Note to editors and news directors: To request for a photo or interview with Arvedson, please contact the CSULA Public Affairs in advance at (323) 343-3050.
CSULA’s education faculty member to serve as a guest lecturer in South Africa
Paula Arvedson receives Fulbright Scholar grant for the 2011-12 academic year
Los Angeles, CA -- Paula Arvedson, associate professor of education in the Division of Curriculum and Instruction at California State University, Los Angeles, has recently been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture in Durban, South Africa.
A Pasadena resident, Arvedson will instruct pre-service primary teachers at the University of KwaZulu Natal how to teach mathematics in the early grades and work with the local high schools on using computers to access satellite data, such as weather and ocean temperature, to engage students in learning math and science for real-world applications.
Arvedson is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad in 2011-12 through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, organized by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
“I am awed by the responsibility and honor of being a Fulbright Scholar,” said Arvedson. “I have already been in contact with my hosts in South Africa—the School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education at the University of KwaZulu Natal. They have been most gracious in sharing their programs, and being open to my ideas and questions. I am excited about working with them.”
She added, “My husband is going with me (a chemistry teacher, retired after 37 years in the classroom) and we will team up to share and integrate some of the ideas from the international Satellites & Education Conference held in August annually.”
Arvedson is currently the coordinator of the Satellites & Education Conference, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and hosted at CSULA for the past 11 years. (The 25th annual conference will include West Chester University, Pennsylvania, where it began in 1987.)
A CSULA faculty member since 1999, Arvedson is an expert in early childhood cognitive development and developmental psychology, knowledge/skills/dispositions for teaching social studies, teaching global perspectives, and science and math education. She has published articles in major journals on the development of mathematical thinking in early childhood, the use of technology to engage students in constructive learning, infusing global perspectives in all teaching/learning, and teaching urban learners.
Arvedson received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in child development from CSULA, and earned her Ph.D. in special education through the CSULA-UCLA joint doctoral program.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit the website at http://fulbright.state.gov.
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 220,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students, opening in fall 2011. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu