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

LRDC

CELEBRATING 60 YEARS 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

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

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

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

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

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.

“ “

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.

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

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.

“

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).

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

Jamie Hanson

Melissa Libertus

Charles Perfetti

Walter Schneider

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS

Anna Chrabaszcz

Gaisha Oralova

Sudhir Pathak

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.

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.

Development

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.

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. 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. “

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, and face processing tends to be lateralized in the right hemisphere.

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

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.

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)

Motivation

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Early Development

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).

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Jesse Rubio

Mary Ann Steiner

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).

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

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.)

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.)

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.

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

CULTURALLY

All families engage in food routines, such as grocery shopping, cooking, and eating together, but in Latino families, food routines can play special roles.

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

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

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.)

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.)

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.

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.

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

LARGE-SCALE EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT

PRIMARY FACULTY

Kevin Binning

Richard Correnti

Jennifer Iriti

Lindsay Clare Matsumura

Christian Schunn

Mary Kay Stein

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS

Disan Davis

Brooke English

Sarah Galey Horn

Danielle Lowry

Jennifer Sherer

Talia Stol

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

The Institute for Learning (IFL)

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.

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).

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.

Pittsburgh Promise Evaluation

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.

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

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.

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

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).

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

MIND

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Ashley

Rachel Coelho

Richard Correnti

Diana Leyva

Diane Litman

Lindsay Clare Matsumura

Timothy Nokes-Malach

Christian Schunn

Angela Stewart

Erin Walker

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS

Sandy Katz

Adriana Kovashka (School of Computing and Information)

Nathan Ong

Marguerite Walsh

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.

Online Peer Review

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.

Apps and iPads

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.

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

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.

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

High-quality classroom discussions are crucial to the proper development of reading, writing, and argumentation skills in students. However, analyzing discussion quality in an effective and in-depth manner across a multitude of classrooms is impractical and tedious. This is where ChatGPT enters the conversation.

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

SUPPORTING STEM LEARNING PATHWAYS TO AND THROUGH COLLEGE

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

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

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.

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

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 environments that benefit everyone.

www.lrdc.pitt. edu/Departments/ Communications/featuredbriefs/Unlocking-theBenefits-of-GenderDiversity

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.”

Publications

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.

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

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)

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 DevelopmentA 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: Reimagining Maintenance of Certification to promote lifelong learning.

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

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.)

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.

2019

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

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.

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

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.

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.)

STEM PUSH Network

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.

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).

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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).

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.

The Kids’ Thinking Lab (KiTlab)

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

Pittsburgh Promise

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.

Parents Promoting Early Learning (PPEL)

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.

Sarah Heinz House

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.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS)

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.

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.

Certifying Physicians

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.

Western Pennsylvania Patient Registry (WPPR)

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.

EXPANDING GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

International research collaborations

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).

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.

Training international scholars

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

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).

International communications

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Cognitive Neuroscience

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

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.

Educational Technology

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

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).

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.

RESEARCH FUNDING

$50,000,000

$45,000,000

$40,000,000

$35,000,000

$30,000,000

$25,000,000

$20,000,000

$15,000,000

$10,000,000

$5,000,000

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).

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.

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

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

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

Content-Focused Coaching

Diffusion Imaging for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Young Children’s

Wealth and Adolescent Behavior

IFL Instructional Planning System

Understanding Teachers as Learners

INCLUDES Alliance

Socioeconomic Disparities in Mathematical Understanding

Socioeconomic Disparities in Mathematical Understanding

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

African American Students’ Sociocultural Experiences

Guiding STEM Instructional Improvement

Context-Integrated Mindset / Belonging Intervention

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Calibration

LRDC INTERNAL AWARDS PROGRAM

Title

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

Police Stops and School Adjustment:

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.

Examining Underlying and Protective Mechanisms among Black Adolescents $38,000

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

Testing Links Between Motivation, Achievement, and Neurobiology

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

$149,405 $3.314,340

Walker, Litman, Nokes-Malach

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

Galla, NokesMalach, Fraundorf

Hanson, Wang, Booth

Hanson, Miller, Votruba-Drzal Wang, Del Toro

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.

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.

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)

Professor and Department Chair, Psychology, University of Alberta

Professor and Chair of Psychology, Rutgers University

Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Professor, Stanford University

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

Vincent Aleven (ISP ’97)

Jeff Bisanz (A&S ’97)

Bruce McCandliss (PD ’99)

Mario Delgado (A&S ’02) Yao-Ting Sung (PD ’04)

Susan Goldman (A&S ’78) Drew Gitomer (A&S ’84)

ADMINISTRATIVE, TECHNICAL, AND RESEARCH STAFF

LRDC relies on dedicated, accomplished staff in important support, personnel, and technical positions.

Administrative Staff

Elizabeth S. Rangel, Director of Communications

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

Joe Stafura

Computing Services

Jeff Flotta

Shari Kubitz

Brian Wiedor

Institute for Learning (IFL) Leadership Team

Anthony Petrosky, Director

Angela Allie, Executive Director

Aaron Anthony, Director of Analytics and Operations

Operations Staff

Peter Compitello

Faith Milazzo

Kim Rugh

Tracy Tomei

Institute for Learning (IFL) Fellows

Denise Collier

Sara DeMartino

Joe Dostilio

Kristin Klingensmith

Glenn Nolly

Brenda Robles

Cheryl Sandora

Shamira Underwood

LRDC Affiliates

Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Coaching Researcher/Practitioner

Christian Schunn, Research Liaison

LRDC Project Research Staff and Programmers

Dorthea Adkins

Eva Bacas

Denise Balason

Taylor Casteel

Emily Clarke

Lisa Correnti

Corrine Durisko

Nicolle DeSilva

Brooke English

Jessica Ferraro

Darin Fields

Kelly Glavin

Max Helfrich

Julija Hetherington

Jessica Marlowe

Christopher Matthis

Kalin McNeil

Jesse Moore

Hannah Parker

Kristofer Pomiecko

Nandina Rastogi

Medha Sharma

Abigail Sites

Kelly Tatone

Grabriela Terrazas Duarte

Tracy Tomei

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.

TIM POST AWARD

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Bilge Yurekli, Mathematics Learning & Instruction and STEM.

Dena ZookHowell, Literacy Coaching and Reading & Language.

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.

Carl Bereiter 1984–1997

Gautam Biswas 2014–2021

Benjamin Bloom 1970–1978

Hilda Borko 2014–present

Ann Brown 1990–1998

Anthony S. Bryk 2000–2003

Jill Burstein 2014–2016

Iris Carl 1992–1997

Thomas H. Carr 2010–2021

Ruben A. Carriedo 1992–2000

John B. Carroll. 1964–1970

Paul Cobb 2006–2012

Virginia Crandall 1980-1980

Joseph M. Cronin 1975–1977

Patrick Daly 1977–1979

Goery Delacote 2003-2003

James P. Dixon 1964–1966

Suzanne Donovan 2018–present

Guinevere Eden 2006–2016

William Estes 1977–1992, Chair

Helen Faison 1977–2010

Barry Fishman 2018–present, Chair 2024-

Susan M Fitzpatrick 2022 - present

Susan Fuhrman. 2006-2006

Robert M. Gagne 1966–1978

Adam Gamoran 2006–2012

Rochel Gelman 1978–1998, Chair

Jacob W. Getzels 1973–1979

Carol Gibson 1980–1988

Louis M. Gomez 2003–2006

John I. Goodlad 1964–1966

Edmund Gordon 1980–1990

Arthur Graesser 2000–2006, Chair 2014–2023

Bert Green 1980–1988

Kenji Hakuta 1998–2003

Judith Harackiewicz 2014–2021

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, 2022–present

Wayne Holtzman 1970–1985, Chair

Phyllis Hunter 2000-2000

James Jenkins 1971–1973

Judith Johnson 2001-2006

Walter Kintsch 1992–2001, Chair

Magdalene Lampert 1986–1997

Paul F. Lazarsfeld 1964–1972

Ping Li 2018–present

Danielle McNamara 2018–present

Nonie K. Lesaux 2010–2016

Finlay McQuade 1986–1994

Arthur W. Melton 1964–1972

Samuel Messick 1978–1988

James Minstrell 1992–2003

Johanna D. Moore 2006–2012

Peter H. Odegard 1964–1966

Nicole Patton-Terry 2022–present

Kenneth Pugh 2016–present

Brian J. Reiser 2006–2016

Leona Schauble 2000–2016, Chair

Judah Schwartz 1989–1998

Colleen Seifert 2022–present

Timothy Shanahan 2006–2021

Richard Shavelson 1987–2000

Lee Shulman 1984–1992

Alberta E. Siegel 1975–1980

Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe 1987–2006

Catherine Snow 1998–2006

Reed Stevens 2014–2021

Robert M. Travers 1964–1972

Ralph W. Tyler 1964–1978, Chair

Ruth Wattenberg 2000–2006

Sheldon White 1973–1974

Sam Wineburg 2003–2006