As a Special Education major in clinical placements, Courtney James noticed something about students with autism and their devices for augmentative and alternative communication.
They weren’t using them – at least not to initiate dialogue, James says, or not at all. Most times, she says, they simply were responding to questions.
She wondered: If students were put into situations where they should implement the assistive technology without being compelled, would they?
James developed and delivered a training for paraeducators on how to create those environments. Then, the experiment was put into action.
“At first, I was like, ‘I have no idea of where this is going to go. I don’t know if it’s going to work,’ ” says James, a senior from Fishers, Indiana. “Then, it actually worked.”
Her project, “Prompting Independent Communication among Children with Autism,” was among six poster presentations at the 2024 Student Research Symposium, held April 4 in the Learning Center of Gabel Hall.
The event also included two oral presentations, a keynote address on open access publishing, a table talk on incorporating trigger warnings and stress-trauma alleviation techniques in the classroom and, for the first time, a gallery of vision boards displayed by Tiffany Puckett’s students in EPFE 201: Education as an Agent of Change.
“We had something for everyone,” says Todd Gilson, associate dean for Research, Resources and Innovation.
“This type of event is beneficial and important for students because they often hear about the theories or the research methods that are important for them to understand the classroom,” Gilson adds, “and by embarking and taking part in the Student Research Symposium, they get to actually test those theories. They get to test those methods and understand exactly how it works in both practice and, perhaps, in a scientific environment as well.”
Darcy Douglass was recognized for top poster presentation: “Toilet Training and Teaching Self-Initiations to Children with Autism who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.”
Bethany Rohl, a doctoral student in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, earned top honors for her oral presentation on “Emotional Resilience as a Mitigating Factor to Workaholism and Burnout among Collegiate Setting Athletic Trainers.”
“I was inspired by some of the Athletic Training faculty, specifically Dr. Pitney. He had done previous research on this topic, looking at secondary school athletic trainers,” Rohl says. “I tried to build upon that research data for a more robust sample, looking at collegiate athletic trainers.”
For college athletic programs hoping to prevent staff burnout, she says, “one of the biggest things is increased resources.”
“Depending on the institution, there might be more staff or more funding,” says Rohl, who previously worked nine years as an athletic trainer in suburban secondary schools, “but also by trying to promote well-being within the workforce and remembering that we’re people and not just commodities.”
Rohl, who plans to teach in a professional Athletic Training program, enjoyed the research experience.
“My mentors were all really great, especially my advisor, Dr. Tyler Wood,” she says. “They have been really helpful and instrumental in assisting me and mentoring me throughout the process from conception through delivery.”
Douglass, a senior Communicative Disorders major from the College of Health and Human Sciences, works in Natalie Andzik’s assistive technology lab in the Department of Special and Early Education.
She approached Andzik while looking for someone to guide her Honors Program capstone project; the duo chose to focus on toilet training for children with autism.
“I was very interested in it because it was the population that I might work with in the future as well as the language components, which is way in my realm,” Douglass says.
Andzik and Brandon Perez, who also participated in the work, were “excellent mentors and super supportive. They made this process super easy.”
“I learned a lot about how to conduct research and how important it is to make sure your trainings for the individuals who are part of your research are thorough and clear,” Douglass says. “I also learned how to interpret the results and write concisely about the research.”
ANDZIK MENTORED THREE of the symposium’s six poster presenters, including James and Sofia Cruz Losada, a Biological Sciences major from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“Research is so important because it informs my teaching, and so what I do in research helps me teach my teachers better,” Andzik says.
“Why I love getting undergraduates so involved is because I want them to become lifelong learners and to keep asking questions,” she adds, “and I’m teaching them how to ask questions in a systematic way to get right answer – not to just go on Pinterest, not to just go on Google, but to actually manipulate some environments, manipulate some things and see if change happens with their students.”
Mentoring undergraduates benefits her as well: “They have questions that I don’t have anymore.”
“I had a student once who had never taken a flight, and so she was nervous about flying to a conference. I forgot about how nervous it is to be presenting a poster for the very first time! I’d lost touch with that part of me,” Andzik says.
“So, by getting them around me and their constant questions that I forgot that I once had myself, it helps humble me and to remember that I need to be approachable,” she adds. “I need to always make things simple and accessible to all my students instead of just forgetting that part of me when I didn’t know things.”
Losada, who is pre-med, enjoyed her time with Andzik.
“She’s amazing. She knows a lot. She was very compassionate and really flexible with my schedule,” she says. “I love her.”
James also appreciated her opportunity to work alongside the professor as they conducted research into augmentative and alternative communication.
“Being able to take data, and to understand what the data is going to, is huge for me,” she says. “Taking data, proving to people that change is needed and having paraeducators in my classroom understand what I’m talking about is going to make the whole classroom be more inclusive and make everyone grow.”
Results from her test subjects – two 9-year-olds and a 19-year-old – surprised James.
“I thought the 19-year-old would not have worked for the study because he’s 19 and he knows how to work his device. I was wrong. He has his device, but he just doesn’t use it. So, part of the study was getting his paraeducator to set up the environment for him to use it,” she says.
“If I stood in your way, you would automatically say, ‘Excuse me.’ So, we did that with him multiple times. We would stand in the doorway, and he would say, ‘Excuse me,’ ” she adds. “As we progressed, he started saying more things, like, ‘Good morning. Hello. How are you?’ ”
With the 9-year-old boys, one only would use his device to ask for his sensory tools. The other only would ask to go outside.
James and the paraeducators decided to ask the boys to write with pencils; then, they took the pencils away. It worked: Both boys requested, on their own, to have their pencils returned.
“That was something we told the paraeducators: how to set up the environment rather than just automatically asking the questions,” she says. “You hear all the time that, ‘You don’t want to give students the answer, because what’s that going to get them?’ – and it’s the same thing with using these devices; pushing them to use them rather than just having them sit in the classroom and not say anything.”
AMANDA McMURRAY, a master’s student in Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education with a specialization in Physical Education Pedagogy, presented “Exploring Leadership Transfer in High School P.E. Leadership Programs.”
“I’m really interested in social-emotional learning and building leadership in students, using P.E. not just a learning activity about being fit and learning about sport skills but also learning life skills,” says McMurray, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Physical Education at NIU in 2022.
Fortunately, Professor Paul Wright shares the same interest – and, McMurray says, already had a data set available.
Nonetheless, she approached the process with trepidation because research always had seemed complex and intimidating. Once she began, however, it proved “easier than I thought.”
“I’m excited because I’ll be able to write a manuscript on this, and it’s definitely making me think and reflect more – as an educator myself – on just how many things still aren’t figured out, especially in the P.E. world,” she says.
“In a lot of states, the first thing to be cut is P.E. In Illinois, we’re one of the only states left that requires K-12 P.E., so we have a lot of opportunities to pioneer programs or opportunities for our students,” she adds. “I’m excited to bring the things that I’ve learned in my program with pedagogy and curriculum to my students to hopefully make the field better and to maybe go into higher education one day to help impact future teachers as well.”
Jordyn King, who is pursuing the same master’s degree but with a specialty in Sport and Exercise Psychology, delivered an oral presentation.
King’s “Project ATLAS: The Effect of an 8-week Career Preparedness Course on Student-Athletes’ Identity and Career Transition,” advised by Shaine Henert, has roots in her personal story.
Coming to NIU in the fall of 2022 to complete her fifth year of NCAA Division I women’s soccer, she knows that elite athletes wrestle with understanding life away from their sport.
She also believes athletic administrators must provide guidance in achieving a healthy balance.
“I’ve been in three different soccer programs. I saw the same issues at all three schools, and I realized I’m not the only one. It’s a real struggle that athletes face, and I feel like it’s one thing to talk about it but that you need to take action,” King says.
“These athletes give everything to the sport. They give up a lot of things. They sacrifice a lot to come and give all their time to the sport,” she adds. “They play their four to six years – whatever it might be – and then it’s, ‘OK, bye. See you later. Have fun.’ I think you’ve got to pour into the athlete, not only as an athlete but as a person for their life after. They made an impact on your program. The least you could do is help make an impact on their life after.”
Research, she discovered, requires “a lot of work and attention.”
“I liked it, and it’s also driving me to pursue the Ph.D.,” she says. “I know it’s going to be hard, I’m going to make mistakes and I really have to take it with a heart of humility, because that’s the only way I’m going to learn in going forward.”
LISA LAZANSKY-ROACH, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, presented a poster on “Secondary Traumatic Stress in Middle School Teachers.”
Vivian Smith, who is pursuing her B.S.A.M in Equity Leadership and Mentoring, presented “Beyond the Field: A Comprehensive Inquiry into Femininity, Womanhood, Virtue, Socioeconomics, Development and Physiology in Women, Äôs Sports.”
The keynote address – “Keeping Our Options ‘Open’: Navigating the Challenging Landscape of Open Accessing Publishing in Education” – was delivered by NIU subject specialist librarians Alissa Droog and Dee Anna Phares.
Members of the College of Education’s Research Committee are Gilson, Lindsay Harris, Chris Hill, Lisa Liberty, Jacqueline Mac, David Nieto, Todd Reeves and Sharda Sharma.
“I thank Lindsay Harris, who was the chair of the Research Committee, for her effort and guiding us through for the past several months,” Gilson says.
