Collaborative Learning
How do students learn from each other? What factors mediate collaborative learning? How can we measure collaborative interactions to better understand how students learn in social environments? These questions guide the my work in a variety of projects, all feeding into my dissertation, that use both empirical field work and laboratory research to study the micro-processes that comprise social learning in educational settings.

Achievement in Introductory Programming Courses
Why do certain demographic groups show higher rates of achievement in computer programming fields? How does prior-experience in computer programming influence later achievement? This final question, in particular, has inspired a longitudinal study of students in introductory computer programming courses and the effects of various teaching strategies on their achievement, self-efficacy, persistence, and motivation throughout the course.

The Dynamic Network Survey
How do the social ties that comprise a network influence the organizations overall ability to achieve its goal? How does the movement of (or access to) resources and expertise, particularly in school organizations, impact the overall ability of the organization to achieve? In collaboration with a research team in organizational psychology, this project focuses on developing a measurement tool that can evaluate the complex and dynamic networks that define our schools.

Encouraging Learning in STEM Despite Experiencing Repeated Failure
STEM fields in particular expose scientists, programmers, engineers, and mathematicians to repeated failure anytime they engage in experimental trials. This is expected and normal. However, when students experience these repeated failures in academic settings, they express feelings of anxiety and hopelessness. This project compares a variety of interventions designed to help students learn that repeated failure in STEM is part of the game. 

Cognitive Dissonance in Virtual vs. Offline Collaborative Group Work
Much research has been done on the effects of group size on performance. This project digs a little deeper to examine how group size affects social and linguistic processes and how these factors mediate the individual cognitive work of group participants. How does group size affect their retention, their meta-cognition, their learning? Importantly, do virtual or online environments impact these effects? If we collaborate online, are we more likely to learn something from it?