Education at Illinois

Samantha Lindgren, assistant professor EPOL, along with postdoc Carine Verschueren, and Ph.D. student Aigul Rakisheva have published a new report that surveyed 1,000 Illinois teachers about their preparedness to teach Climate Change Education and their use of AI in class.

EPOL Trio Publish Study On Climate Change and AI EPOL Trio Publish Study On Climate Change and AI Jun 4, 2026 9:45 am by Communications Office Share on Facebook Tweet Email Images A survey of Illinois K-12 teachers in late 2025 offers a snapshot of two forces reshaping classroom practice: the integration of AI into education and the upcoming 2026....

Educational Psychology at Illinois’s Kaylin Ratner, Jessica Gladstone, & Aixa Marchand, along with doctoral student Hou Xie, have been selected for publication in the Journal of Experimental Education.

They examine whether an environment can help someone become the person they are meant to be.

EPSY Cohort To Be Published in the The Journal of Experimental Education EPSY Cohort To Be Published in the The Journal of Experimental Education Jun 2, 2026 11:30 am by Communications Office Share on Facebook Tweet Email Images Assistant Professors Kaylin Ratner, Jessica Gladstone, Aixa Marchand, and doctoral student Hou Xie, all of Educational Psychology, recently had....

For Aixa Marchand’s Center for Social & Behavioral Science-backed project, she wanted to conduct research with black families rather than on them.

She used photovoice, a technique that combines storytelling and visuals to represent their experiences with local schools.

Story link in the comments:

For mechanical engineering students, it's very important that their teamwork skills are on point. EPOL associate professor Eunjung Grace Oh is researching ways to help build better teams by studying organizational citizenship in a new NSF-funded study.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Strengthening Engineering Student Teamwork Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Strengthening Engineering Student Teamwork by Tom Hanlon / May 27, 2026 Education faculty member Eunjung Grace Oh is part of a cross-institutional research team working to create meaningful change in the collaboration process of mechanical engineering students. Q...

🎧 Check out this podcast from the Illinois Leadership® Center.

Robb Lindgren discusses being an effective leader while working with developing technologies on the Made to Lead podcast.

Lindgren Appears on Made to Lead Podcast from Illinois Leadership Center Lindgren Appears on Made to Lead Podcast from Illinois Leadership Center May 19, 2026 3:30 pm by Communications Office Share on Facebook Tweet Email Images Robb Lindgren, associate dean for research, professor C&I and EPSY, recently appeared on the Illinois Leadership Center’s Made to Lead podcast...

Get your popcorn ready 🍿

Hannah Haas, a Learning and Education Studies major, is developing a new curriculum on the science of growing popcorn alongside Anthony Studer of Illinois Crop Sciences. Haas has developed her own lessons and presented them to students at Thomasboro’s K-8 school earlier this month.

University of Illinois College of ACES

Popcorn Pedagogy Reaching New Ears Popcorn Pedagogy Reaching New Ears by Paige Walk, Office of Communications / May 19, 2026 Interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is drawing on Education undergraduates to address societal grand challenges and putting them in unexpected places. "As an educatio...

Congratulations to our faculty members who will serve as Public Engagement Faculty Fellows for 2026-27:

🔸 Lin Chen, Educational Psychology at Illinois
🔹 Devon Hedrick-Shaw, Curriculum & Instruction at Illinois
🔸 Melissa Morgan, Educational Psychology
🔹 Miray Tekkumru-Kisa, Curriculum & Instruction

EPOL postdoctoral researcher Carine Verschueren was recently featured in the educational publication Hechinger Report. The newsletter featured Verschueren’s research on school districts that have developed environmental and sustainability policies.

More: https://bit.ly/4tYNjGH

EPOL Postdoc Featured in Hechinger Report EPOL Postdoc Featured in Hechinger Report May 13, 2026 9:15 am by Communications Office Share on Facebook Tweet Email Images Carine Verschueren, a post-doctoral researcher in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, was featured in a recent Hechinger Report newsletter.The newsletter featured re...

Congratulations to our faculty members who were named Hardie Faculty Fellow Award winners:

🔸 Kaylin Ratner, Educational Psychology at Illinois, Hardie Faculty Fellow
🔹 Stephanie Toliver, Curriculum & Instruction at Illinois, Hardie Distinguished Scholar
🔸 Chris Napolitano, Educational Psychology at Illinois, Hardie Distinguished Scholar

Dean Chrystalla Mouza was proud to present the Dean’s Medallion to Denice Ward Hood at this year’s College Award Ceremony.

Ward Hood dedicated her career to researching culturally responsive evaluation and was a past director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment.