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Interior Design Faculty Awarded Early Childhood Education Institute Grant

Picture of school teacher reading a book to two young children on the floor in classroom.

Interior Design Faculty Awarded Early Childhood Education Institute Grant


Date

November 5, 2018

Tags


Interior Design faculty members Natalie Ellis and Mia Kile, along with colleagues at OU-Tulsa, the OU Health Sciences Center, and Johns Hopkins University, were recently awarded $8,500 to pursue research related to “Infant-toddler teachers’ physical and psychological well-being.” The project is funded by the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa.

Ellis commented, “Mia [Kile] and I are very proud of this developing work and the opportunity to engage with this multidisciplinary, multi-college, and multi-university research team.”

According to Ellis, the proposal has three primary goals:

  • “to examine how infant toddler teachers’ physical and psychological well-being is associated with the quality of their interaction with children;
  • “to investigate how environmental factors (e.g., work conditions and climates) are associated with infant toddler teachers’ physical and psychological well-being;
  • “to modify and validate a measure to assess the quality of the work environment for infant toddler teachers.”

The principal investigator is Kyong-Ah Kwon, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum, Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.

Co-Principal Investigators are Lieny Jeon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Education; Mia Kile, ASID, IIDA, IDEC, LEED Green Associate, Associate Professor, Interior Design Division, College of Architecture, University of Oklahoma; Natalie Ellis, Ph.D., IIDA, LEED BD+C, Assistant Professor, Division of Interior Design, The University of Oklahoma; Ken Randall, PT, Ph.D., MHR, Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Allied Health, OU-HSC, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Community Engagement, Co-Director of Office of Community Engagement at OU-Tulsa.

For more information, please reach out to Natalie Ellis (natalie.d.ellis-1@ou.edu) or Mia Kile (mkile@ou.edu).

 

Featured photo: The Early Childhood Education Institute, OU-Tulsa. 


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