With more than $120 million in funded grants, faculty at the UCI School of Education are addressing key issues that, collectively, address the entire lifespan of human development and learning. Students at the School of Education are encouraged to join faculty research labs, centers, projects and initiatives so they too can contribute to cutting-edge research, and launch careers of their own that help improve educational opportunities and outcomes.
For more information on any center, lab, project or initiative, please contact the professor listed.
For more information on any center, lab, project or initiative, please contact the professor listed.
Centers
Center for Afterschool and Summer Excellence (CASE) -- (Dr. Sandra Simpkins)
Leads research on improving the lives of diverse youth through organized afterschool and summer activities. The CASE team has several active initiatives in education, community outreach, and research.
Center for Educational Partnerships -- (Dr. Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio)
The University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships creates collaborations that support preparation for and success in higher education. Our focus is on equity and access for all students in order to achieve the University of California’s goal of academic excellence.
Center for Learning in the Arts -- (Dr. Liane Brouillette)
Features the K-2 Teaching Artist Project (TAP), a collaboration between the San Diego Unified School District and the University of California, Irvine (made possible by a USDE Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant).
Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
The center fosters collaborations among faculty, students, and practitioners on projects focused on a variety of aspects of teacher development and learning and on the study of teaching and teacher professional practice. The Center includes several research projects spanning the teacher professional continuum and targeting various subject matters. Current expertise includes the study of teacher noticing and career-long learning, of sustainability of teacher professional development, of equitable practices in mathematics, science, and engineering, of teacher identity development, and of students' engagement in STEM learning.
The Cultural Resiliency and Learning Center -- (Dr. Gustavo Carlo)
The Cultural Resiliency and Learning Center (CRLC) is a strengths-based multidisciplinary venue designed to foster research, outreach, and training activities that furthers our understanding of, and improves, the lives of youth and families from different cultures.
Online Learning Research Center -- (Dr. Mark Warschauer & Dr. Di Xu)
The Online Learning Research Center conducts research and provides resources for educators, students, and researchers on a wide variety of topics related to improving academic achievement and equity in online teaching and learning.
WRITE Center -- (Dr. Carol Booth Olson)
The WRITE (Writing Research to Improve Teaching and Evaluation) Center for Secondary Students researches academic writing in middle and high school. We are extending evidence-based practices learned in the English language arts classrooms from three nationally recognized interventions into history classes. The WRITE Center is excited to provide middle and high school history teachers with the tools and strategies to improve their students' writing, a critical component not only of Common Core State Standards, but academic and professional writing.
Leads research on improving the lives of diverse youth through organized afterschool and summer activities. The CASE team has several active initiatives in education, community outreach, and research.
Center for Educational Partnerships -- (Dr. Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio)
The University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships creates collaborations that support preparation for and success in higher education. Our focus is on equity and access for all students in order to achieve the University of California’s goal of academic excellence.
Center for Learning in the Arts -- (Dr. Liane Brouillette)
Features the K-2 Teaching Artist Project (TAP), a collaboration between the San Diego Unified School District and the University of California, Irvine (made possible by a USDE Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant).
Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
The center fosters collaborations among faculty, students, and practitioners on projects focused on a variety of aspects of teacher development and learning and on the study of teaching and teacher professional practice. The Center includes several research projects spanning the teacher professional continuum and targeting various subject matters. Current expertise includes the study of teacher noticing and career-long learning, of sustainability of teacher professional development, of equitable practices in mathematics, science, and engineering, of teacher identity development, and of students' engagement in STEM learning.
The Cultural Resiliency and Learning Center -- (Dr. Gustavo Carlo)
The Cultural Resiliency and Learning Center (CRLC) is a strengths-based multidisciplinary venue designed to foster research, outreach, and training activities that furthers our understanding of, and improves, the lives of youth and families from different cultures.
Online Learning Research Center -- (Dr. Mark Warschauer & Dr. Di Xu)
The Online Learning Research Center conducts research and provides resources for educators, students, and researchers on a wide variety of topics related to improving academic achievement and equity in online teaching and learning.
WRITE Center -- (Dr. Carol Booth Olson)
The WRITE (Writing Research to Improve Teaching and Evaluation) Center for Secondary Students researches academic writing in middle and high school. We are extending evidence-based practices learned in the English language arts classrooms from three nationally recognized interventions into history classes. The WRITE Center is excited to provide middle and high school history teachers with the tools and strategies to improve their students' writing, a critical component not only of Common Core State Standards, but academic and professional writing.
Labs
Bilingualism, Mind, and Brain Lab -- (Dr. Judith Kroll)
The work in our lab asks how the use of two or more languages changes the mind and brain. Our focus is on the ways that language processes engage cognition and its neural basis to create consequences for language learners and bilinguals that are dynamic across the lifespan.
Connected Learning Lab
Dedicated to studying and mobilizing learning technologies in equitable, innovative, and learner-centered ways. CLL supports interdisciplinary research and design, and partnerships with a broad network of educational practitioners and technologists.
The Collins Literacy Lab -- (Dr. Penelope Collins)
The Collins Literacy Lab focuses on literacy attainment for youth and children from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Current research projects include explorations of home-literacy environments of young bilingual children, discipline-specific writing in history and STEM, the use of technology to support literacy instruction, and how literacy interventions can be used to support content learning in biology classes.
The Creativity Labs at UCI -- (Dr. Kylie Peppler)
We bring together educators, designers, artists, and learning theorists interested in constructionist and design-based learning. We focus on computational tools that support learning by leveraging youths' interests in digital culture, design, and making.
Development in Social Context Lab (DISC) -- (Dr. Stephanie Reich)
DISC focuses on promoting the healthy development of children by understanding and improving their social interactions. Research projects range from interventions with mothers and infants to high school students’ interactions over Facebook.
Digital Learning Lab -- (Dr. Mark Warschauer)
The Digital Learning Lab uses cutting edge approaches for better understanding students' learning processes, from pre-school to graduate school, as well as to design and develop new tools and resources to improve digital learning.
EPSC Lab
A collection of researchers and students from multiple disciplines whose interests intersect in the field of K-16 education policy. The EPSC Lab serves as a forum for individuals to share research ideas, works-in-progress, and future conference presentations.
The Human Abilities in Bilingual Language (HABLA) Lab -- (Dr. Elizabeth Peña)
The HABLA lab focuses on understanding how bilingual individuals organize and access their two language systems. The goal of this inquiry is to better understand the nature of language breakdowns associated to language impairment in bilinguals.
The Language, Literacy, & Learning (L3) Lab -- (Dr. Young-Suk Kim)
We study how children develop language, cognition, and literacy skills for learning. Our inquiries include development, challenges in development (dyslexia and dysgraphia), and effective instruction for language and literacy acquisition for children from diverse economic, linguistic, cultural backgrounds. Current projects include language intervention, literacy intervention, longitudinal development of language, cognition, and literacy skills, and transfer of skills between languages. Explores oral language development and reading development with particular interests in phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, and reading fluency for various populations
Language and Learning Analytics (LaLA) Lab -- (Dr. Nia Dowell)
The rapid growth of social media and online communities has dramatically changed the manner in which communication takes place, and most people engage in some form of on line asynchronous or synchronous conversation every day. As a result, communication and collaboration are key skills across all aspects of modern life, from learning and working to our political and social life more broadly. In the learning Analytics laboratory (LA-lab), we are working to gain a deeper understanding of online discourse and group dynamics in order facilitate improved educational technologies, wider world access to learning, and more competent and successful citizens. Towards this effort, we have several projects that focus on using language and discourse to uncover the dynamics of socially significant, cognitive, and affective processes in a variety of online educational interactions, including collaborative learning and problem-solving environments, collaborative design networks, and massive open online courses (MOOCs).
The Language Variation and Academic Success (LVAS) Lab -- (Dr. Julie Washington and Dr. Katherine Rhodes)
LVAS is dedicated to understanding the intersection of literacy, problem solving, language variation, and poverty. Our work focuses on the analysis of cultural dialect in assessment and identification of reading and math disabilities in school-aged African American children, and on disentangling the relationship between language production and comprehension on the development of reading, mathematical problem solving and early language skills for children growing up in poverty.
Motivation & Identity Research Lab (MIRL) -- (Dr. Jacquelynne Eccles)
MIRL explores the psychological and contextual influences on human development over the lifespan. We are particularly focused on understanding why people do what they do and how to best understand both individual and group differences in educational and occupational behaviors and choices.
The Social, inTegrated, Engaged, & Meaningful (STEM) Learning Lab -- (Dr. Andres Bustamante)
Young children learn best in social contexts where they can work together, when learning opportunities are integrated into the places they already go, when they are actively engaged and hands-on, and when experiences are meaningful and relevant to their daily lives. The STEM Learning Lab leverages these principles to promote rich learning opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math in the places children and families spend time. Lab initiatives span classrooms, school yards, and community contexts (e.g., parks, bus-stops, playgrounds, grocery stores) to foster playful and interactive learning opportunities for children and families. Recent projects include a basketball court painted to emphasize fraction and decimal learning, a life-size board game for math and science learning, and a science professional development program for early childhood classrooms.
UCI Science of Learning Laboratory -- (Dr. Lindsey Richland)
We are a collaborative research group that broadly explores the development of human thinking and learning, as well as STEM teaching and learning in specific. Many of our current studies investigate processes that impact children's development of mathematical and general thinking skills, including executive function, anxiety, home language socialization, and teaching practices. We have a weekly lab meeting in which students present works in progress, ideas for new projects, practice conference or job talk presentations, or have professional development sessions. All are welcome, so please contact me if you are interested.
Variations in Oral and Written English Language (VOWEL) Lab -- (Dr. Brandy Gatlin-Nash)
The VOWEL Lab focuses on the study of language variation (dialects) within American English and understanding its implications for education. We study various social, regional, and ethnic dialects prevalent throughout the United States, but the majority of the focus is on African American English. Current projects include studies of relations between dialect production and language and literacy skills among elementary students and an examination of dialect use and attitudes toward dialect-shifting (code-switching) among African American college students.
Working Memory and Plasticity Lab -- (Dr. Susanne Jaeggi)
We take an interdisciplinary approach to investigate individual differences in higher cognitive functions across the lifespan. A large part of our work focuses on the development of cognitive interventions and the investigation of whether, how and for whom those interventions generalize to non-trained cognitive domains
The work in our lab asks how the use of two or more languages changes the mind and brain. Our focus is on the ways that language processes engage cognition and its neural basis to create consequences for language learners and bilinguals that are dynamic across the lifespan.
Connected Learning Lab
Dedicated to studying and mobilizing learning technologies in equitable, innovative, and learner-centered ways. CLL supports interdisciplinary research and design, and partnerships with a broad network of educational practitioners and technologists.
The Collins Literacy Lab -- (Dr. Penelope Collins)
The Collins Literacy Lab focuses on literacy attainment for youth and children from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Current research projects include explorations of home-literacy environments of young bilingual children, discipline-specific writing in history and STEM, the use of technology to support literacy instruction, and how literacy interventions can be used to support content learning in biology classes.
The Creativity Labs at UCI -- (Dr. Kylie Peppler)
We bring together educators, designers, artists, and learning theorists interested in constructionist and design-based learning. We focus on computational tools that support learning by leveraging youths' interests in digital culture, design, and making.
Development in Social Context Lab (DISC) -- (Dr. Stephanie Reich)
DISC focuses on promoting the healthy development of children by understanding and improving their social interactions. Research projects range from interventions with mothers and infants to high school students’ interactions over Facebook.
Digital Learning Lab -- (Dr. Mark Warschauer)
The Digital Learning Lab uses cutting edge approaches for better understanding students' learning processes, from pre-school to graduate school, as well as to design and develop new tools and resources to improve digital learning.
EPSC Lab
A collection of researchers and students from multiple disciplines whose interests intersect in the field of K-16 education policy. The EPSC Lab serves as a forum for individuals to share research ideas, works-in-progress, and future conference presentations.
The Human Abilities in Bilingual Language (HABLA) Lab -- (Dr. Elizabeth Peña)
The HABLA lab focuses on understanding how bilingual individuals organize and access their two language systems. The goal of this inquiry is to better understand the nature of language breakdowns associated to language impairment in bilinguals.
The Language, Literacy, & Learning (L3) Lab -- (Dr. Young-Suk Kim)
We study how children develop language, cognition, and literacy skills for learning. Our inquiries include development, challenges in development (dyslexia and dysgraphia), and effective instruction for language and literacy acquisition for children from diverse economic, linguistic, cultural backgrounds. Current projects include language intervention, literacy intervention, longitudinal development of language, cognition, and literacy skills, and transfer of skills between languages. Explores oral language development and reading development with particular interests in phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, and reading fluency for various populations
Language and Learning Analytics (LaLA) Lab -- (Dr. Nia Dowell)
The rapid growth of social media and online communities has dramatically changed the manner in which communication takes place, and most people engage in some form of on line asynchronous or synchronous conversation every day. As a result, communication and collaboration are key skills across all aspects of modern life, from learning and working to our political and social life more broadly. In the learning Analytics laboratory (LA-lab), we are working to gain a deeper understanding of online discourse and group dynamics in order facilitate improved educational technologies, wider world access to learning, and more competent and successful citizens. Towards this effort, we have several projects that focus on using language and discourse to uncover the dynamics of socially significant, cognitive, and affective processes in a variety of online educational interactions, including collaborative learning and problem-solving environments, collaborative design networks, and massive open online courses (MOOCs).
The Language Variation and Academic Success (LVAS) Lab -- (Dr. Julie Washington and Dr. Katherine Rhodes)
LVAS is dedicated to understanding the intersection of literacy, problem solving, language variation, and poverty. Our work focuses on the analysis of cultural dialect in assessment and identification of reading and math disabilities in school-aged African American children, and on disentangling the relationship between language production and comprehension on the development of reading, mathematical problem solving and early language skills for children growing up in poverty.
Motivation & Identity Research Lab (MIRL) -- (Dr. Jacquelynne Eccles)
MIRL explores the psychological and contextual influences on human development over the lifespan. We are particularly focused on understanding why people do what they do and how to best understand both individual and group differences in educational and occupational behaviors and choices.
The Social, inTegrated, Engaged, & Meaningful (STEM) Learning Lab -- (Dr. Andres Bustamante)
Young children learn best in social contexts where they can work together, when learning opportunities are integrated into the places they already go, when they are actively engaged and hands-on, and when experiences are meaningful and relevant to their daily lives. The STEM Learning Lab leverages these principles to promote rich learning opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math in the places children and families spend time. Lab initiatives span classrooms, school yards, and community contexts (e.g., parks, bus-stops, playgrounds, grocery stores) to foster playful and interactive learning opportunities for children and families. Recent projects include a basketball court painted to emphasize fraction and decimal learning, a life-size board game for math and science learning, and a science professional development program for early childhood classrooms.
UCI Science of Learning Laboratory -- (Dr. Lindsey Richland)
We are a collaborative research group that broadly explores the development of human thinking and learning, as well as STEM teaching and learning in specific. Many of our current studies investigate processes that impact children's development of mathematical and general thinking skills, including executive function, anxiety, home language socialization, and teaching practices. We have a weekly lab meeting in which students present works in progress, ideas for new projects, practice conference or job talk presentations, or have professional development sessions. All are welcome, so please contact me if you are interested.
Variations in Oral and Written English Language (VOWEL) Lab -- (Dr. Brandy Gatlin-Nash)
The VOWEL Lab focuses on the study of language variation (dialects) within American English and understanding its implications for education. We study various social, regional, and ethnic dialects prevalent throughout the United States, but the majority of the focus is on African American English. Current projects include studies of relations between dialect production and language and literacy skills among elementary students and an examination of dialect use and attitudes toward dialect-shifting (code-switching) among African American college students.
Working Memory and Plasticity Lab -- (Dr. Susanne Jaeggi)
We take an interdisciplinary approach to investigate individual differences in higher cognitive functions across the lifespan. A large part of our work focuses on the development of cognitive interventions and the investigation of whether, how and for whom those interventions generalize to non-trained cognitive domains
Projects & Initiatives
After-School Activities Project -- (Dr. Sandra Simpkins and Dr. Deborah Vandell)
We have several research projects focused on children’s and adolescents’ organized after-school activities. Currently, the team is documenting the outcomes associated with youth’s activities through systematic literature reviews and analysis of several existing longitudinal studies. Some of the exciting projects include understanding how organized activities help build youth of good character and testing the cascading effects of participation during the school years into adulthood.
Bilingualism Matters -- (Dr. Judith Kroll and Dr. Elizabeth Peña)
The UCI branch of Bilingualism Matters will engage researchers, educators and community members across California with the goal of creating a bidirectional communication and connection between evidence-based research on bilingualism and multilingualism with community experience. It will also train a new cohort of students at all levels who are committed to investigating research questions about language diversity that impact society’s understanding of bilingualism.
California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN) -- (Dr. Elizabeth van Es)
CTERIN is a state-wide, cross-university research center focused on the study of teacher preparation. As part of this project, we have organized a networked improvement community consisting of teacher educators across the nine UC teacher preparation programs. This group is collaborating on a shared problem of practice: how to prepare candidates to support multilingual learners in the classroom. We are in year 2 of a 3- year NIC project.
CoATTEND -- (Dr. Elizabeth van Es)
CoATTEND is a participatory action research project aimed at generating a framework for noticing for equity in mathematics education with secondary mathematics teachers and community youth leaders as well as a professional learning model for developing teachers' noticing practices for equity.
Early Childhood Policy Research Group -- (Dr. Jade Jenkins)
This group is for anyone working on early childhood policy research. We meet monthly throughout the academic year to discuss member's projects, brainstorm or troubleshoot ideas, share datasets, articles, and other resources, and to build a scholarly network.
Learning from Teaching Research Group -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
Examines teachers’ dispositions, knowledge, and competencies for continuous improvement of classroom practices. The group also studies the use of video as a tool for teacher professional growth.
Pathway Project -- (Dr. Carol Booth Olson)
Supports Professor Carol Booth Olson’s Pathway research that studies the impact of a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing to help English Learners complete courses in core academic subjects and meet California Common Core State Standards for ELA.
Project Crystal -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
In this project, 4th through 6th-grade Orange County students work closely with students and faculty from UCI, as well as the Crystal Cove Alliance, to engage in authentic research experiences at Crystal Cove State Park. The project goal is to develop life-long science learners.
Project Reach -- (Dr. Sandra Simpkins)
Project Reach focuses on helping youth reach their potential through families and organized after-school activities. Much of our work on organized activities is described under the After-School Activities Lab. We also have projects examining how families help support high school students’ motivational beliefs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as well as how those motivational beliefs relate to students’ STEM outcomes in high school and college. Finally, we are collaborating with an exciting after-school math enrichment activity held at UCI where we are focused on best practices including culturally responsive practices and program impacts on the youth participants and undergraduate student mentors. In all of our work, we focus much of our attention on these issues for diverse youth.
We have several research projects focused on children’s and adolescents’ organized after-school activities. Currently, the team is documenting the outcomes associated with youth’s activities through systematic literature reviews and analysis of several existing longitudinal studies. Some of the exciting projects include understanding how organized activities help build youth of good character and testing the cascading effects of participation during the school years into adulthood.
Bilingualism Matters -- (Dr. Judith Kroll and Dr. Elizabeth Peña)
The UCI branch of Bilingualism Matters will engage researchers, educators and community members across California with the goal of creating a bidirectional communication and connection between evidence-based research on bilingualism and multilingualism with community experience. It will also train a new cohort of students at all levels who are committed to investigating research questions about language diversity that impact society’s understanding of bilingualism.
California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN) -- (Dr. Elizabeth van Es)
CTERIN is a state-wide, cross-university research center focused on the study of teacher preparation. As part of this project, we have organized a networked improvement community consisting of teacher educators across the nine UC teacher preparation programs. This group is collaborating on a shared problem of practice: how to prepare candidates to support multilingual learners in the classroom. We are in year 2 of a 3- year NIC project.
CoATTEND -- (Dr. Elizabeth van Es)
CoATTEND is a participatory action research project aimed at generating a framework for noticing for equity in mathematics education with secondary mathematics teachers and community youth leaders as well as a professional learning model for developing teachers' noticing practices for equity.
Early Childhood Policy Research Group -- (Dr. Jade Jenkins)
This group is for anyone working on early childhood policy research. We meet monthly throughout the academic year to discuss member's projects, brainstorm or troubleshoot ideas, share datasets, articles, and other resources, and to build a scholarly network.
Learning from Teaching Research Group -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
Examines teachers’ dispositions, knowledge, and competencies for continuous improvement of classroom practices. The group also studies the use of video as a tool for teacher professional growth.
Pathway Project -- (Dr. Carol Booth Olson)
Supports Professor Carol Booth Olson’s Pathway research that studies the impact of a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing to help English Learners complete courses in core academic subjects and meet California Common Core State Standards for ELA.
Project Crystal -- (Dr. Rossella Santagata)
In this project, 4th through 6th-grade Orange County students work closely with students and faculty from UCI, as well as the Crystal Cove Alliance, to engage in authentic research experiences at Crystal Cove State Park. The project goal is to develop life-long science learners.
Project Reach -- (Dr. Sandra Simpkins)
Project Reach focuses on helping youth reach their potential through families and organized after-school activities. Much of our work on organized activities is described under the After-School Activities Lab. We also have projects examining how families help support high school students’ motivational beliefs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as well as how those motivational beliefs relate to students’ STEM outcomes in high school and college. Finally, we are collaborating with an exciting after-school math enrichment activity held at UCI where we are focused on best practices including culturally responsive practices and program impacts on the youth participants and undergraduate student mentors. In all of our work, we focus much of our attention on these issues for diverse youth.
