled their daily walking behavior (102 percent increase) and reduced sedentary behavior by 25 percent during the first week after downloading. When comparing behavior several weeks after downloading Pokémon GO to the week before downloading, walking and sedentary behavior was still 68 percent greater and 18 percent lower, respectively, even though frequency of game play decreased by 58 percent.
“While the largest increases in walking and decreases in sitting occurred during the first week after downloading, when the game was new to the user, those positive effects largely persisted weeks later,” Barkley said. “It is possible that games like Pokémon GO may help people initiate a positive health behavior change, such as more daily walking and less sitting.”
The researchers suggest that while many smartphone functions may promote sedentary activity, they are hopeful that playing physically interactive, smartphone-based video games like Pokémon GO may help promote walking and reduce sitting in college students.
The study is published in the Games for Health Journal and is generating media interest around the world. Read more from:
For more information on Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, visit www.kent.edu/ehhs.
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Photo Caption:
Kent State University researchers find a link between using physically interactive smartphone apps, such as Pokémon GO, and an increase in physical activity.
Media Contacts:
Jacob Barkley, jbarkle1@kent.edu, 330-672-0209
Andrew Lepp, alepp1@kent.edu, 330-672-0218
Ellen Glickman, eglickma@kent.edu, 330-672-2930
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907
During spring break the last four years, while his friends were basking on a beach or blowing off steam in Las Vegas, Jake Addessi was helping to renovate a community building in the Ninth District of New Orleans or packing up food for the hungry in Chicago.
The senior health-services major has participated in Alternative Spring Break (ASB) through the Kent State University’s Office of Experiential Education and Civic Engagement for each of his four years at Kent State. The ASB program exposes students to social justice and cultural issues through direct service. Students are immersed in the communities they visit, so they gain a deeper understanding of different cultures and the challenges people from disadvantaged communities often face.
“These trips take you out of your comfort zone,” said Addessi, 22, of North Canton. “They open your eyes to a world that you have had no experience with. You have to do your best to put yourself in the shoes of others who may not be in the most ideal circumstances. You strive for realization and unconditional compassion for others.”
Addessi has taken weeklong ASB trips to Buffalo, Chicago, Youngstown and, most recently, New Orleans, where he helped restore a community center that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Hard work is part of every trip, but Addessi said he came away from each location with more than he gave.
In Buffalo, his reward was a conversation with an elderly man, who shared stories of his struggle with addiction and homelessness. In Chicago, he had the honor of waiting tables at Inspiration Café, where men and women in need are served restaurant-style meals in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. In every city, he said, he gained perspective.
“We have this beautiful campus, and when you’re here every day and you’re in the loop of things, you might complain about little things here and there,” Addessi said. “And I totally get it. But when you go to these places on alternative spring break, you start to appreciate every little thing you have, and you don’t worry as much about the sink draining too slow. It just puts things into perspective.”
Addessi said caring for others and giving back to society are themes his family exposed him to from an early age. He learned about Kent State's ASB program from his mother, a Licensed Practical Nurse at the Veteran's Administration Outpatient Clinic in Canton.
Alexandra Ulbricht, assistant director of the Office of Experiential Education and Civic Engagement, says Addessi’s extraordinary dedication to the program has been an inspiration to others. For this reason, she said, he has been asked to serve on the program’s Student Service Leader staff.
“Jake has gone above and beyond in his commitment to service through the ASB program,” Ulbricht said. “We hear wonderful feedback from our students about their life-changing experiences on these trips, and some come back for more. However, Jake’s level of commitment to participating for four years has made him a role model and leader.”
Students leave ASB with skills and experiences that potential employers value. At least one organization already has invited Addessi to apply for an internship. But, he said, the chance that this work may help him with future opportunities is a bonus, not the goal.
“We know when we go on these trips that we aren’t going to cure everything or make everything better, but we are one step toward it,” Addessi said. “Yes, we do help. But we get a lot out of it, too.”
Ulbricht said she has known students who have come back from ASB and are so moved by the experience that they change their majors.
“I have seen these trips impact students in so many positive ways, from gaining the confidence to speak up for what they believe in to finding their passion through serving others,” Ulbricht said. “Witnessing students in these critical and sometimes life-changing moments has been such a joy, and I think it defines what we are about here in the Office of Experiential Education and Civic Engagement.”
Addessi, who is planning at least one more ASB trip as a Student Service Leader, said he isn’t sure exactly what he will be doing in 10 years, but he knows he will be helping others. After he graduates from Kent State and leaves the ASB program behind, he intends to find other service organizations where he can volunteer his time.
“This isn’t just about helping others or traveling,” Addessi said. “These trips are very powerful, but only if you allow them to be. They show you things that you aren't used to and enrich your life in a way you couldn't even expect or imagine.”
Division of Research & Sponsored Programs
Kent State University’s Scholar of the Month for December would prefer that you read this standing up, or even doing some calisthenics. Go on, get moving.
Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., is an associate professor of exercise science in Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. During his 10 years with Kent State, he has earned a name for himself as a scholar who wants to get people thinking about how they move, and moving better so they can think better.
“Dr. Barkley is an active scholar and productive researcher, said Mark Kretovics, Ph.D., interim dean of Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. “He mentors his students and collaborates with faculty across disciplines. His recent work with Dr. Andrew Lepp on mobile phone usage has garnered national attention.”
Barkley’s research examines factors that influence physical activity and sedentary behavior, namely how social factors like peer influence and technology may impact how active a person is.
The article Kretkovics mentioned, “Who’s in Charge? You or Your Smartphone?” written by Jian Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of evaluation and measurement, and Andrew Lepp, Ph.D., associate professor of recreation, park and tourism management — both from the in the School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration in the College of Education, Health and Human Services — along with Barkley, was one of the top five studies to bring national attention to Kent State last year.
Barkley and Lepp also have published several recent studies on the relationships between various types of cellphone use and physical activity, exercise, sedentary behaviors and health outcomes like cardiorespiratory fitness.
“These works support the notion that the modern cellphone may be the new sedentary screen of choice for college-aged individuals,” Barkley said. “While some cellphone functions may promote positive health behaviors like using fitness apps or listening to music, excessive cellphone use may be just as problematic as being a traditional ‘couch potato’ seated in front of a TV screen.”
Barkley came to Kent State after obtaining his Ph.D. in exercise science and applied physiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2007. He earned his Master of Science degree there as well, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education and exercise physiology is from the State University of New York at Brockport.
Barkley boasts more than 50 peer-reviewed articles to his name, with another in press and eight more under review; 50 refereed presentations and workshops; and more than a dozen funded grant projects, with another in review.
He has been a peer reviewer for 18 academic journals, and he presently sits on the editorial board of PLOS ONE. Since 2015 alone, Barkley has earned five publication awards, acknowledging the impact of his work, from four separate journals.
Barkley has taught nine courses at Kent State, overseen roughly a dozen doctoral dissertations and served as a committee member on twice that many thesis committees.
He said he is humbled by this most recent acknowledgement of his scholarly efforts.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the university for the Scholar of the Month recognition and to Dr. Kretovics for nominating me,” Barkley said. “Thank you as well to my collaborator, Dr. Andrew Lepp, and my Exercise Science colleagues and students for their support. I am fortunate to be surrounded by motivated thinkers and learners who make working at Kent State University an absolute pleasure.”
ABOUT SCHOLAR OF THE MONTH
Kent State’s Scholar of the Month recognizes faculty researchers and scholars whose recent work has had an important impact on their professional fields and has brought exposure to the university. Each month, a different college will have the opportunity to nominate a researcher/scholar for this recognition. There is also a month when a faculty member from the Regional Campuses will be featured.
The selection process is in the hands of the dean and his or her colleagues and faculty. Hence, this is recognition by the person’s college colleagues that is then taken up by the university. The deans communicate the person’s name to the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs for recognition as Scholar of the Month.
Kent Campus
Kent State University’s Scholar of the Month for December would prefer that you read this standing up, or even doing some calisthenics. Go on, get moving.
Jacob Barkley, Ph.D., is an associate professor of exercise science in Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. During his 10 years with Kent State, he has earned a name for himself as a scholar who wants to get people thinking about how they move, and moving better so they can think better.
“Dr. Barkley is an active scholar and productive researcher, said Mark Kretovics, Ph.D., interim dean of Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. “He mentors his students and collaborates with faculty across disciplines. His recent work with Dr. Andrew Lepp on mobile phone usage has garnered national attention.”
Barkley’s research examines factors that influence physical activity and sedentary behavior, namely how social factors like peer influence and technology may impact how active a person is.
The article Kretkovics mentioned, “Who’s in Charge? You or Your Smartphone?” written by Jian Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of evaluation and measurement, and Andrew Lepp, Ph.D., associate professor of recreation, park and tourism management — both from the in the School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration in the College of Education, Health and Human Services — along with Barkley, was one of the top five studies to bring national attention to Kent State last year.
Barkley and Lepp also have published several recent studies on the relationships between various types of cellphone use and physical activity, exercise, sedentary behaviors and health outcomes like cardiorespiratory fitness.
“These works support the notion that the modern cellphone may be the new sedentary screen of choice for college-aged individuals,” Barkley said. “While some cellphone functions may promote positive health behaviors like using fitness apps or listening to music, excessive cellphone use may be just as problematic as being a traditional ‘couch potato’ seated in front of a TV screen.”
Barkley came to Kent State after obtaining his Ph.D. in exercise science and applied physiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2007. He earned his Master of Science degree there as well, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education and exercise physiology is from the State University of New York at Brockport.
Barkley boasts more than 50 peer-reviewed articles to his name, with another in press and eight more under review; 50 refereed presentations and workshops; and more than a dozen funded grant projects, with another in review.
He has been a peer reviewer for 18 academic journals, and he presently sits on the editorial board of PLOS ONE. Since 2015 alone, Barkley has earned five publication awards, acknowledging the impact of his work, from four separate journals.
Barkley has taught nine courses at Kent State, overseen roughly a dozen doctoral dissertations and served as a committee member on twice that many thesis committees.
He said he is humbled by this most recent acknowledgement of his scholarly efforts.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the university for the Scholar of the Month recognition and to Dr. Kretovics for nominating me,” Barkley said. “Thank you as well to my collaborator, Dr. Andrew Lepp, and my Exercise Science colleagues and students for their support. I am fortunate to be surrounded by motivated thinkers and learners who make working at Kent State University an absolute pleasure.”
ABOUT SCHOLAR OF THE MONTH
Kent State’s Scholar of the Month recognizes faculty researchers and scholars whose recent work has had an important impact on their professional fields and has brought exposure to the university. Each month, a different college will have the opportunity to nominate a researcher/scholar for this recognition. There is also a month when a faculty member from the Regional Campuses will be featured.
The selection process is in the hands of the dean and his or her colleagues and faculty. Hence, this is recognition by the person’s college colleagues that is then taken up by the university. The deans communicate the person’s name to the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs for recognition as Scholar of the Month.
Kent State University’s Middle Childhood Education program is the first in the state of Ohio to offer an undergraduate program authorized by the International Baccalaureate (IB) Organization: the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Certificate in Teaching and Learning.
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program is a curriculum for students in grades 6-10, and focuses on the development of the whole child in the classroom and in the world outside. The International Baccalaureate is a recognized leader in the field of international education. The program defines international education as developing citizens of the world in relationship to culture, language and learning to live together. It also encourages diversity and flexibility in teaching.
Under this recognition, middle childhood educators graduating from Kent State will not only be qualified to serve in Ohio but also in any of the International Baccalaureate “world” schools that exist in more than 128 countries. Kent State is one of three International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programs in the nation, and Kent State also offers an International Baccalaureate certificate for Primary Years (ages 3-12) in Teaching and Learning. Middle Years Program classes are offered at three Kent State campuses: Kent, Geauga and Stark.
“Over the past five years, 10 Kent State middle childhood education faculty members have been trained by IB in content-specific categories areas, along with the overall IB teaching models,” said Robin Dever, Ph.D., Kent State’s International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program coordinator. “We have built close relationships with surrounding IB schools, such as Litchfield Middle School in Akron, where our students are engaged in field experience opportunities which model IB practices. The faculty is very confident that our teacher candidates will graduate with a broader perspective of their students’ needs once they have completed our undergraduate IB program.”
Learn more about the International BaccalaureateFind out more about EHHS