Position
Academic Background
Sample Courses   
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights     
Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

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• Professor of Education

Academic Background         

• University of Connecticut: Ph.D. in Special Education, 1984
• Rhode Island College: C.A.G.S. in School Psychology, 1976
• Ohio State University: M.A. in Child Study, 1971
• State College of Massachusetts at Bridgewater: B.A. in Biology/Secondary Education, 1969

• Methods and Materials of Teaching Reading
• Strategies in Classroom Management
• Assessment of Children's Individual Differences
• Supervision of Student Teaching

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is my passion and my priority.  I hope to instill in my preservice teachers the joy, wonder, rewards, and tremendous responsibility of teaching.   Each term I try to create a caring community of learners in my classrooms.  Together we then become actively engaged in acquiring the conceptual frameworks and research based pedagogy needed to assist each and every child to learn.   Modeling, guided practice, application in actual elementary classroom settings, and self reflection are critical features of our active engagement.  My preservice teachers soon realize it is not enough to have taught something; they come to recognize that as teachers they must continually reflect on their own performance to analyze whether each child has learned what was taught, and if not, what they could do differently to ensure each child's learning. Supporting their assertions with research based findings is an important component of their reflections. My own measure of my teaching effectiveness is whether my preservice teachers have acquired the knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected for the course, including the joy and wonder of teaching and learning.

Research & Interests

The common theme in my scholarly activities, as well as my teaching and service, is preparing educators to teach all children.  I was instrumental in developing our merged elementary special education program in the mid 1980's.  More recently my scholarly activities have focused on the use of standards to provide a vision of what K-16 students and teachers need to know and be able to do to teach all students.  Specifically, I have worked on connecting teacher education curricular to standards based performance systems and connecting Individualized Educational Programs (IEP) for children with special needs to standards.  Since 1998 I have been the higher education facilitator for the Rhode Island Technical Assistance Project's IEP network, a group of approximately 200 teachers, family members, administrators, and related service providers from communities in Rhode Island. The purpose of this network is to provide information, resource materials, technical assistance, and professional development on topics related to IEPs.

• Higher Education Facilitator for the IEP Network, a network of approximately 200 teachers, family members, administrators, and related service providers who provide technical assistance and professional development to districts and agencies in the state on topics related to IEPs, 1998-2010. 
• Chair, Education Department, Providence College, 1996-2002
• Providence College Alumni Lay Faculty Staff Award 1998. Presented to member of the College's Lay faculty or administration for exemplary service, loyalty and dedication to Providence College.
• Visiting Scholar, Homerton College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Great Britain, Jan. 1990
• Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education Award for Outstanding Achievement as Chairperson of the Commissioner's Ad Hoc Committee on Learning Disabilities, November 1986.

Publication Highlights

• Ryan, L.B.& Callahan, J.P. (2003). Making connections: Service-learning competencies and beginning teacher standards. Teacher Educator 38 (2).
• Ryan, L. B. & Krajewski, J.J.  (2002). The journey toward becoming a standards driven and performance based teacher preparation program: One college's story. Action in Teacher Education, 23, 59-68.
• Callahan, J., Diez, M., & Ryan, L. (2001) Standards and service-learning. In J. Anderson, K. Swick & J. Yff. Strengthening service-learning in teacher education. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
• Ryan, L., Grossi, B., LaMontagne, D., & Basile-Daggett, B. (1999). Individualized education program guidebook: Directions for completing the IEP form. Providence, RI: Rhode Island
  Department of Education. (Also available at www.ritap.org)
• Callahan, J. & Ryan, L. (1997). Models for integration of service-learning and teacher education: Providence College. In J. Ericson & J. Anderson (Eds). Learning with the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in teacher education. Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education.
• Ryan L., Callahan, J., Krajewski, J. & Flaherty, T. (1996). Providence College: A merged elementary/special education program. In L. Blanton, C. Griffin, J. Winn, & M. Pugach (Eds), Teacher education in transition: Collaborative programs to prepare general and special education. Denver, CO: Love Publishing Co.
• Ryan, L.B. and Rucker, C.N. (1991). The development and validation of a measure of teacher's attitudes toward the individualized educational program. Educational and Psychological Measurement 51, 877- 882.
• Aksamit, D.L., Hall, S.P., and Ryan, L.B. (1990). Naturalistic inquiry applied to the evaluation of a teacher education program. Teacher and Teacher Education. 6. 215-226.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• Council for Chief State School Officers, Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Center for Improving Teaching Quality ,  invited participant, Washington, DC. 2003-2007.
• Grossi, B, Ryan, L., Paliokas, K. Preparing teachers to teach ALL children: The impact of the work of the Center for Improving Teacher Quality on One State's Efforts. 58th Annual Conference of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. San Diego, CA 2006.
• Ryan, L. B., Gourley, J. & Callahan, J.  What's special about student teaching in a merged elementary and special education program? Annual Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children Conference, Albuqurque, NM, November 2004.
• Miller, J., Anselmo, D., Grossi, B., Ryan, L., Durant, S., Poda, J., & Love, C. Statewide actions to improve the teaching of students with disabilities.  2004 Office of Special Education Programs Joint Personnel Preparation/State Improvement/Comprehensvie System of Personnel Development Conference. Arlington, VA, March 2004.
• Council of Chief State School Officers' Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, Performance Based Teacher Preparation Project,  invited participant, Washington, DC. 2000-2002
• Invited presentation at regional conference "Teacher Preparation and Dual Certification: Three Approaches to Innovative Curriculum Design" at the Institute for Higher Education: Preparing Special Educators for the 21st Century. Sponsored by the New York Department of Education and the Northeast Regional Lab. Saratoga Springs, NY, September, 1994

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