Learning Sciences Faculty

• Alison Castro Superfine Alison Castro Superfine is an Assistant Professor both in mathematics education and learning sciences. Her current research interests focus on two main areas of education research. The first area of research involves the enactment of K-8 mathematics curricula in the classroom, particularly focusing on the interactions between teachers and math curricula. Related to this domain of research are questions about the trajectory of teachers' curriculum use, and how and under what conditions does this use change over time? Finally, her second area of research involves preservice mathematics teacher education. In addition to teaching mathematics content courses for elementary preservice teachers, she also uses such courses as sites for inquiry into learning in formal contexts.
  


• Susan R. Goldman is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Education and Co-Director of UIC’s Learning Sciences Research Institute. She is a member of the Cognitive Division in Psychology and of the Language, Literacy, and Culture and Educational Psychology programs in the College of Education. Prior to UIC, she was Co-Director of the Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt University for 12 years, and a Professor in the Psychology Department.
  
  Dr. Goldman’s interests are in learning and assessment in subject matter domains such as literacy, mathematics, history, and science and roles for technologies in supporting assessment, instruction, and learning. She uses a variety of methodologies in her research, including discourse analysis, experimental designs, and design studies. Current work includes research on a web-based diagnostic reading assessment system, learning from multiple information sources, and use of virtual agent systems to support language development in kindergarten and first grade children from both English and Spanish language backgrounds. Past accomplishments include research and development of several technology-based environments for learning and assessment, including the mathematics problem solving series The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury, and The Little Planet Literacy Series.
  
  For over a decade, Dr. Goldman has been collaborating with educational practitioners to bridge research and practice. Currently, she is a major participant in Partnership READ, a reading demonstration project funded by the Chicago Community Trust and Chicago Public Schools. READ is working with over a dozen elementary schools to support high quality teaching and student learning in literacy through whole-school reform. She also heads the evaluation of a teacher enhancement grant, Supporting Teachers Supporting Teachers, a partnership between UIC’s College of Education and Chicago Public Schools. Over the years, her research and development activities have been funded by federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education, and a number of foundations, including the Spencer Foundation, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust. Dr. Goldman is widely published in discourse, psychology, and education journals and presently heads the Society for Text and Discourse. She is an associate editor on the journals Discourse Processes, Cognition and Instruction, and Learning and Instruction, and serves on the editorial board of Developmental Psychology. Goldman was a founding member and served on the board of the International Society for the Learning Sciences. In recognition of her role as a leader in the field of learning and instruction, Goldman served in the position of Vice President of Division C: Learning and Instruction (2000 ? 2002) of the American Educational Research Association.


• Kimberley Gomez is an Assistant Professor in Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and a learning sciences researcher whose research efforts are focused on helping children of color experience more equitable opportunities to learn in K-12 urban public schools. At the center of her research and design efforts is the support of literacy to achieve equity which is reflected in three interrelated lines of work: (1) access to rigorous, state of the art learning materials that meet students’ literacy and language needs and scaffold and transform their learning; (2) access to engaging and motivating learning environments; (3) interaction with teachers who have knowledge, training, and skills that can meet literacy and learning needs. Her currently funded research projects include a study of the relationship between reading achievement and science achievement in 9th graders in urban high schools and an analysis of proposed charter school instructional models, with a particular focus on reading instruction and technology integration plans, in gentrifying communities in Chicago. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Journal of  Negro Education, The Journal of Child Development, a Consortium on Chicago School Research Public Report on parent participation in Local School Councils, The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, and in Play in practice: Case studies in Young Children’s Play which describes black middle class mothers’ views of play as an educational opportunity for their children published by Redleaf Press.


• Kimberly Lawless is an AssociateProfessor of educational technology in the department of Curriculum, Instruction and Evaluation in the College of Education. Her research focuses are on the comprehension of digital text and teacher beliefs about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom.  She has published over 40 articles and book chapters in the areas of educational technology, instructional science and reading.  Currently, Dr. Lawless is the lead principle investigator and project director for Project TITUS, funded by the Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology program, and is the University partner for Chicago Public School’s No Child Left Behind initiative.  Both of these projects seek to enhance the integration of technology into diverse urban settings in meaningful ways.  In total, she has procured more than one million dollars in funding for these and other technology based research and initiatives.  In addition, Dr. Lawless serves on the editorial review boards for several professional journals, including the International Journal of Instructional Media and the Journal of Research on Computers in Education. Most recently, she has served as the co-guest editor for a special issue of Instructional Science focusing on innovations in web-based education.  Dr. Lawless served as the program chair for the educational technology research section (C7) of the American Educational Research Association for 2004, and was recently awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Researcher Award from the University of Connecticut.


• Leilah Lyons is an Assistant Professor of both Computer Science and the Learning Sciences. Her primary areas of interest are computer-based museum exhibit design, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), complex systems simulations in education, participatory simulations, mobile technology, learning in informal environments, and computer support of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning goals.


• Yolanda Majors is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education, where she focuses her research on adult/adolescent literacy, and curriculum instruction. She has been with the University since 2004 in a tenure-track position with her first review in spring 2005. Prior to UIC, she was an Assistant Professor of Language Education at the University of Georgia (2001?2003).
  
  Dr. Majors was awarded her Ph.D. in 2002 in Language, Literacy and Culture, from the University of Iowa, and earned her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Illinois in 1988. She also holds an M.A.T in English Education (1992) from the University of Iowa. She was a Holmes Fellow in 1996 and a Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow in 2000. She was granted the Promising Researcher Award from the National Council of Teachers of English in 2002. In 2004, Dr. Majors was awarded the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation Postdoctorial Fellowship Award.
  
  Majors has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Pedagogy, Culture and Society; Anthropology and Education Quarterly; Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy; and Mind, Culture and Activity. She is the author of chapters in two forthcoming books, published by Lawrence Erlbaum and the National Society for the Study of Education.


• Danny Martin is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and Mathematics. He teaches courses in the undergraduate elementary education program and the Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction. Prior to coming to UIC, he was Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Contra Costa College for 14 years, serving as Chair from 2001 to 2004, and was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow from 1998-2000. His broader research interests support a focus on mathematics socialization and the construction of mathematics identities among African American adults and adolescents. He is currently developing a perspective that frames mathematics learning and participation as racialized forms of experience.


• Tom Moher is Associate Professor of Computer Science and also holds an adjunct position with the College of Education.  For eight years, his research has focused on the design and field-based evaluation of computational and interactive technologies intended to support learning in classrooms, particularly within the context of group or whole class activity. Most of his work has revolved around the use of technologies to deliver simulated phenomena that may be visualized, probed, and controlled by collections of students. His virtual ambient environments research investigated the use of large multi-user displays to create shared spaces for student investigations. His more recent work in embedded phenomena explores the learning opportunities associated with binding technology affordances to the environment to represent windows?simulated instruments or visualizations?into extended simulations of phenomena imagined to be unfolding in the physical space of the classroom. Dr. Moher has published over 50 refereed articles including the work in learning technologies as well as earlier work in cognition and programming and software engineering. His work is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation.


• James W. Pellegrino is Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Distinguished Professor of Education. He also serves as co-director of UIC’s interdisciplinary Learning Sciences Research Institute. Prior to UIC, he was the Frank W. Mayborn Professor of Cognitive Studies at Vanderbilt University where he also served as co-director of the Learning Technology Center from 1989-1991 and as Dean of Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development from 1992-1998.
  
  Dr. Pellegrino’s research and development interests focus on children’s and adult’s thinking and learning and the implications of cognitive research and theory for assessment and instructional practice. Much of his current work is focused on analyses of complex learning and instructional environments, including those incorporating powerful information technology tools, with the goal of better understanding the nature of student learning and the conditions that enhance deep understanding.  A special concern of his research is the incorporation of effective formative assessment practices, assisted by technology, to maximize student learning and understanding.
  
  
  Dr. Pellegrino has served as head of several National Academy of Science/National Research Council study committees.  These include chair of the Study Committee for the Evaluation of the National and State Assessments of Educational Progress, co-chair of the NRC/NAS Study Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, and co-chair of the NRC/NAS Study Committee on the Foundations of Assessment which issued the report Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment.  He was a member of the NRC/NAS/NAE Study Committee on Improving Learning with Information Technology and recently chaired the NRC/NAS Panel on Research on Learning and Instruction for the Strategic Education Research Partnership. He is currently a member of the NRC/NAS Study Committee on Test Design for K-12 Science Achievement.  He is a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council. Dr. Pellegrino has supervised several large-scale research and development projects funded by agencies such as NSF, ONR, AFOSR, NIH, and private foundations.  He has authored or co-authored over 220 books, chapters and journal articles in the areas of cognition, instruction and assessment and has made numerous invited presentations at local, state, national and international meetings and at universities throughout the world.


• Josh Radinsky is an Assistant Professor in Learning Sciences and in the department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education. Before coming to UIC Dr. Radinsky received his PhD in the Learning Sciences program at Northwestern University. His work at Northwestern included software design research with the Supportive Inquiry-Based Learning Environments project (SIBLE), developing a piece of software called the Progress Portfolio, for students to use doing inquiry projects with computers, as well as curriculum design research with Northwestern’s Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools, where he helped develop the Earth Structures and Processes curriculum unit. Dr. Radinsky has also worked as a professional development specialist with the Chicago Teachers’ Center of Northeastern Illinois University, and as a teacher of teens and adults in Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village communities.


• Steve Tozer is a Professor in Policy Studies in the College of Education. After receiving his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he remained there on faculty from 1982 to 1994, and from 1990 to 1994 was Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Since moving to University of Illinois-Chicago in January 1995, Dr. Tozer has become active in professional preparation reform at the state and national levels. As Chair of the Governor’s Council on Teacher Quality in Illinois, he led changes in teacher certification laws in Illinois in partnership with the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.  Beginning in 1997, he led the funding and design of the first system-wide program of new teacher mentoring and induction for new teachers in Chicago Public Schools.  He is currently extending that work with a funded initiative to provide intensive new teacher support in one of Chicago’s hardest-to-staff West Side neighborhoods.  In partnership with Chicago Public Schools, Dr. Tozer led the design and implementation of a doctoral program in Urban Education Leadership to produce transformative leaders for low-performing urban schools.
  
  Dr. Tozer’s research interests have focused on the significance of social context knowledge in teacher preparation programs.  He is currently engaged in a two-year research study to compare performance differences of teachers prepared in alternative certification programs and those prepared in standard undergraduate and graduate programs. His work in reform of the professional preparation and development of teachers and school leaders has been funded by Joyce Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, McDougal Family Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, and the Chicago Public Education Fund, among others. In 1999 he received the Stevenson Award from the Association for Teacher Educators for leadership and dedication to the education profession. Dr. Tozer is past President of the Council for Social Foundations of Education and President-elect of the American Educational Studies Association. His book, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, is now entering its fifth edition with McGraw Hill, and he is lead editor of The Handbook of Research in Social Foundations of Education, forthcoming in 2006 from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


• Philip Wagreich is Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science and the former Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Columbia University in 1967.  He was a Lecturer at Brandeis University from 1966 to 68, a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, from 1968 to 70, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1968 to 1973.  Since 1973 he has been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at UIC, first as an Associate Professor and since 1978 as a Professor.  He has published 15 research articles on algebraic geometry and 7 articles on mathematics education and is one of the principal authors of the TIMS Elementary Mathematics Curriculum, which has been published as Math Trailblazers. 
  
  Prof. Wagreich is Project Director/Principal Investigator of the TIMS (Teaching Integrated Mathematics and Science) Project which has been supported by numerous Teacher Enhancement and Curriculum Development NSF grants, the most recent being a 5 year project, starting in 2003, for ?Research and Revision of the TIMS/Math Trailblazers Elementary Mathematics Curriculum.? He is a co-Director of the Mathematicians and Education Reform (MER) Forum. He was PD/PI for the UIC - Community College Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation and for an NSF Proof-of-Concept curriculum development grant to develop modules for pre-service elementary teachers mathematics courses.  In 1992 he was awarded the Excellence in Integrated Mathematics & Science Award by the School Science and Mathematics Association and in 1996 he received the Max Beberman Award from the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics for contributions to mathematics education in Illinois and the nation.  From 1997 to 2000 he was a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics writing team that developed national standards for mathematics curriculum, teaching, and evaluation in Grades K-12.


• Donald J. Wink is a Professor and former Head of the Department of Chemistry. He has engaged in several materials and curriculum development projects since he arrived there for a faculty position as Coordinator of General Chemistry in 1992. Prior to that he was an assistant professor at New York University engaged in research in theoretical, synthetic, and applied organometallic chemistry. He was trained at the University of Chicago (S.B.) and at Harvard University (Ph.D.). His current projects are diverse but share a theme of crossing boundaries, often using student pathways as a source of inspiration and direction. His first UIC project joined preparatory chemistry and intermediate algebra curricula in a curriculum development and research project that demonstrated gains for student outcomes in later chemistry classes (Wink et al 2001) and the publication of a new "math-aware" preparatory chemistry text, The Practice of Chemistry. A later project, discussed in this paper, involved faculty from other departments that require general chemistry in the development of scenario-based laboratory instruction. His most recent work focuses on issues of teaching in K-12 settings, including a collaborative for teacher preparation that brought together UIC and area community college and an NSF GK-12 project for intervention in schools. As part of the latter project he is a regular participant in activities at Crane Tech Prep High School on Chicago’s West Side, where he works with a community of administrators, teachers, and students addressing some of the most challenging teaching and learning issues of urban schools. Not surprisingly, he relies on a network of valuable colleagues and coauthors within the greater Chicago area.