Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development's strength in creating and providing gifted education was brought into focus in March when Peabody Global Initiatives and Chris Vanags, director of the Peabody Research Office, welcomed a pair of visiting researchers from Japan. Hirokazu Kumazaki, professor in the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Nagasaki University, School of Medicine, is a researcher on gifted education, and Naomi Matsuura, professor in the Graduate School of Education at Mie University, is a researcher on special needs education.
Kumazaki and Matsuura are investigating anxiety and gifted education, as well as educational innovation practices. They are co-investigating with Vanags and Zachary Warren, executive director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's Treatment and Research Institute on Autism Spectrum Disorders and director of the Division of Developmental Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
To discuss other ways of working with Peabody researchers and to hear about the college's programs and activities, they sat down with Peabody faculty and directors:
Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, and David Lubinski, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Human Development, co-directors of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth
Alyssa Wise, technology and education professor, and LIVE Learning Innovation Incubator director
- Angela Eeds, Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach executive director
- Sarah DeLisle Fecht, Vanderbilt Programs for Talented Youth executive director
To investigate other means of working with Peabody researchers and to familiarize themselves with the college's programs and projects, they sat down with Peabody faculty and directors:
Kumazaki and Matsuura also had a meeting with Gina Smallwood, coordinator of the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools' Office of Gifted and Talented Education, and visited Eakin Elementary School. In February, Vanags traveled to Japan to present talks regarding Peabody's success with cultivating a spirit of curiosity in gifted education, focusing on programs created in the Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach and Programs for Talented Youth, which benefit over 2,300 academically inclined students annually.
