Professor Penuel designs and studies curriculum materials, assessments, and professional learning experiences for teachers in STEM education, primarily in science. He also investigates how contemplative practices and critical inquiry can support educators in cultivating more compassionate learning environments and schools. A third line of his research focuses on how long-term research-practice partnerships can be organized to address systemic inequities in education systems linked to race, gender and sexual diversity, and language. In each of his projects, Penuel works in partnership with educators and education leaders to explore how to attenuate inequities in school systems by: (1) creating equitable classroom cultures that attend to student experience; (2) testing strategies for address epistemic injustices in whose knowledge is elicited and valued; and (3) connecting teaching to the interests, experiences, and identities of learners, particularly those to whom our society owes an education debt. He uses a wide range of research methods, including one Penuel and colleagues developed called design-based implementation research, to test what they co-design.
keywords
design-based implementation research, teacher learning, sociocultural approaches to classroom assessment, science curricula, afterschool programs, learning and development from sociocultural, social capital, complex social systems perspectives, research-practice partnerships, research utilization, science interest development, learning with digital media, compassion and dignity
EDUA 5022 - Compassion In Action: Capstone
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Summer 2021 / Summer 2022 / Summer 2023 / Summer 2024
This course focuses on compassion in action as leaders plan for cultivating more compassionate environments and explore the ways compassion can contribute to the wellness of educators and schools. They will apply compassion practices to investigate assumptions they make about students, relationships, and schools. Educators will identify ways to use/adapt existing policies/procedures/routines as they develop action plans, bringing compassionate leadership to school communities and sustaining their work in today�s increasingly precarious climate.
EDUC 4112 - Adolescent Development and Learning for Teachers
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Fall 2020
Examines current theory and research about adolescent learning and development and explore implications for secondary teaching. Topics include human diversity as a resource for learning, adversity and agency, connecting instruction to students' everyday lives, and the role of belonging and relationships in positive youth development. This course is appropriate for masters degree students. Degree credit not granted for this course and EDUC 5112.
EDUC 6368 - Adolescent Psychology and Development for Teachers
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Spring 2018
Examines current theory and research on adolescent development, learning, motivation, and academic achievement. Emphasizes how theory and research can inform instructional decisions in the secondary classroom.
EDUC 7386 - Educational Evaluation
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Builds an understanding of the range of approaches taken by educational evaluators, focusing particularly on the evaluation of programs. Explores the nature of different evaluation perspectives and how these disparate views translate into methodological and conceptual models. Students develop a familiarity with the most common and influential approaches to evaluation.
EDUC 8348 - Human Development in Cultural, Historical, and Sociopolitical Contexts
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
This course takes a critical approach to exploring the moral, sociopolitical, and bio-psychosocial dimensions of human development. It will introduce students to different theories and methods for studying human development across the lifespan. Many traditional approaches to developmental research treat development in Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) contexts as normative for all populations. This course will focus on approaches that reject the notion that processes of human development are universal, examining the ways that social, cultural and geographic environments and histories shape development and life trajectories. Recommended prerequisite: EDUC 6318 or EDUC 8210 or instructor consent.
EDUC 8730 - Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021
Requires students begin semester with qualitative data already collected (from class project, pilot study, dissertation). Instructors present diverse methods of analyzing data and writing about interpretations. Instructors customize part of course to address specific topic of expertise, e.g., discourse analysis, video analysis, textual analysis, ethnographic analysis. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.
PSYC 4114 - Adolescent Development and Learning for Teachers
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Fall 2020
Examines current theory and research about adolescent learning and development and explore implications for secondary teaching. Topics include human diversity as a resource for learning, adversity and agency, connecting instruction to students' everyday lives, and the role of belonging and relationships in positive youth development. This course is appropriate for masters degree students. Same as EDUC 4112 and EDUC 5112.
PSYC 7415 - Cognitive Science Research Applications Seminar 1
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Independent, interdisciplinary research project in cognitive science for advanced graduate students pursuing a joint PhD in an approved core discipline and cognitive science. Research projects integrate at least two areas within the cognitive sciences: psychology, computer science, linguistics, education, philosophy. Students need commitments from two mentors for their project. Recommended prerequisite: EDUC 6505. Same as CSCI 7412 and EDUC 6506 and LING 7415 and PHIL 7415 and SLHS 7418.
