Project Team: Engineering Education
Mitchell Nathan, PhD, BSEE, Co-Principal Investigator
Professor Mitchell Nathan (website link) studies the cognitive, embodied, and social processes involved in learning and teaching mathematics, science and engineering in classrooms and the laboratory, using analyses of discourse, survey and assessment instruments, and experimental design. Dr. Nathan examines teacher beliefs about student learning and the influences of the expert blind spot, where high content knowledge in teachers shapes their expectations of novices' conceptual development. Among students, Dr. Nathan examines their inventions of mathematical representations and strategies for reasoning about alebraic problem solving and pattern generalization. In the social setting of the classroom, Dr. Nathn explores the role of discourse, collaborative understanding and socially mediated learning. Dr. Nathan has secured over $10M in external research funds and has over 50 peer reviewed publications in educational research and cognitive psychology, as well as over 80 scholarly presentations to US and international audiences. He is currently Chair of the Learning Sciences program and a founding officer of the International Society of the Learning Science (ISLS).
L. Allen Phelps, Co-Principal Investigator
Over
the past 25 years, Professor Phelps' research and teaching has focused
on improving policy and practice in career and technical education, secondary
special education, and major education initiatives connecting education
and the economy. As Director of the Center
on Education and Work (CEW) and a faculty member in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, his
current work is examining: restructured high schools that include youth
with disabilities, post-school outcome analyses, career-focused and community-linked
charter high schools, and integrating performance accountability and educational
improvement strategies. The CEW is committed to developing and disseminating
evidence-based practice and policy for advancing learning and career development
across connected contexts (i.e., school, work, college, community, and
family settings). In his faculty role, he leads graduate courses and seminars
on: foundations of higher, postsecondary and continuing education; high
school redesign; and leadership in education-and-work systems and 2-year
colleges.
Amy Prevost, Project Assistant
Prevost has been a graduate student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis for 2 years. As a student, Amy has worked with the Department of Engineering Professional Development under the direction of Dr. Philip O'Leary to help define an evaluation plan for the department that would enable a more accurate account for 'return on investment' with relationship to education outreach initiatives. In addition to being a student, she is the Scientific Courses Coordinator for a Madison-based non-profit engaged in continuing education and education outreach in the area of molecular biology and biotechnology. Prevost has earned bachelor's degrees in molecular biology and French and a master's degree in adult and continuing education.
Amy Atwood, Project Assistant
As a PhD candidate in the Quantitative Methods program of the Department of Educational Psychology, Amy has received extensive training in statistical methods and research design. This background is put to use through her contributions to the engineering education portion of the project. Her own research has primarily focused on using simulated data to examine the performance of statistical methods, particularly those involving violation of test assumptions and preliminary tests of significance, in the interest of more clearly delineating appropriate use of the methods under examination.
Benjamin Stein, Project Assistant
Stein is a graduate student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
where his work is in hyperspectral laser design. Before returning to school,
he worked as a math instructor at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University
and an electronics design engineer at ASML. These experiences an engineer
and educator lend themselves to his curricular analysis work for the education
portion of the project.