Academics
The Graduate School > Academics > School Degree Programs > School of Education and Social Policy > Learning Sciences
Learning Sciences
David Rapp
Associate Professor
Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
2120 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2610
Email: rapp@northwestern.edu
Phone: (847) 491-7494
Fax: (847) 491-8999
Web: http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ls/

Program Description

The interdisciplinary Learning Sciences graduate programs are dedicated to the preparation of researchers, developers, and practitioners who are qualified to advance the scientific understanding and practice of teaching and learning. Learning Sciences faculty consider learning and teaching from a diversity of theoretical and methodological perspectives including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence, cognitive and developmental psychology, computer science, and educational research. Students in the program become engaged in three facets of research and theory in the learning sciences through their coursework and research apprenticeships. Cognition: scientific models of the structures and processes of learning and teaching by which organized knowledge, skills, and understanding are acquired Social Context: social, organizational, and cultural dynamics of learning and teaching in situations including classrooms, schools, school districts, museums, corporations, and homes. Design: building environments for learning and teaching, including innovative curricula, multimedia, artificial intelligence, computer networks, and telecommunications technologies, as well as classroom activity structures Students participate in frontier investigations of learning and teaching in schools, workplaces, and other settings through their participation in ongoing faculty research programs. The design and use of technologies as a component of innovation and educational reform play a special role in learning sciences inquiries.

Applicants should contact the program or see Web site www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ls/ to learn about program-specific requirements for admission.

Faculty

The primary appointment for those faculty with joint or affiliate status in another program is noted in parentheses.

Professors: Allan M. Collins, Solomon Cytrynbaum (Education & Social Policy), Jean Egmon, Kenneth D. Forbus (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science), Dedre Gentner (Psychology), Kristian J. Hammond (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science), Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, Carol D. Lee (Education & Social Policy), Douglas L. Medin (Psychology), Andrew J. Ortony (Education & Social Policy), Penelope L. Peterson, Carla Pugh, Brian Reiser (Education & Social Policy), James P. Spillane, Sandra R. Waxman (Psychology), Uriel J. Wilensky (Education & Social Policy)
Associate Professors: Lawrence A. Birnbaum (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science), Ann McKenna (Mechanical Engineering), David Neil Rapp, Christopher K. Riesbeck (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science), Bruce L. Sherin (Education & Social Policy), Miriam G. Sherin (Education & Social Policy), David H. Uttal (Psychology)
Assistant Professors: Jeannette A. Colyvas, Wan Shun Eva Lam (Education & Social Policy), Michelle Reininger, Edward Vincent Taylor