Doctoral Students – School of Learning and Teaching
Literacy Ph.D. Students
Amy Deshane Tucker is a doctoral candidate in the field of literacy education at the University of Maine. Her research interests include social justice in education, critical media literacy and middle schools. She intends to explore how middle school students conduct online research and evaluate the information they find there for her dissertation. She began her doctoral studies in the fall of 2020, transferring from the C.A.S. program in literacy. Previously, she earned Certificates of Advanced Study in educational leadership and instructional technology at UMaine. She earned master’s degrees at UMaine in middle-level education, human development and elementary education. She graduated in 1994 with bachelor’s degrees in German and secondary education. Amy has been a middle school teacher for the majority of her career, teaching in various schools throughout Maine. She is a board member of the Maine Association for Middle Level Educators and a conference committee member of the Association of Computer Technology Educators in Maine. She is a member of AMLE, NCTE, MAMLE, and ACTEM. She is the organizer of Edcamp207 in Readfield, Maine.
Email: io20467@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Susan Bennett-Armistead
Publications:
- Deshane, A. L. (1998). Impact of educational interventions on students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors concerning HIV-antibody testing.
- Caron, S. L. (1998). Cross-cultural perspectives on human sexuality. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (researcher)
STEM Education Ph.D. Students
Ethan Geheb is a doctoral candidate in the STEM Education program, with a concentration in engineering education. His research focuses on exploring departmental culture/norms and their relation to undergraduate engineering identity development. Ethan began the doctoral program in 2018, after earning a Master of Science in Teaching degree from the UMaine. Ethan also graduated with a B.S. in biomedical engineering from UMaine in 2013. As a graduate assistant for the School of Teaching and Learning, Ethan has served various roles, including: teaching assistant for undergraduate courses, research assistant on faculty research projects, research assistant for the college’s accreditation committee, and serves as a senator on the Graduate Student Government.
Email: ethan.geheb@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie
Courses Taught: EHD 452/599 – Teaching Science in Secondary Schools
Publications:
- Buchanan, R., Geheb, E. & Weitman, M. (2021). Learning about Social Justice Through Social Media: A Review of the Literature. Social Media: Influences on Education. IAP.
- Geheb, E. (2020). Research on Engineering Education at K-12 Settings across Communities of Practice: A Systematic Literature Review (2009-2018). Unpublished manuscript.
- Geheb, E. (2018). “Assessing Student Understanding of Reasoning using Argument-based Contrast Matrices” (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2857.
Laura Honders is a doctoral student in the STEM Education program. Her current research focuses on knowledge that helps science teachers integrate aspects of computer science and computational thinking into middle school science classroom activities. She is also interested in program evaluation and has led internal and external program evaluation activities for several projects in STEM education. Laura began the doctoral program at UMaine in 2019 after completing her Master of Science in Teaching degree through the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center). She worked as Research and Evaluation Coordinator for the RiSE Center from 2014 to 2022 and in that capacity coordinated interdisciplinary STEM education research and program evaluation for over $17 million in education research projects.
Email: laura.millay@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie
Publications
- Wittmann, M.C., Millay, L.A., Alvarado, C., Lucy, L., Medina, J., and Rogers, Z.A. (2019). Applying the resources framework of teaching and learning to issues in middle school physics instruction on energy. American Journal of Physics, June 2019. https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.5110285.
- Millay, L. “Teachers’ Professional Knowledge and Formative Assessment Practices: An Empirical Study from Middle School Earth Science Instruction in the Context of an Educational Improved Community” (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3011.
- McKay, S.R., Millay, L., Allison, E., Byerssmall, E., Wittmann, M.C., Flores, M., Fratini, J., Kumpa, B., Lambert, C., Pandiscio, E.A., and Smith, M.K. (2018). Investing in Teachers’ Leadership Capacity: A Model from STEM Education. Maine Policy Review, 27:1, 54 -63: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol27/iss1/15.
- Wittmann, M. C., Rogers, A. Z., Alvarado, C., Medina, J., Millay, L. (2018). Using multiple survey questions about energy to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning. In 2017 PERC Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2017.pr.105.
- Wittmann, M.C., Alvarado, C., and Millay, L. (2017). Teacher awareness of problematic facets of meaningful metaphors of energy. Latin American Journal of Physics Education. 11(2), 2327.