UW Job Application

highlight Django Paris, Megan Bang, Katie Taylor.
Get the bloat out of the teaching statement. They don’t want to hear it.
Center teacher prep work though.

Background on Search Committee Phillip Bell Philip Bell is a professor of the Learning Sciences & Human Development and holds the Shauna C. Larson Chair in Learning Sciences. He is executive director of the UW Institute for Science & Math Education focused on equity-focused innovation in K-12 STEM education, and he is co-director of the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Science of Learning Center. Bell pursues a cognitive and cultural program of research across diverse environments focused on how people learn in ways that are personally consequential to them. He has studied everyday expertise and cognition in science and health, the design and use of novel learning technologies in science classrooms, youth argumentation, culturally expansive science instruction, and scaled implementation of educational improvement. Bell served as a member of the Board on Science Education with the National Academy of Sciences for eight years, co-chaired the National Research Council consensus report effort on Learning Science in Informal Environments and served on the committee of the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education that was used to guide development of Next Generation Science Standards. He has a background in human cognition and development, science education, computer science, and electrical engineering.

Bell is also currently editing a series of research- and practice-based tools for science education called STEM Teaching Tools. The effort is providing resources for equity-focused improvements in science education.

Heena Lakani

Designing Structures for Students to Navigate Between their Intuitive and Scientific Understandings: The Case of Physical and Chemical Changes

Students’ intuitive/naïve/everyday ideas co-exist with their scientifically-aligned ideas, and learning experiences should be designed that allow students to navigate between diverse forms of reasoning. The present research seeks to understand: what are students’ intuitive ideas about physical and chemical changes in different contexts? how can metacognition help students navigate between their intuitive and scientifically-aligned ideas? what knowledge do they recruit in subsequent reasoning tasks? Through this study, I hope to understand how the process of metacognition supports students to navigate between their intuitive and scientific ideas in subsequent reasoning tasks.

Dr. Karin Frey

What About Adolescents Currently Interests Us? Adolescents want to feel that their actions are consistent with their ‘true self.’ They feel most authentic when their actions reflect a positive sociomoral identity. Being a good friend is an important part of that identity. Teens want to help when friends experience discrimination, bullying or other threats. We look at how teens’ actions affect their friends and their own sociomoral identity.

We Learn from Ethnically and Culturally Diverse Partners  We are currently coding and analyzing interviews with 300 teens, evenly divided between o African Americans, o European Americans, o Mexican Americans, and o Native Americans.  We are preparing to interview teens, parents and educators about conflict management & reconciliation strategies typical of their culture.

Examples of Questions We Ask  How do teens feel about themselves when they have calmed a threatened friend… amplified anger… reconciled…. or avenged their friend?  What actions are most helpful for a teen who has experienced bullying or discrimination?  What goals do teens have when they try to help a friend?  How do cultural norms for conflict management influence desire to help friends…. and sometimes avenge them?  How do cultural differences in conflict management affect peer—educator relations?

Theoretical & Experiential Influences  School yard observations and conversations with teens in the U.S. & Papua New Guinea  Developmental social psychology, justice theory and resilience theory.

Favorite Research Methodologies  Behavior observations & in-depth interviews provide ecological validity & rich insights.  Both require qualitative coding.  Large data sets (e.g., observations of 600 students) require quantitative analyses.  Rigorous mixed methods examine links between context, behavior, emotions & beliefs.

Dr. Molly Shea

Dr. Shea is an educational ethnographer and learning scientist. Her work is focused at the nexus of research and practice in the study of human-centered design interventions created to interrupt social and environmental injustice. With special attention to learning in social movements, Shea examines how knowledge and practices are built, preserved, constrained and/or reorganized within contentious political moments, and how learning takes shape through these efforts. Dr. Shea was recently awarded a National Science Foundation grant to focus on developing high-tech, low-cost making projects to enhance computational teaching and learning alongside community.

Dr. Joe Lott


Dr. Jessica Thompson

Jessica Thompson is an Associate Professor in the UW College of Education. Her research focuses on building Local Improvement Networks that support ambitious and equitable teaching practice with novice and experienced science teachers, science and English Learner (EL) coaches, principals, and district leadership. Three principles guide her work:

Instructional excellence begins with a commitment to equity and being responsive to how all students engage in learning.
Core practices, well-designed tools and routines support the development of teaching.
Networked improvement communities based on strong partnerships with local schools and districts can accelerate common knowledge in a system when multiple-role actors are involved.