Events

Conversations that Matter - Reimagining K-16+ STEM Education

What it Means to be Proficient in Science and Why that Matters for Policy and Practice

A Conversation with Dr. James Pellegrino, Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and Co-Director of UIC's Learning Sciences Research Institute

Join Dr. James Pellegrino as he highlights the ongoing reconceptualization of what it means to “know” and “understand” science, with proficiency expressed in terms of learning outcomes related to knowledge in use.

New theories, models and data about science learning have been key in bringing much-needed coherence to science education across the K-16+ continuum. These changes present both challenges and opportunities to the design and integration of curriculum, instruction and assessment – not only in K-12, but throughout higher education and even influence gatekeeper instruments such as the AAMC’s Medical College Admission Test.

Lunch will be provided.

Conversations that Matter - Identity Formation in the Digital Age
featuring Dr. Eli Gottlieb

The internet has revolutionized how we communicate and left almost no area of our everyday lives untouched - from how we shop and entertain ourselves to how we debate political questions and tend to our most intimate relationships. Discussions of what these changes mean for education tend to focus on students' cognition - how they think, learn, acquire and evaluate knowledge. In this talk, Dr. Eli Gottlieb will focus instead on what they mean for students' identities - their sense of who they are as individuals and members of communities.

Is the ideal of a stable, integrated self still feasible? And if not, what are the alternatives? Are the internet and social media making young people more self-obsessed, conformist and fragile? And if so, what, if anything, can we do about it? What are the effects of simultaneous participation in multiple, virtual communities on personal virtues such as commitment and consistency? And how, in the digital age, might we help young people develop a healthy sense of who they are and where they belong?

About Dr. Eli Gottlieb

Dr. Eli Gottlieb is a cognitive psychologist. His research examines links between cognition, culture and identity, and their implications for education and leadership. He has taught at the University of Washington and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and led many initiatives in Jewish and Israeli education. For over a decade, Dr. Gottlieb directed the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem, in which capacity The Marker Magazine ranked him joint twelfth in its list of the 100 most influential people in Israel. He is currently writing a book about identity in the digital age.