DAVID HAMMER, Professor of Physics and of Curriculum & Instruction, directs the Science Teaching Center in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. He did his graduate work at UC Berkeley (M.A., Physics 1987; Ph.D., Science & Math Education, 1991). He conducts cognitively-grounded research about student and teacher inquiry and their views about the nature of knowledge and learning. He serves on the editorial board of Science Education and as Associate Editor of Journal of the Learning Sciences, and previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
People
JANET COFFEY, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction, did her graduate work in biology and then in Curriculum & Teacher Education (Stanford, Ph.D. 2003). Her research focuses on assessment and its effects on learning, and on what teachers attend to in the classroom. She worked as a staff member on the development of the National Science Education Standards and co-edited the volume Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom.
MIKE STIEFF, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction, studied Chemistry at Northwestern University (M.A., 2000, and all-but-dissertation) before switching to education (Ph.D. in Learning Sciences, Cognitive Science Certificate, 2004). Some of his research has involved a team of researchers and teachers developing high school chemistry materials that engage small groups of students in collaborative active learning centered around interactive simulations. His other research interests include visualization and students' use of representations.
E.F. (JOE) REDISH,Professor of Physics, is a national leader in physics education research, winner of a National Science Foundation Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2005. He was also recognized by the American Association of Physics Teachers with a Millikan award in 1998 for his lifetime contributions to physics education. His current research focuses on students' use of mathematics in solving physics problems.
SPENCER BENSON, Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, is Director of the campus Center for Teaching Excellence. His education research focuses on systemic change and on the effects of online learning environments, and he is involved in multiple partnerships between the University of Maryland and local school disticts.
DANIEL FALVEY, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is an award-winning chemistry researcher. His education interests center around the core chemistry concepts taught in both high school and introductory university courses. In 1997 he won an Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Maryland Center for Teaching Excellence.
ANDY ELBY, Assistant Research Scientist in Physics and in Curriculum & Instruction, did his graduate work at Berkeley in the Physics Department (Ph.D., 1995) then in the School of Education (M.A., Science & Math Education, 1997). His research has focused on cognitive structures and processes underlying students' reasoning in physics, on student views about the nature of knowledge and learning, and on learning environments designed to foster changes in students' approaches to learning science.
Selected Projects
A key feature of this project is to study students of all ages in order to answer these basic questions: Which cognitive abilities and approaches to learning that we see in successful older students (in college and graduate school) can we also find the seeds of even in elementary school students? How can those productive seeds be developed?
In all science but especially in chemistry, visualizing both microscopic and macroscopic phenomena and producing certain kinds of diagrams and other representations are important parts of learning and using the core disciplinary knowledge. But how and why are they important, and why do students often have trouble with diagams and representations? Our visualization and representation projects address these issues.
In this completed project we worked with a team of K-8 teachers for three years to collect video snippets of student inquiry from their classes. With our assistance, the teachers wrote case studies about interesting episodes of student inquiry, now published in a book, Seeing the Sense in Children's Thinking.
Previous research and our work in this project both highlight how rare it is for teachers to base instructional decisions on the substance of their students' conceptions and reasoning. Why is that? We are documenting that most teachers are capable of attending to the substance of their students' thinking, but a variety of factors pull their attention in other directions.
Collaborating with researchers and curriculum developers at San Diego State University, we will develop curricula for 4th through 6th graders that uses lessons about energy as a context in which to develop key aspects of scientific reasoning, particularly a principled commitment to mechanistic explanations.
This project focuses not on the content of the mathematics that students bring to bear in physics, but rather, on the ways they approach problem solving using math. We observe that physics majors have developed multiple "modes" of using math in physics.
Part of the research team for one of our projects, What influences teachers' modifications of curricula?
Our chemistry education researchers, currently focused on visualization and diagrammatic reasoning
Part of our group right before a research meeting. Typically, a graduate student presents work in progress in order to get feedback from other graduate students and from professors.
The book, aimed at teachers and staff developers, resulting from our Case Studies project
Third-grade students producing mechanistic reasoning during a discussion of bubbles
A stimulus used in visualization experiments on college students conducted by Mike Stieff and his team