Celebrating 60 years, Learning Research & Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

CELEBRATING

60 YEARS

LRDC LEARNING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTER

This report celebrates the Learning Research and Development Center’s 60 years as a leading interdisciplinary center for research on learning and education. The report builds on LRDC’s 50th anniversary report of 2014 (“Celebrating 50 Years of LRDC”) providing glimpses of LRDC over the years and highlights from the period between 2014 and 2024, including some of the exciting work from our current research and development agenda.

LRDC’s core mission, summarized as “Understanding Learning. Improving Education,” is engaged through multidisciplinary research and researchinformed educational improvement projects. The Center advances the sciences of learning and education by bringing together researchers from the cognitive, developmental, educational, social, and computational sciences. This multi-discipline environment stimulates interactions and collaborations across a broad spectrum of problems: from the neural basis of learning to socio-economic factors in child development; from reading science and language learning to coaching teachers in math and literacy; from pre-school math abilities to learning college physics; from AI tutors to opportunity and equity in technology. We study also the reasoning and intellectual abilities that serve learning across many domains. Moreover, throughout its 60 year history, researchers in LRDC have tackled less-studied domains—legal education, history, geography, avionics, medical training. Among research institutions in learning and education, this interconnected breadth is unique.

LRDC’s ability to sustain research programs across these diverse, intersecting problems owes much to collaboration with its partnering schools and departments in the University. The leadership of the University of Pittsburgh has made possible what is often very difficult: a research center that has been able to effectively pursue truly cross-disciplinary research programs. This partnering has allowed the development of outstanding faculty and the education of graduate students and postdocs in research on learning and education.

In the age of the digital world and generative AI, learning science contributions to education and social improvement will be more important than ever. Innovative research and development in LRDC will have a role in this future.

I have had the honor to serve as director of LRDC since 2008, only the third director in LRDC’s 60-year history. By the time this report is completed, LRDC will have welcomed its fourth director, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, professor of psychology.

LRDC can look forward to a bright future under her leadership.

Charles A. Perfetti Director, LRDC, 2008-2024 Distinguished University Professor University of Pittsburgh 60 years of LRDC

1

DIRECTOR’S INTRODUCTION It is with great enthusiasm that I begin my tenure as the new director of the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), only the fourth person in this role in LRDC’s 60-year history.

Since its establishment in 1963, LRDC has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s most respected research centers focusing on learning and instruction. I am honored to have this opportunity to lead the thriving group of interdisciplinary scientists with a robust grant portfolio that conducts ambitious research focused on learning and development. Additionally, I am inspired by the work of the Insitute for Learning and other scholars at the center engaged in research-to-practice partnerships that strengthen opportunities for high quality learning opportunities across the pre-K to post-secondary landscape.

Though I identify as a developmental psychologist, I have been deeply committed to interdisciplinary science throughout my career. Since coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 2005 as an assistant professor of psychology, I have built a research program that integrates psychology, education, economics, sociology, and physiology to better understand how socioeconomic inequality shapes human development over the life course.

Over the course of my career, I have worked hard to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). From extensive

2

University of Pittsburgh

mentoring of underrepresented students in the Hot Metal Bridge (HMB) program, to promoting a Latinx Cluster Hiring Initiative, to serving as director of diversity initiatives in the Department of Psychology, I have advanced DEI as part of the fabric of our institution, not simply the focus of specific actions.

In today’s higher education environment, centers such as LRDC must be laser focused on a set of key strategic priorities and develop collaborations that leverage the resources of others on behalf of these priorities. Along with LRDC’s stellar scholars and researchers, I wholeheartedly welcome that challenge.

Moreover, I believe, as a community, we can increase the impact of our work to advance human progress and strengthen learning opportunities for all by informing practices and policies at the local, state, and national levels.

Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal Director, LRDC Professor, Department of Psychology University of Pittsburgh

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

60 YEARS OF UNDERSTANDING LEARNING IMPROVING EDUCATION

Through our programs, we aim to contribute to the science of learning and help create a just and equitable society, one where everyone can develop the knowledge, skills, and agency to fully

INTRODUCTION

Director’s Introduction Founding and Follow Through Mission 60th Anniversary

RESEARCH AREAS

Brain Development and Effects on Learning Cognitive and Motivational Factors in Learning Developmental Processes and Outcomes Learning Communities and Interventions for Improvement Language Learning, Reading Skills, and Literacy Interventions Large-Scale Educational Improvement Learning Technologies That Support Inclusive Education Supporting STEM Learning Pathways To and Through College

participate and thrive in society. We aspire to train the next generation of learning and educational scientists, to contribute to the well-being of our region, to advance the mission of the University of Pittsburgh and to have a broad and global reach of our impact on learning and education.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT A HISTORY OF EXCELLENCE Contributions to the Disciplines: Publications, Contributions, Conferences

DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT TOOLS EXTENDING THE IMPACT OF OUR RESEARCH Cultivating Student Success at Pitt Applying Learning Science to the University’s Instructional Mission Centering Equity and Research in Teaching and Learning: The Institute for Learning Increasing Engagement across Partnering Communities Expanding Global Engagement Promoting Innovation and Commercialization Expanding the Pipeline Increasing Distinguished Awards Media Recognition: LRDC in the News

RESEARCH FUNDING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Elevating Interdisciplinary Discovery and Collaboration Current Faculty Research Associates Board of Visitors

The LRDC building, constructed in 1972, was demolished in 2021 to accommodate a new stateof-the-art recreation and wellness center. Pictures of the original construction and demolition can be found in “Goodbye to an Odd Favorite.” pittmag.pitt.edu/news/ goodbye-odd-favorite

60 years of LRDC

3

“

Since LRDC’s beginnings in the mid-1960s, its research has reflected several broad themes, including the nature of human learning, knowledge, skill, and expertise across domains; the features of effective teaching and instructional environments; and the development of educational materials and technologies that support learning.

“

FOUNDING AND FOLLOW THROUGH The Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) sprang from a proposal written by Founding Director Robert Glaser and University administrator J. Steele Gow in 1963. Their idea, as expressed in the opening sentence of the proposal, was to establish a center that stimulated interaction between educational practice and scientific knowledge:

{

The problem area on which this Center focuses its attention is that of expediting fruitful interaction between learning research in the behavioral sciences and instructional practice in the schools.

Since LRDC’s beginnings in the mid-1960s, its research has reflected several broad themes, including the nature of human learning, knowledge, skill, and expertise across domains; the features of effective teaching and instructional environments; and the development of educational materials and technologies that support learning.

LRDC became a source of important research on human cognition and came to be recognized as a model research institute in the cognitive science of learning and instruction. It hosted invitational conferences on emergent issues, many of which resulted in influential published volumes.

4

University of Pittsburgh

With research funding from both federal agencies and foundations, the Center tackled some of education’s persistent problems. LRDC’s research agenda has responded to new problems and opportunities throughout the years, at the same time a continuing commitment to both basic and applied research in interaction with practical problems of learning and education has remained its keystone. In the digital world and age of generative AI, learning science contributions to education and social improvement are more important than ever. LRDC aims to maintain its position as a national leader in learning and educational research and a strong contributor to the broader research, education, and public-facing mission of the University.

The Center has enjoyed an unusual continuity in its leadership with only four directors over the course of its 60 years. Robert Glaser led the Center from its establishment in 1963 to 1997.

Lauren Resnick was codirector from 1977 to 1997, and director from 1997 to 2008. Charles Perfetti became LRDC’s third director in 2008, stepping down in 2024. In 2024, LRDC welcomed its fourth director, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, professor of psychology.

MISSION

LRDC’s mission is to advance the science of learning by bringing together researchers in the cognitive, social, and educational sciences.

This mission has guided LRDC in its programs of basic and applied research, its demonstration projects, and its work in educational improvement. In the Center’s multidisciplinary setting, scientists study learning in its cognitive, neural, social, and organizational aspects, making research and development links to formal education practice, policy, and out-of-school settings.

LRDC has pursued this mission by promoting research that evolves over time and is informed by varied perspectives across multiple disciplines.

TODAY, RESEARCH IS ORGANIZED AROUND THE FOLLOWING BROAD AREAS: Brain Development and Effects on Learning Cognitive and Motivational Factors in Learning Developmental Process and Outcomes Learning Communities and Interventions for Improvement Language Learning, Reading Skill, and Literacy Interventions Large-Scale Educational Improvement Learning Technologies that Support Inclusive Education Supporting STEM Learning Pathways To and Through College

60 years of LRDC

5

LRDC’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY In 2024, LRDC marked 60 years of scholarship and collaboration. The Center celebrated the milestone on June 3 by reflecting on its history and looking toward the future with speeches from LRDC leaders in the William Pitt Union lower lounge.

After a welcome from University Provost Joseph McCarthy emphasizing the University’s commitment to the Center, LRDC Director Charles Perfetti presented his keynote on the Center’s legacy with “Understanding Learning, Improving Education; LRDC’s 60 Years as a University Center.”

A priority area for LRDC research, for both educational improvement and learning science, is high-impact research-practice partnerships that support education improvement across K-12 and into postsecondary education. Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) aim to increase the impact of educational improvement through collaborations with practitioners that address practical problems while also producing generalizable knowledge.

LRDC has been at the forefront of the RPP movement in educational research in recent years, and several RPPs were highlighted at the 60th celebration. Featured partnerships were WQED and Heather Bachman (Associate Professor, School of Education); Assemble Pittsburgh and Manchester Youth Development Center and Angela Stewart (Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information); The Pittsburgh Promise and Jennifer Iriti (Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Inclusion & Outreach Strategy); and the Carnegie Science Center and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Mary Ann Steiner (Research Associate, School of Education). Institute for Learning Director of Analytics and Operations Aaron Anthony and LRDC Senior Scientist and IFL Research Liaison Christian Schunn spoke on translating research into practice.

“

A priority area for LRDC research, for both educational improvement and learning science, is high-impact research-practice partnerships that support education improvement across K-12 and into postsecondary education.

“

6

University of Pittsburgh

LRDC COLLOQUIUM SERIES In 2024, the Center initiated the LRDC Colloquium Series as part of the 60th anniversary commemorations. The series brings distinguished speakers from a variety of disciplines to the Center.

Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, the Commonwealth Professor of Education at the University of Virginia and chair of the Department of Education Leadership, Foundations & Policy, will be the inaugural speaker of the 2025 series. Dr. Rimm-Kaufman studies systematic ways that classroom social and psychological experiences are productive (or not productive) environments for child and youth development. She is the author of two books on social and emotional learning in schools.

Stephen Hutt, the second speaker in the series, is an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Denver. Dr. Hutt studies how AI techniques can be used to improve educational software and experiences, with a special focus on the fair treatment of students who are members of underrepresented groups. His talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Informatics and Network Science in the School of Computing and Information (SCI).

60 years of LRDC

7

RESEARCH AREAS

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND EFFECTS ON LEARNING At LRDC, we collaborate across disciplines and departments to advance the science of brain development and learning processes.

PRIMARY FACULTY Marc Coutanche Julie Fiez

Learning In recognition of the importance of neuroscience in research on learning, Julie Fiez studies how the brain uses feedback to learn about words and numbers. In two strands of work, she studies the role of the cerebellum in reading comprehension and speech production and the intact and impaired math and language abilities of stroke victims. A new collaboration between Fiez and faculty in Pitt’s School of Education is studying the neural bases of Braille literacy and numeracy. (More on Fiez in the Language Learning, Reading Skills, and Literacy Interventions section.)

Memory We often need to apply our knowledge flexibly and creatively, not simply recall it. Marc Coutanche studies how the human brain learns and stores knowledge, and how it is retrieved from memory.

Combining neuroimaging experiments with advanced computational techniques, Coutanche’s goal is to understand how information is encoded in the brain and how it is retrieved. Retrieval can be influenced by context, and Coutanche has recently used virtual reality (VR) to create new contexts that can trigger “context-dependent” memories.

Jamie Hanson Melissa Libertus Charles Perfetti Walter Schneider

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Anna Chrabaszcz Gaisha Oralova Sudhir Pathak

8

University of Pittsburgh

Reading An international authority on the cognitive science of reading and second language processes, Charles Perfetti uses brain-based indicators of reading and word learning (ERPs) to study the cognitive components of literacy. (More on Perfetti in Language Learning, Reading Skills, and Literacy Interventions section.)

Mathematics Melissa Libertus studies the behavioral and neural bases of mathematical abilities in children and adults. With a focus on the development of numerical cognition in infants and young children, her work documents the importance of children’s basic number knowledge and the role that the home environment plays in shaping children’s math learning. Complementing this is her collaboration with neuroscience researchers Coutanche and Fiez, who have identified distinct cortical areas that differentiate numerical tasks and formats.

NOVEL APPROACHES TO FUNCTIONAL LATERALIZATION The human brain’s division into two cortical hemispheres is one of its most visible and clearest organizational principles. Certain cognitive functions are associated with bilateral neural processing, whereas others are frequently lateralized to one hemisphere. For instance, language processing is generally left-lateralized,

Development

and face processing tends to be

In developmental neuroscience research, Jamie Hanson studies how childhood adversity may influence brain and behavioral development. Hanson uses fMRI data to study brain changes in response to early life stress and how these changes can lead to negative outcomes, such as disruptive and aggressive behavioral problems. Hanson has found that specific brain areas, those involved in reward and socioemotional information processing, are altered in response to early childhood adversity.

lateralized in the right hemisphere.

Contributions to Brain Science The human brain’s division into two hemispheres is one of its clearest and most visible organizational principles.

Marc Coutanche has developed new approaches to analyze fMRI data to identify hemispheric functionality.

lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/NovelApproaches-to-Functional-Lateralization

Walter Schneider addresses a 40-year-old problem: the failure to coordinate scan-based diagnoses across different MRI machines. Schneider and colleagues have developed a cross-machine calibration solution that contributes to the improvement of medical diagnostics.

Schneider is also contributing a tracking model to the Human Connectome Project (HCP), a worldwide multiinstitutional project tackling one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century: mapping the human brain.

LRDC aims to be a leader in the use of neuroimaging methods to study how the brain supports cognition and learning.

“

“

At LRDC, we collaborate across disciplines and departments to advance the science of brain development and learning processes.

60 years of LRDC

9

RESEARCH AREAS

COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN LEARNING

LRDC has a long-standing focus on the cognitive processes of learning and the motivational factors that engage these processes.

Motivation

PRIMARY FACULTY Kevin Binning Brian Galla Timothy Nokes-Malach Frits Pil Benjamin Rottman

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Tessa Benson-Greenwald Omid Fotuhi Melanie Good (Department of Physics and Astronomy)

In recognition of the importance of motivation in learning, Timothy Nokes-Malach studies the relationships among motivation, cognition, problem-solving, and transfer. He has investigated how students’ achievement goals and selfefficacy beliefs interact with different forms of instruction.

In new work, Nokes-Malach is part of a multi-institutional team studying ways to incorporate principles of the science of learning into educational practice.

Reasoning Benjamin Rottman explores the cognitive processes behind causal reasoning—how people learn cause-effect relationships from their experiences (e.g., “This new medicine I have been trying seems to work well.”) and the role of long-term memory for learning causal relations.

He is currently conducting smartphone experiments to study causal learning and memory. The goal of his work is to understand how to teach causal inference in research methods classrooms to improve science education.

Frits Pil studies various aspects of organizational learning, including where organizational knowledge originates, where it resides, and how it is transferred and leveraged within and across organizational boundaries.

Mindfulness

10

University of Pittsburgh

Brian Galla examines how mindfulness shapes positive development, from adolescence through early adulthood. His research has shown positive associations between individual differences in mindfulness and academic engagement, emotional well-being, and stress coping. Galla, NokesMalach, and faculty in the physics department have found positive effects of mindfulness training on students’ stress management, motivation, and engagement in introductory physics courses.

INVESTIGATING THE PREDICTIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN SELF-EFFICACY AND ACHIEVEMENT Self-efficacy and achievement goals represent two extensively researched motivational factors in education, though little is known about how they relate to different types of problemsolving.

Belonging Kevin Binning has found that people’s behavior in academic settings is shaped by their views of themselves, their classmates, and the environment. Binning’s Ecological Belonging Intervention, an in-class exercise designed to change classroom norms about the meaning of adversity and belonging in that course, has been carried out in a host of departments at Pitt. This work has shown that belonging interventions can address achievement gaps among gender and racial lines.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/ Investigating-the-PredictiveRelations-between-Self-efficacyand-Achievement-Goals

Binning and Omid Fotuhi have spearheaded Pitt’s partnership with the Stanford University College Transition Collaborative (CTC) to study the social and motivational factors that influence college success. The project includes more than 2,000 Pitt first-year students as part of a cross-national experiment taking place at 26 other campuses that analyze classroom environments that contribute to a sense of belonging. In 2022, the study was expanded to include Pitt graduate students as recipients of the intervention.

Looking forward, researchers are increasingly examining the conjoint relationship of cognitive and affective factors in learning—how motivations and social beliefs drive the use of particular cognitive strategies in learning.

“

“

LRDC researchers are engaged in several lines of work designed to clarify the cognitive, neural, and motivational factors in learning.

60 years of LRDC

11

RESEARCH AREAS

DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES

Early childhood learning sets the stage for growth and development across the life course. Our developmental research considers how cognitive processes and the environment affect learning, and the impact of social factors on development from early childhood to adolescence and early adulthood.

Early Development

PRIMARY FACULTY Heather Bachman Jamie Hanson Daphne Henry Diana Leyva Melissa Libertus Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Maria Anderson Portia Miller Andrew Ribner Alex Silver

Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Heather Bachman, and Melissa Libertus lead the Parents Promoting Early Learning (PPEL) project, exploring how parents help their children learn and develop through everyday activities.

Libertus also studies the development of early mathematical skills. Individual differences in numerical cognition in infants and children, and variations in math learning opportunities in the home, shape children’s later math skills. (More on Libertus in Brain Development and Effects on Learning section).

With an emphasis on early academic and social development, Bachman has developed research-practice partnerships (RPPs) in the Pittsburgh area to support parent and teacher engagement in children’s early math and socioemotional learning.

Together, Bachman, Libertus, and Votruba-Drzal are exploring children’s screen time and associations with academic skills. Although excessive screen time has negative developmental outcomes for young children, their work documents the benefits of screen time that is educational, involves parental presence, and is interactive.

Diana Leyva studies authentic familial practices that support preschool children’s early language, literacy, and math development in ethnically diverse communities.

Her research focuses on how familial practices such as food routines (e.g., grocery shopping, cooking, mealtimes) and oral narratives (e.g., reminiscing) promote school readiness. In new work, Leyva is piloting a literacy and nutrition program for Latino families in the Pittsburgh area with colleagues from the Schools of Education and Public Health and piloting a science and literacy program for Latino families in the Santa Ana (CA) area with colleagues from UC Irvine (A. Bustamante).

12

University of Pittsburgh

CHILDREN’S SCREEN TIME AND ASSOCIATIONS WITH ACADEMIC SKILLS Educational content and contextual features of screen time combine in meaningful ways and appear to predict children’s literacy and spatial skills compared to variable-centered approaches.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/ Childrens-Screen-Time-andAssociations-with-Academic-Skills

Child and Adolescent Development Wealth deprivation is currently the most common form of economic disadvantage confronting families with children in the U.S. It outpaces income poverty and is on the rise, yet few studies have examined how it shapes opportunities for healthy growth and development. In the first study of its kind, Votruba-Drzal, Jamie Hanson, and Research Associate Portia Miller are studying a diverse cohort of families over time, linking wealth to adolescent development.

Focusing on contexts that shape learning, Daphne Henry analyzes the early care and education that inform African American and socioeconomically disadvantaged children’s academic achievement. Henry’s work investigates how community, social inequality, and family intersect with race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to influence early child development.

Early childhood learning sets the stage for growth and development across the life course.

“

“

PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION IS IMPORTANT FOR EFFECTIVE EARLY MATH INTERVENTION Children who enter school with lower levels of mathematical skills typically continue to underperform and tend to take fewer high-level math courses compared to their peers. It is therefore important to examine the origins of individual differences in mathematical skills prior to school entry.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/Parentchild-Interaction-for-Early%20Math%20 Intervention.cshtml

60 years of LRDC

13

RESEARCH AREAS

LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND INTERVENTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT At LRDC, we take a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to studying a wide range of types of learning across varied settings.

PRIMARY FACULTY Heather Bachman Kevin Binning Kevin Crowley Daphne Henry Diana Leyva Melissa Libertus Timothy Nokes-Malach Angela Stewart

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Karen Knutson

Community Settings Kevin Crowley and the UPCLOSE research team investigate how people learn in informal settings. In a 20+ year research-practice partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), UPCLOSE has explored topics such as learning through art and creativity and learning through natural history museums. In new work, the UPCLOSE team is leading a climate science education program through its Climate in Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP).

Heather Bachman’s research centers on early academic and social development, focusing on family and classroom processes. Bachman is collaborating with WQED on projects that support parent and teacher engagement in children’s early math and socioemotional learning. The projects involve partnerships with the Pittsburgh Public Schools pre-K program, McKeesport School District pre-K program, community libraries the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU)/Head Start classrooms.

Angela Stewart works with regional community centers on computing and robotics. Her work supports Black girls in learning robotics in a summer camp with the Manchester Youth Development Center (MYDC).

Jesse Rubio Mary Ann Steiner

Network Improvement Communities (NICs) The Institute for Learning (IFL) partners with school districts to address their needs through research-based improvement strategies. IFL’s impact has been enhanced by its use of network improvement communities (NICs). In NICs, researchers use principles of improvement science to develop, test, refine, and share promising instructional

14

University of Pittsburgh

EARLY CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES ON LEARNING IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN Early childhood environments’ impacts on learning are believed to have lasting, perhaps even cascading, consequences for children’s achievement through their school years.

routines throughout the network. NICs have been used in LRDC research in large urban school districts such as Dallas; discipline-specific organizations, such as the Better Math Teaching Network; and entire state departments of education, such as Tennessee led by former researcher Jennifer Lin Russell (now at Vanderbilt University).

Classrooms In new work, Christian Schunn and LRDC colleagues explore the use of children’s home languages in mathematics classrooms in the state of Texas, where the population of emergent bilinguals is twice the national average. Schunn has found that students’ use of Spanish, associated with growth in comfort participating in the mathematics classroom, is related to growth in mathematics self-efficacy and, in turn, growth on the state mathematics assessment.

Kevin Binning has found that people’s behavior in academic settings is shaped by their views of themselves, their classmates, and their classrooms. (More on Binning in Cognitive and Motivational Factors in Learning section.)

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/EarlyChildhood-Influences-on-Learning-inAfrican-American-Children

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FAMILY INTERVENTION IMPROVES LATINO KINDERGARTENERS’ VOCABULARY AND APPROACHES TO LEARNING All families engage in food routines, such as grocery shopping, cooking, and eating together, but in Latino families, food routines can play special roles.

Families Diana Leyva studies authentic familial practices that support preschool children’s learning. (More on Leyva in Early Childhood Education section.)

Melissa Libertus studies how numerical cognition is developed in infants and children in family settings.

(More on Libertus in Early Childhood Education section.)

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs. cshtml#culturally-responsive-familyintervention

60 years of LRDC

15

RESEARCH AREAS

LANGUAGE LEARNING, READING SKILLS, AND LITERACY INTERVENTIONS LRDC’s research on reading and language has contributed to our evolving understanding of the development of language and literacy, across writing systems and languages, in settings both local and global.

PRIMARY FACULTY Julie Fiez Scott Fraundorf Diana Leyva Lindsay Clare Matsumura Charles Perfetti Natasha Tokowicz Tessa Warren

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Lin Chen Gaisha Oralova Marguerite Walsh Dean Zook-Howell

16

University of Pittsburgh

Reading and Language Processes An internationally recognized leader in research on reading, Charles Perfetti studies literacy development across languages and writing systems using multiple behavioral and brain-based measures to achieve a richer view of the universal and languagespecific processes of reading. In new work with former Research Associate Lin Chen, Perfetti and colleagues combine reading measures by co-registering a reader’s eye movements with evoked brain potentials (ERPs) to track the word-by-word comprehension of readers from various language backgrounds as they read authentic English texts. Readers with different language backgrounds (e.g., Chinese and English) show both similarities and differences in these processes.

The third of three volumes on reading and literacy edited by Perfetti and a team of international collaborators was recently published. Across 17 written languages, the volumes address the relation between the spoken word and the written word, offering insight into how learning to read is affected by specific language and writing systems.

Julie Fiez studies the neural bases of reading and the neural correlates of learning to read. Her recent neuroimaging research includes the role of the cerebellum in reading and the discovery that a frontoparietal executive control system is highly engaged in the early development of reading skills (More on Fiez in the Brain Development and Effects on Learning section.)

INVESTIGATING THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY SKILLS IN ADULTS Orthographic learning does not simply cease at the end of childhood, but its development and usage also continue in adulthood, as new words are acquired throughout our whole lifespan.

Tessa Warren uses eye movements to track the word-by-word processes that lead both to momentary difficulties and ultimate success in comprehension. In multidisciplinary work that brings together psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and bridges to clinical impact, Warren and colleagues in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders are investigating the reading and language comprehension of people with aphasia.

Language Learning and Bilingualism In a world in which most people speak two or more languages, second language learning and bilingualism are critical areas of research. Natasha Tokowicz uses behavioral and ERP methods to study bilingual and language learning processes. Her studies have identified difficulties encountered in a second language because of translation ambiguity, such as when a word in one language corresponds to two or more words in another language.

In new research, Tokowicz is investigating how working memory updating and musical ability/experience mediate second language learning.

Scott Fraundorf studies the interplay between language, comprehension, and long-term learning, focusing on how linguistic devices affect what we learn and remember.

Fraundorf’s work on study strategies is especially relevant to Pitt students. In new work, he is collaborating with colleagues in Linguistics to investigate how people perceive language variability. One goal of this work is to help future nurses, teachers, and community support personnel navigate different varieties of English.

Technology In work that integrates computer science and literacy education, Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Diane Litman, and Richard Correnti have developed an automated writing evaluation system (eRevise) (More on Matsumura and colleagues in the Learning Technologies that Support Inclusive Education section.)

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/ Investigating-the-Acquisition-ofLiteracy-Skills-in-Adults

A MEASURE OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN READERS’ APPROACHES TO TEXT AND ITS RELATION TO READING EXPERIENCE AND READING COMPREHENSION Readers have different motivations and approaches to text that cover a range of topics and difficulty levels.

An international team of scholars developed The Readers’ Approaches to Test Questionnaire (TReAT-Q) to examine how readers’ approaches to text are linked to reading comprehension. www.lrdc.pitt. edu/Departments/ Communications/featuredbriefs/a-measure-ofindividual-differences

LRDC’s research on reading and language has contributed to our evolving understanding of the development of language and literacy, across writing systems and languages, in settings both local and global.

60 years of LRDC

17

RESEARCH AREAS

LARGE-SCALE EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT PRIMARY FACULTY

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS

Kevin Binning

Disan Davis

Richard Correnti

Brooke English

Jennifer Iriti

Sarah Galey Horn

Lindsay Clare Matsumura

Danielle Lowry

Christian Schunn

Jennifer Sherer

Mary Kay Stein

Talia Stol

LRDC engages in high-impact researchpractice partnerships that support education improvement across K-12 and into postsecondary education.

LRDC researchers examine and co-design large-scale improvement efforts with schools, school districts, and entire states. Mary Kay Stein, Richard Correnti, Christian Schunn, and Lindsay Clare Matsumura are examining how coaching helps teachers learn to enact ambitious forms of instruction.

The Institute for Learning (IFL)

Pittsburgh Promise Evaluation

The Institute for Learning (IFL) partners with school districts to address their needs through research-based improvement strategies. The IFL, along with the School of Education’s Center for Urban Education, collaborated with the Dallas Independent School District to support literacy improvement in 14 secondary schools. A new middle school math project in the El Paso area is underway. These schools serve historically minoritized students, many of whom are English learners, and involve around 19,000 students.

At the high school level, the Pittsburgh Promise Evaluation, led by Jennifer Iriti, studies the impact of a place-based scholarship and a coaching program on college enrollment, persistence, attainment as well as workforce outcomes. This 12-year-long researchpractice partnership has produced evaluation insights that have shaped Pittsburgh Public Schools and Pittsburgh Promise policy and practice, has contributed to field knowledge around place-based scholarship programs, and has shaped policymaker and practitioner decision-making nationally.

Network Improvement Communities (NICs) IFL’s impact has been accelerated by its use of network improvement communities (NICs). In NICs, researchers use principles of improvement science to develop, test, refine, and share promising instructional routines throughout networks. NICs have been used in LRDC research in large urban school districts such as Dallas; discipline-specific organizations, such as the Better Math Teaching Network; and entire state departments of education, such as Tennessee, led by former researcher Jennifer Lin Russell (now at Vanderbilt University).

18

University of Pittsburgh

STEM PUSH Network The STEM Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education (PUSH) Network is the first national collaborative of pre-college STEM programs to work together for racial equity in college admissions.

Co-led by Jennifer Iriti with colleagues from other units of the University, STEM PUSH aims to increase the participation of minoritized students in precollege STEM programs. It has built the first national networked improvement community of pre-college

MIND THE GAP: HOW A LARGE-SCALE COURSE RE-DESIGN IN ECONOMICS REDUCED PERFORMANCE GAPS While all students demonstrated higher microeconomics grades after the course transformation than their peers in prior semesters, this was particularly the case for underrepresented minorities, essentially eliminating the performance gap observed in prior semesters. Findings highlight the importance of instructional training for teaching assistants and employing

STEM programs and achieved a major milestone in 2024 with the approval of a “next generation” accreditation model for these programs which will convey the power of precollege programs to undergraduate admissions offices.

teaching practices that can promote engagement and potentially promote inclusion during the learning process.

The STEM PUSH Network has also contributed to the development of an Ecological Belonging intervention, a collaboration between Iriti and Kevin Binning, that leverages the STEM PUSH Network to adapt, refine, and test an existing intervention originally designed for underrepresented college students. Within STEM PUSH, the intervention was adapted for high school students and tested in seven urban areas reaching 2,000 students. Its goal is to understand the education experiences that support students’ sense of belonging on a path to STEM post-secondary education.

College Transition Collaborative

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs. cshtml#mind-the-gap

At the university level, LRDC partners with other universities including Pitt in programs to support student well-being. (More in Cognitive, Neural and Motivational Factors in Learning section).

“

LRDC works with multiple partners at multiple scales to improve teaching, learning, and learning opportunities.

“

At LRDC, we study teaching and design interventions to create high-quality learning opportunities for all students.

60 years of LRDC

19

RESEARCH AREAS

LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES THAT SUPPORT INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Technology in the service of learning and teaching has been a continuous theme at LRDC since its inception. Today, LRDC researchers are investigating new technologies that can revolutionize teaching and learning in an inclusive way.

Learning Sciences in Emergent Technologies In 2024, LRDC launched the Learning Sciences in AI (LSAI) hub.

The hub brings together experts from LRDC along with partners from the University Center for Teaching and Learning (UCTL) and the School of Computing and Information (SCI).

Its goal is to create a community network to infuse learning science into applications of generative AI to instruction at Pitt. The goal of the Hub has been expanded to include a broader range of technologies and renamed the LSET (Learning Sciences in Emergent Technologies) to reflect this goal.

This has evolved to include a broader set of technologies and additional partners as the Learning Sciences and Emerging Technologies Hub (LSET).

Generative AI A collaboration of AI law expert Kevin Ashley and learning researcher Scott Fraundorf is

20

University of Pittsburgh

developing a computer-supported environment for highlighting and annotating argument-related information and testing its efficacy across high school and first-year law school students.

Collaborations of learning technology faculty Diane Litman and education faculty Richard Correnti and Lindsay Clare Matsumura have combined AI tools with learning science in education improvement projects such as eRevise. In eRevise, natural language processing (NLP) is used in the automated scoring of students’ essays to provide feedback messages that improve student writing.

For educators, eRevise facilitates assessment and feedback to address student needs in realtime.

Litman, Correnti, Matsumura and Center Associate Amanda Godley have used NLP tools to analyze large amounts of classroom discourse, a source of student engagement and learning. The group is now testing the ability of ChatGPT to detect high-quality dialogues.

In a new collaboration with Pitt’s Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Matsumura and Fraundorf are part of a team that is using AI with hybrid learning to investigate students’ academic performances and learning perceptions with intelligent tutoring systems in a human anatomy course.

Robot Technology Angela Stewart works with regional community centers on computing and robotics. A project led by Stewart and Erin Walker examines the social learning that centers on students interacting with a culturally responsive, social, programmable robot in learning to code. The robot can be customized by learners in meaningful ways to provide learners with control over their learning experience.

In other work, Walker, Timothy Nokes-Malach, Diane Litman and Adriana Kovashka (School of Computing and Information) are looking at the design of a social teachable robot for mathematics learning.

PRIMARY FACULTY

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS

Kevin Ashley

Sandy Katz

Rachel Coelho

Adriana Kovashka (School of Computing and Information)

Richard Correnti Diana Leyva Diane Litman

Nathan Ong

ENGAGING GIRLS AS CO-CREATORS OF SOCIAL ROBOTS Robot technologies to engage students in computer education are not new. Using robots to embolden learners as technosocial change agents is.

Marguerite Walsh

Lindsay Clare Matsumura Timothy Nokes-Malach Christian Schunn Angela Stewart Erin Walker

Virtual Reality Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) use computer-generated content to enhance real-world learning, with many applications in education settings.

Marc Coutanche studies how the human brain learns and stores knowledge, and how it is retrieved from memory. Retrieval can be influenced by context, and Coutanche has recently used virtual reality (VR) to create new contexts that can trigger “contextdependent” memories.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/ Engaging-Girls-as-Co-Creators-ofSocial-Robots

USING CHATGPT TO ANALYZE CLASSROOM DISCUSSIONS High-quality classroom discussions are

Online Peer Review

crucial to the proper development of

Peerceptiv, created at LRDC by Christian Schunn, is an online tool that facilitates peer review to boost student engagement and student learning outcomes. Peerceptiv is being used by hundreds of thousands of students each year, including several thousand at Pitt.

reading, writing, and argumentation skills

Leveraging the power of technology for literacy instruction, Diana Leyva and Walker use an intelligent app to support dialogic reading and elaborative reminiscing techniques in Latino families.

manner across a multitude of classrooms is impractical and tedious. This is where

www.lrdc.pitt. edu/Departments/ Communications/featuredbriefs/Using-ChatGPTto-Analyze-ClassroomDiscussions

“

“

quality in an effective and in-depth

ChatGPT enters the conversation.

Apps and iPads

Today, LRDC researchers are investigating new technologies that can revolutionize teaching and learning in an inclusive way.

in students. However, analyzing discussion

60 years of LRDC

21

RESEARCH AREAS

SUPPORTING STEM LEARNING PATHWAYS TO AND THROUGH COLLEGE

From studies of mathematical cognition and motivation, to learning processes in home, schools, and university classrooms, math and science learning researchers at LRDC are contributing their expertise to accelerate student success and broaden participation in STEM fields.

Mathematical Cognition

PRIMARY FACULTY Kevin Binning Brian Galla Jennifer Iriti Melissa Libertus Timothy Nokes-Malach Christian Schunn Angela Stewart

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS Disan Davis Danielle Lowry Andrew Ribner Jesse Rubio Jennifer Sherer Chandralekha Singh (Department of Physics & Astronomy) Alex Silver Talia Stol Bilge Yurekli

22

University of Pittsburgh

Melissa Libertus studies the development of early math skills. Her research highlights the importance of children’s basic number knowledge in their ability to benefit from math learning tasks at all levels of the education system, from informal home and community learning environments such as museums and grocery stores to formal classroom settings.

Ambitious Instruction In K-12 classrooms across the country, Richard Correnti and colleagues examine how teachers learn to enact ambitious forms of math instruction through extended curriculum-embedded professional learning opportunities. Building on foundational LRDC research, the Institute for Learning (IFL) is partnering with El Paso, Texas, area school districts on a middle school math project, with a new focus on emergent bilingual learners.

Inclusion With a focus on equity in STEM fields, Angela Stewart works with Black learners who are often excluded in STEM education. Her research contributes to a deepened understanding of how to create equitable learning environments that center the agency and identity of learners.

The STEM PUSH Network, Pathways for Underrepresented Students to HigherEd (PUSH), led

by Jennifer Iriti, is the first national collaborative of pre-college STEM programs to work together for racial equity in college admissions. (More in Large-scale Education Improvement section.)

Kevin Binning, Chandralekha Singh, Schunn, and colleagues at Pitt and beyond have adapted Binning’s ecological-belonging intervention into many college science and engineering courses to help students

THE BENEFITS OF MATH ACTIVITIES DEPEND ON THE SKILLS CHILDREN BRING TO THE TABLE Math activities are differentially related to children’s math achievement, such that children with stronger number knowledge seem to benefit more from these math activities at home than those with less advanced number knowledge. see that adversity in the course is normal and surmountable. The intervention had a strong positive effect on cross-gender and cross-race/ethnicity interactions in the class and led to a dramatic reduction in the large demographic gaps in grades that were previously observed in each course.

Mindfulness Brian Galla and Timothy Nokes-Malach and faculty in the Physics department have found positive effects of mindfulness on students’ stress management, motivation, and engagement in introductory physics courses. (More in Cognitive and Motivational Factors in Learning section.)

DBER LRDC leads efforts in STEM discipline-based education research (DBER), which focuses on improving teaching and learning in STEM. DBER research combines knowledge of teaching and learning with disciplinespecific content to understand how students learn and what resources can help them.

With LRDC faculty at the helm, Pitt has joined ten other public universities that work on the persistent problem of inequity and non-inclusion in STEM education in the Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses: SEISMIC collaborative. The goal of this work is accelerated, equity and inclusion-oriented reform of foundational STEM courses.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/TheBenefits-of-Math-Activities-Depend-onthe-Skills-Children-Bring-to-the-Table

UNLOCKING THE BENEFITS OF GENDER DIVERSITY: HOW AN ECOLOGICAL-BELONGING INTERVENTION ENHANCES PERFORMANCE IN SCIENCE CLASSROOMS Gender diversity in STEM [...] not only promotes fairness; it also broadens talent pools and creates safer, more inclusive work

Math and science learning researchers at LRDC are contributing their expertise to accelerate student success in STEM fields.

“

“

environments that benefit everyone. www.lrdc.pitt. edu/Departments/ Communications/featuredbriefs/Unlocking-theBenefits-of-GenderDiversity

60 years of LRDC

23

CONTRIBUTIONS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT A HISTORY OF EXCELLENCE LRDC scientists contribute to the research areas of their academic disciplines and to the emerging cross-disciplinary sciences of learning and education.

Contributions to the Disciplines: Publications, Contributions, and Conferences Among many important publications in the earlier years of LRDC are two landmark series that helped shape the emerging field of instructional science. In 1979, Robert Glaser edited the first volume of Advances in Instructional Psychology (Vol. 1, 1979) and then four subsequent volumes that document progress in this new field. In 1982, Lauren Resnick founded Cognition and Instruction, the first journal dedicated to “issues concerning the mental, socio-cultural, and mediational processes and conditions of learning and intellectual competence.”

Bibliometrics The productivity and impact of LRDC research areas can be assessed by various bibliometrics, such as the number of citations. Among LRDC senior scientists, who are full professors, the average number of citations for each individual was more than 7,000 as of August 2024.

Because total citations can be skewed by a single publication with many citations (e.g., a textbook), a more refined measure is the h-index, which captures the number of papers that have been highly cited.

Among LRDC senior scientists currently active in research, all have h-indexes (tallied through Google Scholar) of 15 or more, while 9 have h-indexes of more than 30, a benchmark for very high impact.

Total citations (2019-2023, Google Scholar)

Publications

2019

LRDC researchers published 590 journal articles and conference proceedings over the five-year period from 2019-2023, as well as 11 books, and contributed 15 book chapters.

2020 2021

The table to the right shows total citations for all LRDC faculty during the 2019-2023 period.

2022 2023

24

University of Pittsburgh

58,900 60,278 97,966 108,920 108,000

Contributions: Handbooks Recent contributions to handbooks are indicative of the accomplishments and professional standing of senior faculty. During the period 2019-2023, LRDC researchers contributed to a wide range of handbooks. Among many others, these include: The APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology The Handbook of the Learning Sciences The International Handbook of Student Achievement The Cambridge Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology The Oxford Handbooks of Causal Reasoning, Cognitive Psychology, and Social Cognition.

Contributions: Collections Recent contributions to special editions are indicative of the accomplishments and professional standing of senior faculty. A few examples (2019-2023):

Literacy Development A Global Perspective In 2024, the third of three volumes on reading and literacy (edited by Perfetti and a team of international collaborators) was published. Across 17 written languages, the volumes offer insight into how learning to read is affected by specific language and writing systems: Global Variation in Literacy Development. (2024) Developmental dyslexia across languages and writing systems. (2019) Learning to read across languages and writing systems. (2017).

Cambridge University Press.

Cognitive Perspectives on Medical Expertise LRDC researchers (S. Fraundorf, T. NokesMalach, B. Rottman, Z. Caddick) have worked with the American Board of Internal medicine, American Board of Family Medicine, and American Boards of Medical Specialties on their new assessments of physicians, resulting in:

Special Editions Faculty have contributed to special editions of journals in their disciplines (LRDC researchers in italics): Informal STEM Learning at Home and in Community Spaces. (2023).

Special Edition: (P. Miller, L. Elliott, T. Podvysotska, C. Ptak, S. Duong, D. Fox, L. Coulanges, M. Libertus, H. Bachman, E. Votruba-Drzal.)

Mindfulness for Students in Pre-k to Secondary School Settings. (2023).

Special Issue: (R. Roeser, D. Schussler, R. Baelen, B. Galla.)

Self-Regulation in Toddlers and the Emergence of Academic Disparities. (2022). Special Issue: (L. Elliott, H. Bachman, J. Carvalho Pereira, L. Coulanges, S. Duong, T. Montue, P. Miller, M. Libertus, E. Votruba-Drzal.)

Early Care and Education among Latino Families: Access, Utilization, and Impacts. (2020). Special Issue: (H. Bachman, L. Elliott, P. Scott, M. Navarro.)

Reimagining Maintenance of Certification to promote lifelong learning.

Using a motivational framework to understand the benefits and costs of testing. Cognitive Research: Principles & Implications.

60 years of LRDC

25

CONFERENCES From its inception, the Center has organized periodic invitational conferences on important emerging issues, a number of which have resulted in highly cited published volumes. A few of the conferences LRDC was instrumental in organizing in the past ten years are below.

A list of conferences and publications from LRDC’s first 50 years are detailed in the 50th anniversary report.

2013

Workshop on Educational Applications of Computer-Supported Argumentation Tools The aims of this conference were to develop a community of researchers interested in expanding argument diagramming techniques, computersupported peer review, and data resources into new educational domains and to develop a research corpus on argumentation in educational contexts.

2013

New Directions in Research on Learning and Education: Celebrating 50 Years of LRDC The themes for the symposium were: Education Improvement, Learning and Thinking, Cognitive Foundations for Learning: Reading and Working Memory, and Technology in Support of Learning.

2018

Sixth International Workshop on Advanced Learning Sciences (IWALS) The theme of this international workshop was “Perspectives on the Learner: Cognition, Brain, and Education.” About 130 registrants attended with Taiwan providing the largest group of international attendees.

26

University of Pittsburgh

www.lrdc.pitt. edu/Departments/ Communications/ LRDC-50brochure.pdf

2019

Pittsburgh Self-Affirmation Conference: Mechanisms and Theory LRDC faculty co-organized, with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a two-day summer meeting of approximately 60 attendees co-sponsored by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

2023

Human Sentence Processing (HSP) Conference The HSP conference is the premiere conference in North American for scientists interested in how humans comprehend and produce language. LRDC faculty held a special session at the conference on “Literacy, Education, and Language Processing.”

2024 Understanding Learning, Improving Education: LRDC’s 60 Years as a University Center This event featured Director Charles Perfetti’s keynote “Understanding Learning, Improving Education: LRDC’s 60 Years as a University Center” and Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs) with the wider Pittsburgh community.

DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT TOOLS Various modes of educational improvement have been developed at LRDC, including curriculum materials, instructional tools, and teacher coaching across almost all domains of study. Examples below include current work as well as the early development of learning tools that used Artificial Intelligence (AI), work that was among the first uses of AI in education.

The Institute for Learning (IFL) At the core of the IFL’s work is the development and implementation of tools for teachers, principals, and superintendents, including work protocols to help educators analyze student work and tools that empower instructors to plan and evaluate instruction. Among the texts, videos, and interactive media the Institute develops for its training programs are research-backed classroom tools for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics instruction. The Institute’s materials for students, designed around core concepts in each discipline, apprentice learners to read, write, talk, inquire, and reason as scientists, mathematicians, historians, readers, and writers.

Learning Tools Early systems built on advances in cognitive psychology that illuminated reasoning and thinking skills in various disciplines. Some examples: Designed by Alan Lesgold and Sandra Katz for the U.S. Air Force, Sherlock, a coached practice environment, gave trainees practice (“learning by doing”) for a complex troubleshooting job in Air Force electronics.

Katz extended Sherlock with natural-language dialogues that allow students to test hypotheses about the language features that influence effective tutoring.

Lesgold also developed Belvedere, with Dan Suthers and colleagues, to help students envision arguments graphically and develop them more completely.

Smithtown, an intelligent tutoring system created by Kalyani Raghavan and Robert Glaser assisted students in learning the principles of economic reasoning.

(Smithtown won EDUCOM/IBM Awards for Best Social Sciences Software, and Best Instructional Innovation.)

ANDES, a tutoring system for physics (basic mechanics) designed by Kurt VanLehn and colleagues, provides feedback to students during problem solving (as

opposed to after). Diane Litman’s ITSPOKE is a natural language dialogue system that allows real-time speech interactions with ANDES. CATO, developed

by Vincent Aleven (now CMU faculty) and Kevin Ashley, taught law students the skills of making legal arguments with cases. Ashley’s Legal Argument Graph Observer (LARGO) allows law students to reconstruct hypothetical reasoning in Supreme Court oral arguments using argument diagrams and provides feedback based on their work.

More recent tools include: Informational Connectivity MATLAB Toolbox and the Princeton Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis MATLAB Toolkit, created with contributions from Marc Coutanche and colleagues allows the user to run connectivity analyses on fMRI data. Marc Coutanche, Creator, Toolbox; Contributor, Toolkit.

Analyzing Teaching Moves (ATM) is a coding discourse tool for measuring class discussions and creating visual tools for teacher learning about discussions. Mary Kay Stein, Margaret Smith, Margaret McKeown, and Kevin Ashley, Creators.

Triple Q supports instructional queries for argument writing. Margaret. McKeown, Amy Crosson, Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Creators.

Middle Grades Mathematics Teaching Survey & Quadrant Placements is a research measurement tool for measuring teaching improvement in middle grades mathematics. Mary Kay Stein, Jennifer Russell, Katelynn Kelly, Ally Thomas, Bilge Yurekli, Baeksan Yu, Creators.

Leaders Improving Supports for Teaching (LIST) is a survey for measuring leaders’ meta-cognitive ability to productively observe in classrooms. Institute for Learning (IFL) colleagues and Pam Goldman, Creators.

Response to Text Assessment (RTA) is a student assessment protocol and rubric designed to measure students’ ability to comprehend, analyze and write in response to text. School of Education colleagues and Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Creators. eRevise: Student Automated Feedback for RTA is a formative assessment tool for essay writing.

Diane Litman, Elaine Wang, Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Creators.

60 years of LRDC

27

EXTENDING THE IMPACT OF OUR RESEARCH

CULTIVATING STUDENT SUCCESS AT PITT

LRDC faculty extend the impact of their expertise in the cognitive, social, and motivational aspects of learning to enhance students’ learning experiences at the University. The following are a few examples of recent LRDC-led initiatives at Pitt.

Adaptive Mindsets Toolkit

STEM PUSH Network

Developed at LRDC, the Adaptive Mindsets Toolkit gives students key skills, such as engagement, perseverance, and motivation, to help them succeed.

Training has been offered to more than 900 students since its inception in 2018. The content is hosted on the University’s Student Success Services webpage.

The Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education (PUSH) Network is part of the NSF-funded INCLUDES Alliance. PUSH has built the first nationwide networked improvement community of pre-college STEM programs. The project tests innovative ways to increase the number of underrepresented minoritized students who enroll and persist in STEM fields.

Belonging Interventions Students are more likely to feel safe and engaged when a classroom environment encourages a sense of community, fosters mutual support among peers, and affirms students’ diverse identities. Belonging Interventions at Pitt, spearheaded by LRDC faculty, are designed to help students see that adversity in a course is normal and surmountable. These interventions have been shown to have positive effects on student retention. Read more about Belonging Interventions on campus.

Learning Sciences Undergraduate Distinction To take advantage of Pitt’s powerful research environment, an interdisciplinary team of LRDC faculty developed the undergraduate Learning Sciences Distinction. This novel program enables students to earn a distinction credential through a combination of an interdisciplinary proseminar taught by LRDC faculty, crossdepartmental coursework, and a mentored research project. (More on the Undergraduate Distinction at lrdc.pitt.edu/Distinction.)

28

University of Pittsburgh

Pitt Transition Study (PTS) In 2015, Pitt joined the College Transition Collaborative, a consortium of more than two dozen colleges and universities dedicated to use knowledge about the social and motivational factors that affect students success transition to create interventions to improve students success as they begin college. In 2019, Pitt launched its own, the Pitt Transition Study (PTS), to improve the high school-to-college transition for Pitt students, and, in 2021, developed an analogous intervention for incoming graduate students.

Learn more about the Pitt Transition Study.

The UBelong Collaborative UBelong is a cross-institution (Pitt, Purdue, UC Irvine), cross-disciplinary (Psychology, Education, Engineering) project. UBelong is creating, testing, and improving a customized belonging-mindset interventions to particular course contexts, with a focus on engineering students.

APPLYING LEARNING SCIENCE TO THE UNIVERSITY’S INSTRUCTIONAL MISSION

In recognition of the rapid emergence of new technologies that can improve education, LRDC draws attention to the importance of the learning sciences for this goal. In 2023, LRDC launched a collaboration with the School of Computing and Information, and the University Center for Teaching and Learning (UCTL) to create a focus on Learning Sciences and AI (LSAI Hub). This has evolved to include a broader set of technologies and additional partners as the Learning Sciences and Emerging Technologies Hub (LSET). A few current initiatives:

GenAI and Dialogue: An Idea Lab for Revolutionizing Teaching and Learning With funding from the university’s 2024 Year of Discourse and Dialogue, the IdeaLab created a forum to bring instructors and instructional support leader from across Pitt campuses together to share ideas and experiences on using generative AI in our teaching and learning.

A sample of recent and current grants for the development and application of emerging technologies to learning: Using ChatGPT to Analyze Classroom Discussions (2023-2024).

Collaborative Research: Development of Natural Language Processing Techniques to Improve Students’ Revision of Evidence Use in Argument Writing (2022-2025).

LRDC Learning Sciences Video Series In the fall of 2023, LRDC launched the “Learning Sciences Video Series” in collaboration with the University Center for Teaching and Learning (UCTL).

This series aims to improve learning outcomes for students and instructors by connecting advances in the learning sciences to student learning. View the Learning Sciences Video Series here.

Course Incubator The goal of the Course Incubator project is to radically redesign large enrollment classes—enrollment greater than 100—to increase the success of students. Projects focus on transformative design of an entire course, and LRDC faculty have redesigned courses in chemistry and economics through this initiative.

Discussion Tracker: Development of Human Language Technologies to Improve the Teaching of Collaborative Argumentation in High School (2019-2022).

60 years of LRDC

29

CENTERING EQUITY AND RESEARCH IN TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING

In 2019, the IFL received an $8.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead a five-year school improvement project to close achievement and opportunity gaps for Black, Latinx, English learners (EL),* low-income, and other traditionally underserved populations of students at 14 Dallas Independent School District schools. The project focused on language arts and writing skills essential to achieving equity, and to launching students’ in college and career.

Its impact has been enhanced by its network-based partnerships that work on multi-year projects. These include the continuation of a literacy improvement project with the large Dallas district and a middle school math project for sixth through eighth graders in the El Paso area. Combined, these programs involve around 19,000 students. An additional Gates Foundation grant establishes IFL as a national hub for schools serving predominantly African American, Latinx, and lowincome students.

No matter where it works, the IFL centers equity stakeholder involvement, and research-grounded instruction in its programs. The LRDC and IFL both benefit from exchanging research knowledge and teaching practice in action.

“

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.

Anthony Petrosky

“

The Institute for Learning (IFL) is the practice arm of LRDC, bridging the historical gap between research and practice. It partners with school districts to address their needs through research-based improvement strategies. Since its creation in 1995, the IFL has worked in more than 100 urban districts across the country and in Australia, and on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota. IFL Fellows work on-site and online to conduct seminars on learning and professional development, provide tools for analyzing classroom practice, and run programs for school principals learning to function as instructional leaders. Built around its foundational practices, which challenge assumptions about innate intelligence, the IFL creates instructional materials and assessments intended not only to supplement curricula, but to enrich and deepen the teaching and learning processes.

WHEN MY TEACHER SPEAKS SPANISH, MY MATH CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE CHANGES: TRACKING ATTITUDINAL AND ACHIEVEMENT EFFECTS In the United States, the population of speakers of languages other than English has grown substantially in recent decades. In Texas, this population is twice the national average.

www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Departments/ Communications/featured-briefs/WhenMy-Teacher-Speaks-Spanish-My-MathClassroom-Experience-Changes

30

University of Pittsburgh

INCREASING ENGAGEMENT ACROSS PARTNERING COMMUNITIES Economically and socially healthy communities are critical for the overall health of our region.

Through Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs), LRDC faculty collaborate with practice communities to increase the impact of educational improvement. A sample of those projects are listed here: Climate and Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP) Researchers have developed climate change learning networks in rural western Pennsylvania, partnering with educators at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The Kids’ Thinking Lab (KiTlab)

Emergency Medical Service (EMS)

The KiTlab is working with Westmoreland County Community Action Head Start Program on an intervention study to support early math skills for school readiness.

A research team is collaborating with program directors,instructors, and advanced students at the Center for Emergency Medicine to create a handheld tablet device that will allow small groups of paramedic students to get extra practice.

Pittsburgh Promise Community Voices Study Center faculty involved in the Community Voices Study are investigating how socioeconomic status differentially relates to learning opportunities for minority children when compared to their non-minority counterparts.

Food for Thought (Alimento para el Pensamiento) The research team is partnering with two Pittsburgh Latinx community organizations (Casa San Jose and the Hispanic Development Corporation).

Promise research has evaluated the effectiveness of the Pittsburgh Promise program, which promotes high educational aspirations among urban high school students and provides scholarships for postsecondary education.

MRI Calibration An infrastructure project by LRDC researchers aims to calibrate the magnets in MRI machines to improve diagnostic capabilities across 119 VA imaging centers.

Parents Promoting Early Learning (PPEL)

Certifying Physicians

The PPEL Lab is partnering with Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, and Holy Family Institute in research to understand how parents help their children learn and develop through everyday activities.

LRDC faculty are working with the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine, and American Boards of Medical Specialties on their new assessments of physicians.

Sarah Heinz House

Western Pennsylvania Patient Registry (WPPR)

The Just Discipline Project LRDC researchers partnered with the School of Social Work and local school districts on schoolwide interventions to promote an inclusive and engaging school climate and to make recommendations for equitable school discipline.

Local Mindfulness Intervention Partnerships Research-practice partnerships with four local school districts (Mt. Lebanon, Avonworth, Chartiers Valley, and Elizabeth Forward) have resulted in numerous intervention studies involving nearly 2,000 high school students.

Faculty at LRDC have launched a Youth Participatory Action Research initiative to empower adolescents to be advocates in their community.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO BROADER SOCIETY Economics of Higher Education LRDC Faculty and graduate students have researched the challenges presented by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rates, a difficult hurdle for many students.

LRDC staff manage the WPPR, a confidential listing of stroke survivors who participate in research.

Court Decisions Faculty use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques to evaluate hypotheses about systemic aspects of court decisions.

60 years of LRDC

31

EXPANDING GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT International research collaborations

student population. On average, 10 students and 4-6 international visitors from a wide range of countries are part of LRDC in any given year. (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam).

From the period 2019-2023, LRDC faculty have had more than 30 active collaborations with researchers outside the US (Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, England, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates).

International communications The LRDC Research News is distributed to more than 150 scholars across the world with connections with LRDC.

Faculty and research associates collaborate with LRDC alumni researchers in cognitive psychology, computer science, machine learning, and cognitive neuroscience in Belgium, Canada, China, France, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Taiwan.

International conference LRDC hosted the 6th International Workshop on Advanced Learning Sciences (IWALS) on June 6 through 8, 2016. About 130 registrants attended, with Taiwan providing the largest group of international attendees.

Training international scholars Each year, LRDC hosts international visiting scholars, and counts international students among its graduate

PROMOTING INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION LRDC is a home for the research and development of tools and services by innovative researchers.

In this way, it is fueling economic development throughout the region and economic growth throughout the commonwealth. A few examples are below: Psychology Software Tools (PST) was founded

by Walter Schneider of LRDC, based on his development of user-friendly software for the design and presentation of computer-interface behavioral experiments: E-Prime. E-prime is the world-leading software for designing and running behavioral experiments. It has more than 100,000 users in research institutions and laboratories in more than 60 countries. The E-Prime manual has 5,491 citation counts. It was incorporated in 1987 and employs more than 30 people in the Pittsburgh area. (CEO is Anthony Zuccolotto).

Peerceptiv grew from 10 years of research at LRDC directed by Christian Schunn on the value of peerevaluation of writing assignments.

Located in Pittsburgh (CEO is Mark Linbach), Peerceptiv provides online educational services for classrooms around the country. Peerceptiv currently employs six people with plans for two more hires.

32

University of Pittsburgh

The chart below shows the total number of users of Peerceptiv during the period 2019-2023.

100,000

75,000

50,000

25,000

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

EXPANDING THE PIPELINE Our research on learning aims to contribute both to a just and equitable society and to building a future where everyone can develop the knowledge, skills, and agency they need to fully participate in society and thrive. A few LRDC initiatives dedicated to this goal:

LRDC Undergraduate Summer Research Internship The LRDC Undergraduate Summer Research Internship offers opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research in the learning sciences. Interns gain experience in research on instruction and learning by working on a project under the mentorship of LRDC faculty. More information here on the annual program.

Hot Metal Bridge Program This two-semester post-baccalaureate fellowship program is designed to help talented students from groups traditionally underrepresented in their academic disciplines, including first-generation graduate students and those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, to bridge the gap between an undergraduate degree and a graduate training program.

LRDC provides funding and faculty for student mentoring each year.

Director’s Fellowship Program The LRDC Director’s fellowships supports PhD study for students whose backgrounds include being members of historically underrepresented U.S. minority groups, first-generation graduate students, or socio-economic disadvantage.

TRIO McNair Scholars Program The TRIO McNair Scholars Program, in the Office of the Provost, provides a rich diversity of structured educational experiences that are designed to motivate, prepare, and support students in their efforts to pursue post baccalaureate degrees. McNair Scholars are either first-generation students with limited incomes or are students who are members of a group that is underrepresented in graduate education.

Ecological Belonging Intervention in High School The Ecological Belonging intervention leverages the STEM PUSH Network to adapt, refine, and test an intervention for underrepresented students. It is being tested in seven urban areas reaching 2,000 students, with the goal of understanding the education features that support students’ sense of belonging in postsecondary education.

60 years of LRDC

33

INCREASING DISTINGUISHED AWARDS Early Career Awards Melissa Libertus and Ming-Te Wang, Benjamin Rottman, and Marc Coutanche were named Rising Stars by the American Psychological Society (APS). Libertus also received a Mind Brain and Education Society Early Career Award; Coutanche was awarded the Krieg Cortical Scholar award from the Cajal Club.

Julie Fiez received the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions. MingTe Wang received the Early Career Research Contributions Award from the Society for Research in Child Development, the APA Richard E. Snow Award, and the APA Distinguished Scientific Award.

Lindsay Page was awarded the Association for Education Finance and Policy Early Career Award, the AERA Division L Early Career Award, and the AERA Early Career Award. Jamie Hanson was an NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Early Stage Investigator Paper Awardee.

34

Behavioral & Brain Sciences “In Honor Of...” program; Coutanche was elected to the Memory Disorders Research Society.

Educational Applications Jennifer Lin Russell was named to the National Advisory Board of the National Education Researcher Database. Ming-Te Wang was awarded the AERA Distinguished Research Award for Human Development & Learning. Diane Litman, Richard Correnti, and Lindsay Clare Matsumura were among the 2021-2022 awardees of the Learning Engineering Tools Competition Catalyst Prize.

Lindsay Page and Tanner Wallace joined the Mindset Scholars Network. Page was ranked 168 out of 200 scholars for shaping educational practice and policy in the 2021 Education Week EduScholar Public Influence Rankings.

Melissa Libertus was elected to the board of the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Educational Technology

Tessa Warren received a Women in Cognitive Science Mentorship Award. Jamie Hanson received the American Psychological Foundation (APF) Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award. Perfetti was elected to the Federation of Associations in

Jingtao Wang was awarded the Microsoft Azure for Research Award for building and deploying intelligent mobile learning systems on a large scale. Diane Litman was elected an executive councilor of the Association for

University of Pittsburgh

Recognized for their significant contributions to both groundbreaking research and professional leadership, as well as recognition of early career accomplishments, LRDC faculty have earned a range of national and international accolades.

the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Kevin Ashley received the Codex Prize for “significant and enduring contributions to Computational Law.” Ashley also received the Computer Science Outstanding Achievement and Advocacy Award from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Schneider and Pathak received the Best Industry and Application Paper Award.

Literacy Research Charles Perfetti received the Distinguished Research Award from the Society for Scientific Studies of Reading, Perfetti was also awarded the distinguished Scholar award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG): Research in Reading and Literacy for his outstanding contributions to research.

Social and Affective Research Ming-Te Wang received the Society for Social Work and Research “Excellence in Research Award”; Juan Del Toro and Wang received a racial equity special grant from Spencer Foundation for research on police stops and school adjustment.

INTERNATIONAL DISTINCTIONS LRDC researchers have earned international recognition in a variety of forms. Senior scientists have been Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, and the European University Institute, Florence (Kevin Ashley); Derek Brewer Visiting Fellowship, Cambridge University, and Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished Visiting Fellowship, United Kingdom (Litman); and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Charles Perfetti).

Two faculty members have received the United Kingdom’s Leverhulme Visiting Professorships (Diane Litman, and Perfetti). Faculty have held honorary and visiting professorships at various international universities, including the University of Oslo (Kevin Crowley); National University of Singapore (Litman); National Taiwan Normal University, and University of Auckland (Perfetti); Cambridge and Oxford Universities (Frits Pil); Monash University (Mary Kay Stein); University of Helsinki (Ming-te Wang), Northeast Normal University (Christian Schunn).

Three faculty members were awarded honorary degrees from international institutions: Robert Glaser from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Trondheim (Norway), the University of Leuven (Belgium), and McGill University (Canada); Alan Lesgold, from the Open Universiteit Nederland (Netherlands); and Lauren Resnick from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and the Université de Genèva (Switzerland).

Faculty have served in advisory capacities to the Autonomy through Cyber Justice Technologies Project, Canada (Ashley); United Kingdom Natural History Museums (Kevin Crowley); Digital Futures, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Litman); the Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the LASeR Consortium (Literacy Acceleration through Scalable Research), UK and the Netherlands (Perfetti); and Advisory Board for Mathematics reform in Israel (Stein and Correnti).

60 years of LRDC

35

MEDIA RECOGNITION: IN THE NEWS

LRDC is regularly mentioned in Pittwire and the University Times and in national and international online and traditional news.

The graphic below shows the number of times Center research has appeared in news publications with circulation of more than 1 million readers from 2019-2023. News outlets vary in how they report circulation; these publications have been selected based on comparable estimates of circulation.

APPEARANCES IN PUBLICATIONS WITH A >1 MILLION MONTHLY AUDIENCE

The Conversation

Wall Street Journal

Education Week

The Washington Post

The Atlantic The New York Times NPR Scientific American

36

University of Pittsburgh

=2

Huffington Post

Inside Higher Education

Vox

Chronicle of Higher Education

Brookings Institute

=3

=4

RESEARCH FUNDING

LRDC ACTIVE GRANT FUNDING (2019-2023) LRDC is one of four university centers, those centers established by the University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees.* The director of LRDC reports to the provost, whose office provides support for Center faculty through joint appointments. Support for research comes primarily from external sources.

During the 2019-2023 period, LRDC averaged approximately $40 million per year in total active external grant support (see table below). * Three other centers: University Center for International Studies (UCIS), University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR), and the Center for the Philosophy of Science (CPS).

$50,000,000 $45,000,000 $40,000,000

$22,636,011

$35,000,000 $30,000,000 $25,000,000

$15,086,112

$17,057,100 $19,320,828

$18,330,817

$20,000,000 $15,000,000 $10,000,000

$20,764,455

$22,637,148

2019

2020

$5,000,000 $0

$16,480,672

$18,528,729

2021

2022

Federal

$24,170,973

2023 to 2024

Non-Federal

AVERAGE FUNDING PER YEAR BY FUNDING AGENCIES (2019-2023) Of the external sources, federal agencies are the main source of funds. As shown below, these include the National Science Foundation, 35% of the total; U.S. Department of Education, 5%; U.S. Department of Defense, 7%; and National Institutes of Health, 5%.

An additional important source of external support comes from foundations and other sources that make up 48 percent of the Center’s external funding portfolio. Foundations that have the provided funding for LRDC include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Brady Foundation, William Penn Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation, The Learning Agency, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, The Pittsburgh Promise, The Kresge Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Society for Research in Child Development, International Society for Autism Research, W.E. Upjohn Institute For Employment Research, Society for Research in Child Development, Smith Richardson Foundation, National Academy of Science and American Psychological Foundation.

National Science Foundation Department of Defense U.S. Department of Education National Institutes of Health Foundations

60 years of LRDC

37

LRDC GRANTS OF MORE THAN $1 MILLION (2019-2023) Topic

Amount

PI

Network for School Improvement (NSI) in Literacy in partnership Dallas ISD, LRDC, and CUE

$8.2M

IFL

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Measuring Network Health in Network for School Improvement (NSI) initiative

$4.8M

Russell

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Content-Focused Coaching

$3.7M

Matsumura

IES

Diffusion Imaging for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

$3.6M

Schneider

U.S. Department of Defense

Young Children’s Mathematical Thinking

$3.2M

Libertus

NIH

Wealth and Adolescent Behavior

$3.1M

Miller

NIH

IFL Instructional Planning System

$2.7M

IFL

Understanding Teachers as Learners

$2.4M

Stein

Spencer

INCLUDES Alliance

$2.3M

Iriti

NSF

Socioeconomic Disparities in Mathematical Understanding

$2.1M

Votruba-Drzal

NSF

Socioeconomic Disparities in Mathematical Understanding

$1.9M

Libertus

NSF

Build, Understand, & Tune Interventions that Cumulate to Real Impact

$1.7M

Nokes-Malach

NSF

African American Students’ Sociocultural Experiences

$1.5M

Wang

NSF

Guiding STEM Instructional Improvement

$1.4M

Stein

NSF

Context-Integrated Mindset / Belonging Intervention

$1.4M

Binning

IES

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Calibration

$1.0M

Schneider

David Scaife Foundation

38

University of Pittsburgh

Funder

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

LRDC INTERNAL AWARDS PROGRAM

The LRDC Internal Awards Program is designed to support the development of new, innovative, and interdisciplinary research

by LRDC scientists. Since its 2009 inception, the internal awards program’s investment of $3.9 million has led to 48 external collaborative proposals, with 23 funded for a total of $26.3 million.

The table below gives a snapshot of externally funded grants from 2019-2023 that began as LRDC internal awards.

Internal Award

External Amount

Studying Collaborative Dialogue with a Teachable Robot in a Computational Thinking Domain

$38,000

$900,000

Walker, Litman, Nokes-Malach

NSF

Police Stops and School Adjustment: Examining Underlying and Protective Mechanisms among Black Adolescents

$29,200

$75,000

Wang, Del Toro

Spencer Foundation

Using Mindfulness Training to Support Engagement, Learning, and Retention in Undergraduate Introductory Physics Courses

$149,644

$948,417

Galla, NokesMalach, Fraundorf

NSF

Testing Links Between Motivation, Achievement, and Neurobiology

$101,768

$198,750

Hanson, Wang, Booth

NSF

Income Dynamics and Adolescent Development: Understanding Behavioral and Academic Disparities through Dense Sampling of Income, Parenting, and Perceptions

$149,405

$3.314,340

Hanson, Miller, Votruba-Drzal

NSF

Total

$468,037

$5,436,507

Title

Funding Source

PIs

$6M The graph here shows the return on investment of the Internal Awards Program for the last five years.

$4M $2M $0

2019-2023 Internal Support

External Funding 60 years of LRDC

39

LRDC PEOPLE LRDC is home to technical, fiscal, and research staff, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research associates, as well as faculty, all of whom contribute to the Center’s overall research mission.

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Researchers As a research center, LRDC has been a training ground for graduate students who work on PhDs in various departments of the University, especially in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education. PhD students play a major role in all phases of research— initiating projects, presenting results at national conferences and authoring papers. Programs of funded research annually support 40-50 graduate student researchers.

The Center is also home to postdoctoral researchers and fellows, who begin their post-PhD research careers working closely with LRDC faculty before moving on to more long-term academic or nonacademic positions.

LRDC celebrates the hundreds of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers whose early careers have included research at the Center. The graph here shows the numbers of students and postdocs entering the Center over the years.

40

University of Pittsburgh

120

100

80

60

40

20

0 1964-73

1974-83

Graduate Students

1984-93

1994-2003

2004-13

Postdoctoral Fellows

LRDC DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD To recognize the accomplishments of the many graduate student researchers who have earned their PhDs while at the Center (A&S and year of PhD), LRDC instituted the Distinguished Alumni award in 2011.

Postdoctoral fellows (PD and final year at Center) were included in the award for the first time in 2024.

2011 GSR AWARDEE

2013 GSR AWARDEE

Susan Goldman (A&S ’78)

Drew Gitomer (A&S ’84)

Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago and a founding co-director of UIC’s Learning Sciences Research Institute.

Current and inaugural holder of the Rose and Nicholas DeMarzo Chair in Education, Rutgers University (Note: LRDC Web site lists Gitomer as a Legacy Laureate, not as a recipient of the award)

2015 GSR AWARDEE

2017 GSR AWARDEE

2018 INTERNATIONAL PD AWARDEE

Jeff Bisanz (A&S ’97)

Mario Delgado (A&S ’02)

Yao-Ting Sung (PD ’04)

Professor and Department Chair, Psychology, University of Alberta

Professor and Chair of Psychology, Rutgers University

2019 GSR AWARDEE

2024 POSTDOC AWARDEE

Professor and Vice President, Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling Program of Learning Sciences

Vincent Aleven (ISP ’97)

Bruce McCandliss (PD ’99)

Professor, Human-Computer

Professor, Stanford University

Interaction Institute, University of Pittsburgh Carnegie Mellon University Learning Research and Development Center

60 years of LRDC

41

ADMINISTRATIVE, TECHNICAL, AND RESEARCH STAFF LRDC relies on dedicated, accomplished staff in important support, personnel, and technical positions.

Administrative Staff

LRDC Affiliates

Elizabeth S. Rangel, Director of Communications

Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Coaching Researcher/Practitioner Christian Schunn, Research Liaison

Marge Gibson, Assistant to Director Votruba-Drzal Anthony Taliani, Director of Administration, Fiscal Services

Administrative and Fiscal Services Audrey Antosik De Ivanhoe Michael Laughlin Carmela Rizzo

LRDC Project Research Staff and Programmers Dorthea Adkins Eva Bacas Denise Balason Taylor Casteel Emily Clarke Lisa Correnti

Joe Stafura

Corrine Durisko

Computing Services

Brooke English

Jeff Flotta Shari Kubitz Brian Wiedor

Institute for Learning (IFL) Leadership Team

Nicolle DeSilva

Darin Fields Kelly Glavin Max Helfrich Julija Hetherington Jessica Marlowe Christopher Matthis

Angela Allie, Executive Director

Kalin McNeil

Aaron Anthony, Director of Analytics and Operations

Jesse Moore Hannah Parker Kristofer Pomiecko

Operations Staff

Nandina Rastogi

Peter Compitello

Medha Sharma

Faith Milazzo

Abigail Sites

Kim Rugh

Kelly Tatone

Tracy Tomei

Grabriela Terrazas Duarte Tracy Tomei

Denise Collier Sara DeMartino Joe Dostilio Kristin Klingensmith Glenn Nolly Brenda Robles Cheryl Sandora Shamira Underwood

42

University of Pittsburgh

The Tim Post Award is presented annually to a graduate student in Developmental, Social, or Cognitive Psychology for a highly significant research project, providing approximately $500 to support their professional development. Tim Post was a psychology graduate who earned his doctorate in 1983. As he was finishing his degree and seeking a position, Tim was diagnosed with leukemia. Tim and his wife, Jane Williams, used his memorial donations to establish an annual award fund aimed at fostering excellence in graduate student research.

Jessica Ferraro

Anthony Petrosky, Director

Institute for Learning (IFL) Fellows

TIM POST AWARD

Researchers The Center’s research comes from faculty and nonfaculty researchers from across disciplines and specialty areas—educational research, cognitive science, computer science, developmental psychology, law, social psychology, neuroscience, organizational science, and education policy.

GRADUATE STUDENT COUNCIL The LRDC Graduate Student Council (GSC) is made up of representatives from all disciplines within the Center.

Its goal is to provide students with opportunities for crossdisciplinary collaboration, professional development, representation at LRDC Executive Committee meetings, and social engagement.

The GSC has created and currently administers the LRDC GSC Award, providing financial support for the advancement of novel, innovative, and interdisciplinary research undertaken by graduate students within LRDC. This funding, which varies based on the request, covers expenses such as travel costs, participant compensation, or specific items such as research software, conference fees, or society memberships.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

ELEVATING INTERDISCIPLINARY DISCOVERY AND COLLABORATION Today, faculty hold joint primary appointments in departments and schools across campus: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Intelligent Systems Program Psychology School of Computing and Information Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business School of Education School of Law Additional connections exist through secondary appointments, including the following: Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders Department of Linguistics

Since its founding in 1963, LRDC has been a leading interdisciplinary center for research on learning and education. The interconnected programs of research and educational improvement reflect its founding mission of stimulating interaction between research and practice across a spectrum of problems. Among research institutions in learning and education, this interconnected breadth is unique. An important factor in LRDC’s success is the joint appointments of its faculty in other units of the university.

Partnering with Colleagues Across Campus In addition to formal connections through joint faculty appointments, LRDC also appoints Center Associates from other units to recognize contributions to collaborative projects in LRDC. Beyond these appointments are many substantive connections, including Center for Governance & Markets Discipline-based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC) Graduate School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA) Office of the Provost School of Social Work University Center on Teaching and Learning (UCTL)

Department of Neuroscience Department of Psychiatry School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery School of Medicine Department of Radiology These connections throughout the University have allowed faculty and students to work on crossdisciplinary learning and education projects, while supporting graduate training programs.

60 years of LRDC

43

CURRENT FACULTY Director Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Director, and Professor, Department of Psychology.

Impact of key contexts that support learning and socioemotional development during the transition to school and the elementary school years.

Interdisciplinary research that integrates research methods, theories, and measures from psychology, education, economics, sociology and physiology to better understand how socioeconomic inequity shapes and structures human development over the life course.

Associate Director Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Educational Research and Practice, Professor, Learning Sciences and Policy Program, School of Education. Implementation and effectiveness of instructional reform programs and policies in urban schools. Develops measures of instructional quality and examines the links among classroom discussions, writing tasks, and students’ literacy skill development.

Kevin Ashley, Senior Scientist and Professor, School of Law and Graduate Program in Intelligent Systems. Computational models and intelligent computer systems to educate students and assist practitioners to develop case-based and analogical reasoning as techniques for representing and acquiring knowledge in artificial intelligence programs and to improve legal information retrieval.

Heather Bachman, Research Scientist and Professor, Applied Developmental Psychology Program, Department of Psychology. Community & family-based learning, sociocultural factors, developmental processes and outcomes.

Kevin Binning, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology. To understand social psychological problems in two topical areas: politics and education. Aims to understand social behavior with an eye toward strategies to change behavior in socially constructive ways.

Raquel Coelho, Research Scientist. Focuses on applications and theorizing of emergent technologies in learning within human and equity-centered frameworks.

44

University of Pittsburgh

Richard Correnti, Senior Scientist and Associate Professor, School of Education.

Educational innovations and their influence on teacher practice and student learning, how policy and educational reform initiatives can improve instruction and student learning, and how these efforts are influenced by issues of implementation and scaling-up.

Marc Coutanche, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology.

Combine neuroimaging experiments with advanced computational techniques to identify and understand how information is being represented in the complex activity patterns of the human cortex. Uses behavioral investigations to research how new knowledge becomes integrated into our memory systems.

Kevin Crowley, Senior Scientist and Professor, School of Education, Professor, Learning Sciences and Policy, School of Education, Co-Director, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE). Relationships among learners, mediators, environments, and experiences in out-of school settings. Explores what it means to learn and change in everyday environments, including museums, community settings, on the web, and at home.

Julie Fiez, Senior Scientist and Professor, Department of Psychology, Professor, Department of Communication Science & Disorders, Professor, Department of Neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience approach to studying the neural basis of language processing and basic learning systems in the human brain. How cognition may be optimized by reinforcement learning signals.

Scott Fraundorf, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology. The interplay between language and long-term learning. How learners understand and reason about their learning, and how they may leverage that when studying and retrieving information.

Brian Galla, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Health and Human Development.

Examines how mindfulness shapes positive development from adolescence through early adulthood.

Jamie Hanson, Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology.

How children and adolescents learn about their environment, how brain circuitry involved with learning may be impacted by early life stress, and how these brain changes may confer risks for negative outcomes.

Daphne Henry, Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology.

Community & family-based learning, minoritized groups, developmental processes, and outcomes.

Jennifer Iriti, Research Scientist and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Inclusion & Outreach Strategy Design.

Documentation, evaluation, and strategic assessment of a wide variety of educational programs and reform efforts.

Alan Lesgold, Senior Scientist, Emeritus, Education; Professor, Psychology and Intelligent Systems. Currently involved as an advisor on projects dealing with intelligent tutors for occupational specialties, cognitive aspects of medical errors, and evaluation of teacher preparation programs.

Diana Leyva, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology.

Authentic familial practices that support preschool children’s early language, literacy, and math development in ethnically diverse communities. Use information to design, implement, and evaluate intervention programs for families in these communities.

Melissa Libertus, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology. Representation of numerical information, how numerical information is processed in the human mind, and how it changes over the course of development. He also investigates individual differences in math abilities and how they relate to other cognitive functions.

Diane Litman, Senior Scientist and Faculty, Intelligent Systems Program, Professor, Department of Computer Science; Associate Dean, Mentoring and Development, School of Computing and Information. Artificial intelligence, tutoring systems, and reasoning and natural language processing. Developed computational tutorial dialogue systems to analyze learning through conversation.

Timothy Nokes-Malach, Senior Scientist and Professor, Department of Psychology.

Identifying, predicting, and promoting knowledge transfer.

Topics include cognitive and collaborative processes that support transfer; the relationship among motivation, cognition, and transfer; and instructional theories of learning and transfer in math and science.

60 years of LRDC

45

CURRENT FACULTY CONTINUED Former Director LRDC 2008-2024 Charles Perfetti, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Psychology. The cognitive science of language and reading, including the nature of reading ability, word learning, comprehension, and writing system factors in first and second-language reading. His approach aims to achieve a richer view of language and reading processes through the combination of cognitive (behavioral) and neuroscience methods.

Frits Pil, Research Scientist and Professor, Katz Graduate School of Business.

Organizational learning and how knowledge is transferred and leveraged within and across organizational boundaries.

Benjamin Rottman, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology. Causal learning, reasoning, and judgment. Medical diagnosis and decision-making.

46

University of Pittsburgh

Walter Schneider, Senior Scientist and Professor, Department of Psychology.

Dynamic cortical processing in human behavioral and brain imaging studies, which focus on the understanding of human learning, executive control and attention. Has developed methods to map human networklevel cortical processing, providing information on the component structures of learning.

Christian Schunn, Senior Scientist and Professor, Department of Psychology.

STEM reasoning and learning, neuroscience of complex learning (in science and math), peer interaction and instruction (including the development of a broadly used system called SWoRD), and engagement and learning.

Angela Stewart, Research Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science.

Investigates creation of educational technologies that support the agency of learners and teachers toward the goal of creating more equitable, inclusive educational spaces.

Natasha Tokowicz, Senior Scientist, Professor, Department of Psychology; Associate Dean for Equity, Faculty Development, and Community Engagement, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Cognitive processes of adult second language learning and use, translation ambiguity, and second language morphosyntactic processing.

Erin Walker, Research Scientist and Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information; Associate Dean for Research, School of Computing and Information.

Intelligent tutoring systems, computer-supported collaboration, tangible and embodied learning environments, human-robot interaction, and technology for the developing world.

Tessa Warren, Senior Scientist and Professor, Department of Psychology. The roles that syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and world knowledge play during comprehension and how they influence eye movements during reading. Her work is guided by linguistics and cognitive psychology.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Anna Chrabaszcz, Normative and nonnormative aspects of language processing at different levels of linguistic analysis.

Disan Davis, Creative and forwardthinking outreach professional and community organizer, centering antiracist, gender-inclusive and equity-based practices.

Omid Fotuhi, Identify psychological barriers that interrupt performance and achievement, design, implement, and evaluate precise psychological interventions to mitigate the limiting effects of psychological vulnerabilities, to bridge the gap between research and practice in important motivational domains.

Sandra Katz, Learning Technology.

Use of natural language dialogues that allow students to review problems and research platforms to test hypotheses about the language features that influence effective tutoring.

Karen Knutson, Associate Director, UPCLOSE. Collaborative creative thinking and communication processes in the design and development of museum spaces, visitors’ learning and meaning making, and museum education strategies.

Danielle Lowry, Educational opportunities, equity, and attainment.

Portia Miller, Community and family-based learning and developmental processes and outcomes.

Sudhir Pathak, Imaging methods and cognitive and neural foundations of learning.

Mary Ann Steiner, Museums/after school programs and informal and life-long learning.

Talia Stol, Learning opportunities and Networked Improvement Communities.

Educational opportunities, equity, and attainment and improvement research in education.

Bilge Yurekli, Mathematics Learning & Instruction and STEM.

Dena ZookHowell, Literacy Coaching and Reading & Language.

Andrew Ribner, Numerical cognition, math achievement, self-regulation, executive function, media use.

Jennifer Sherer, Networked Improvement Communities, educational opportunities, equity, and attainment, improvement research in education.

60 years of LRDC

47

BOARD OF VISITORS LRDC’s Board of Visitors has been drawn from distinguished scholars and educators who attend to the most important questions confronting the practical, empirical, and theoretical worlds of learning. The first Board of Visitors consisted of some of the leading figures in education and psychology, including Benjamin Bloom, John B. Carroll, Robert M. Gagne, Ralph W. Tyler, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and Arthur W. Melton.

Below is a list of Board members and the terms they served.

48

Carl Bereiter

1984–1997

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek,

2022–present

Gautam Biswas

2014–2021

Wayne Holtzman

1970–1985, Chair

Benjamin Bloom

1970–1978

Phyllis Hunter

2000-2000

Hilda Borko

2014–present

James Jenkins

1971–1973

Ann Brown

1990–1998

Judith Johnson

2001-2006

Anthony S. Bryk

2000–2003

Walter Kintsch

1992–2001, Chair

Jill Burstein

2014–2016

Magdalene Lampert

1986–1997

Iris Carl

1992–1997

Paul F. Lazarsfeld

1964–1972

Thomas H. Carr

2010–2021

Ping Li

2018–present

Ruben A. Carriedo

1992–2000

Danielle McNamara

2018–present

John B. Carroll.

1964–1970

Nonie K. Lesaux

2010–2016

Paul Cobb

2006–2012

Finlay McQuade

1986–1994

Virginia Crandall

1980-1980

Arthur W. Melton

1964–1972

Joseph M. Cronin

1975–1977

Samuel Messick

1978–1988

Patrick Daly

1977–1979

James Minstrell

1992–2003

Goery Delacote

2003-2003

Johanna D. Moore

2006–2012

James P. Dixon

1964–1966

Peter H. Odegard

1964–1966

Suzanne Donovan

2018–present

Nicole Patton-Terry

2022–present

Guinevere Eden

2006–2016

Kenneth Pugh

2016–present

William Estes

1977–1992, Chair

Brian J. Reiser

2006–2016

Helen Faison

1977–2010

Leona Schauble

2000–2016, Chair

Barry Fishman

2018–present, Chair 2024-

Judah Schwartz

1989–1998

Susan M Fitzpatrick

2022 - present

Colleen Seifert

2022–present

Susan Fuhrman.

2006-2006

Timothy Shanahan

2006–2021

Robert M. Gagne

1966–1978

Richard Shavelson

1987–2000

Adam Gamoran

2006–2012

Lee Shulman

1984–1992

Rochel Gelman

1978–1998, Chair

Alberta E. Siegel

1975–1980

Jacob W. Getzels

1973–1979

Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe 1987–2006

Carol Gibson

1980–1988

Catherine Snow

1998–2006

Louis M. Gomez

2003–2006

Reed Stevens

2014–2021

John I. Goodlad

1964–1966

Robert M. Travers

1964–1972

Edmund Gordon

1980–1990

Ralph W. Tyler

1964–1978, Chair

Arthur Graesser

2000–2006, Chair 2014–2023

Ruth Wattenberg

2000–2006

Bert Green

1980–1988

Sheldon White

1973–1974

Kenji Hakuta

1998–2003

Sam Wineburg

2003–2006

Judith Harackiewicz

2014–2021

University of Pittsburgh

Learning Research & Development Center Murdoch Building 3420 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15260 lrdc.pitt.edu

The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution.

Published in cooperation with the Office of University Communications and Marketing. 114602-0225