Research

As one of the top schools of education in the nation, GSE faculty and students conduct cutting-edge research in education to address equity and inclusion in formal and informal learning spaces from rural communities to urban districts. Our research makes transformative impacts locally, nationally and internationally.

Our Research

Asian universities close the gap on U.S. schools in world rankings by increasing STEM funding
6/23/20
Universities in China and South Korea are surging in the international race for world-class status, as schools in the East Asian nations are replacing U.S. institutions in international college rankings, according to new research led by Jaekyung Lee, PhD, UB GSE professor of counseling, school and educational psychology.
Government policies encourage test-taking over job skills
5/19/20
Nationwide, school lessons in personal growth and job skills have taken a backseat to preparation for standardized tests, according to new research led by Jaekyung Lee, PhD, professor of counseling, school and educational psychology in the Graduate School of Education.
New grant aims to fix what’s missing in anti-bullying programs: Intervention training
3/10/20
The news that most students at Williamsville East High School don’t like bullying and sexual harassment — yet almost half of them don’t know what to say to stop it — didn’t surprise Principal Brian Swatland. The fall survey findings he was analyzing were part of an anti-bullying training and pilot project in the Williamsville Central School District. The three-year grant project called “Norms and Bystander Intervention Training” or NAB IT! aims to better equip students to navigate the bullying and sexual harassment situations they witness. This initiative is being led by Amanda Nickerson, director of GSE’s Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention and professor in the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology.
Early Childhood Research Center meets Explore & More Children’s Museum
3/3/20
What children think about bending the rules, telling the truth and the futures they imagine can be mysterious to the grownups in their lives. A new series of playful research-based experiments will reveal answers and shed light on how kids learn. “Living Lab to Living Room,” a new collaboration between UB’s Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) and Buffalo’s Explore & More, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum, will share knowledge with families curious to know more.
Making libraries work for all
1/28/20
Valerie Nesset’s innovative approach to help people with different backgrounds collaborate led her to win a $451,667 grant to address a current problem at libraries and leave an enduring legacy: Help retirees create library programming they want. And, train librarians and their patrons to get good results together.
Creating a sense of belonging for women in STEM education
12/10/19
Tiffany Karalis Noel, clinical assistant professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is exploring how to reduce gender bias against women in STEM education. “Despite progress with recruitment, as women in the United States continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields, it is imperative to understand the factors that may influence women’s feelings of belonging and motivation to remain in STEM fields,” Karalis Noel writes in a commentary article, “Exploring Non-Retention of Women in STEM,” for Teachers College Record.
Improving digital literacy in Canadian public libraries
11/19/19
Heidi Julien, professor from the Department of Information Science, and other colleagues from universities in Canada have been awarded a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The grant will help fund a project exploring public library approaches to digital literacy.
GSE professor collaborates to start a museum in Bhutan
10/22/19
Sameer Honwad, assistant professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is working with partners from the Royal Thimpu College (RTC) in Bhutan to start a museum that focuses on highlighting socio-scientific issues such as environmental sustainability and climate change. This idea was derived from a collaborative project titled “Weaving Strands of Knowledge: Connecting Culture and Science to Climate Change” funded by the American Association of Museums. As part of this project, students from RTC and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) travelled to each other’s communities in the summer of 2017. During this time, they collected audio stories from locals who work with the land in New England and Bhutan.
Understanding information literacy at community colleges
10/15/19
Understanding the instructional practices of information literacy (IL) in community college libraries, as well as the perceptions of librarians and students regarding the IL needs of students, is a nationwide concern. Currently, community colleges account for over 50 percent of the institutions of higher education and these colleges educate nearly half of the post-secondary students.
Jacobson involved with two global projects
10/8/19
Stephen Jacobson, UB Distinguished Professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, has been all over the world teaching courses and participating in many different research projects. “Everyone wants to go visit a country that is excelling in education, but there is more to learn by going to places that are still evolving,” says Jacobson, who was brought to Albania to discuss education from an American perspective, and is involved with a large international research project in India to reduce gender-based violence with the use of prosocial computer games.