Research Statement
The purpose of my research is to design, develop, evaluate, and integrate advanced learning technologies to address educational issues and promote accessible, inclusive, and equitable education. I am especially interested in facilitating STEM learning and broadening STEM participation and supporting students’ individual learning needs. Under the umbrella of my overarching goal and interest, my research agenda includes the following three aspects.
Engage Students Through Advanced Learning Technologies
Many advanced technologies such as 3D printing and virtual reality (VR) have been used to facilitate teaching and learning. However, how to effectively integrate these technologies to engage students and enhance learning has been a long-lasting issue. My dissertation focused on innovative integration of 3D printing technologies in science classrooms to facilitate K-12 students’ STEM learning and promote their STEM motivation and interest in STEM careers, which are essential for students to participate in STEM disciplines and future STEM careers.
Guided by social cognitive career theory, expectancy-value theory of motivation, technology integration matrix, and the TPACK framework, I used multilevel models to examine how teachers’ beliefs and 3D printing integration in science classrooms influence students’ STEM motivation by taking into account both student-level and teacher-level factors. My study found that teachers’ beliefs and 3D printing integration were generally not correlated except for a negative relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy in pedagogical content knowledge and STEM integration levels. Teachers perceived 3D printing integration as beneficial for students, but they encountered a few challenges including logistic and technical issues, lack of time and resources, insufficient ability to use 3D printers and connect 3D printing with curricula, and difficulty in teaching students with individual differences. Teachers’ 3D printing integration levels were not significant for any of the outcome variables. However, teachers’ STEM integration levels were a positive predictor of students’ math motivation. In another study, I examined how 3D printing integration in science classrooms influenced girls and boys’ STEM career interest. My study found that boys were more interested in analytic STEM careers and girls were more interested in empathetic STEM careers that involve interaction with people and/or creatures. While 3D printing integration level was not a significant predictor, teachers’ STEM integration level positively predicted both boys and girls’ interest in analytic and empathetic STEM careers.
My article entitled Exploring the influence of teachers’ beliefs and 3D printing integrated STEM instruction on students’ STEM motivation has been published in Computers & Education. Another article entitled Exploring the role of 3D printing and STEM integration levels in students’ STEM career interest has been published in British Journal of Educational Technology. Both are top-tier SSCI journals in educational technology. My studies have implications for both 3D printing technology integration practice and research. The positive influence of STEM integration levels suggest the benefits of integrating multiple STEM subjects to enhance both boys and girls STEM motivation and career interest. My next step is to further this line of research and investigate how integrating advanced learning technologies coupled with culturally responsive pedagogy can make learning relevant and inclusive for both boys and girls so as to promote their STEM learning, motivation and interest in STEM careers.
Decipher Individual Differences in Technology-Based Learning
With the proliferation of information and communication technologies, advanced technologies have been revolutionizing education by making learning more accessible, visualizable, and engaging. Enabled by advanced technologies, students can see things directly through animations and simulations or have immersive learning experience through VR technologies without deep cognitive processing of information that traditionally has to be imagined through reading. However, do the technologies work best for all students? As we all know, one size does not fit for all. To personalize and address students’ learning needs, it is necessary to understand how technologies work for students with individual differences.
As a starting point, I investigated how different types of multimedia and visualizations can impact the learning of students with individual differences. Specifically, I conducted an experimental study to examine how student-generated drawing (externalized visualization), imagination (internalized visualization), and learning with provided pictures (provided visualization) work for students with different prior knowledge and spatial ability when studying a computer-based science text. This study found that when spatial ability was high, students in the drawing group had significantly higher learning recall than students in the imagining group; and students in the imagining group had significantly higher learning transfer than students in the picture group; however, students who constructed drawings had significantly higher cognitive load than students who learned with provided pictures. The full article entitled Effects of student‑generated drawing and imagination on science text reading in a computer‑based learning environment has been published in Educational Technology Research and Development. I also collaborated on a book chapter entitled Using Technology to Address Individual Differences in Cognitive Processing, which is in press in the prestigious Handbook of Research on Educational and Communications Technology.
Besides traditional measures, I would like to leverage neurotechnologies such as eye-tracking and EEG to study how 3D and immersive learning enabled by advanced technologies work for students with individual differences. Furtherly, I would like to study what learning strategies students can use to optimize their learning with advanced technologies, eventually contributing to personalized learning.
Design and Develop Advanced Learning Technologies for Individual Learning Needs
Along with studying how existing advanced technologies can be used to facilitate learning, I have also participated in the design and development of advanced learning technologies to support students’ individual needs.
I worked for an IES funded project to collaboratively design and develop an iPad app to facilitate youth students with visual impairments to learn graphical information in math problems in the context of science learning (endangered and invasive animals). After the app was developed, we provided professional development for teachers to learn the app and we also developed accompanied curriculum units to guide teachers to teach the math lessons with the app. Our papers have been published in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. Our iPad app “AnimalWatch Vi Graphics” is freely available in the app store now. I also worked in Dr. Matthew Schmidt’s Advanced Learning Technologies Studio at UF which focuses on designing and developing technology-based interventions. Our paper entitled Formative Design and Evaluation of a Responsive eHealth/mHealth Intervention for Positive Family Adaptation Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury has been published in the Journal of Formative Design in Learning. Another paper entitled Learning experience design of an mHealth self-management intervention for adolescents with type 1 diabetes has been published in Educational Technology Research and Development. I also worked with Dr. Schmidt and the team on the design and development of a virtual reality environment to support co-design and collaborative research with autistic students.
Besides meeting the learning needs of students with disabilities, I am also passionate about promoting equitable learning opportunities for all students. Currently I’m working with Dr. Heffernan on leveraging a digital research platform called E-TRIALS to support research on K-12 math learning with ASSISTments, a free online math learning platform that strives to create equitable opportunities and improve math learning outcomes for historically marginalized student populations. As traditional classroom instruction is limited for one teacher to pay attention to and address every student’s learning needs, I believe leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies holds the promise to provide students with individualized learning opportunities and timely feedback. I am very interested in collaborating on designing and developing AI technologies to provide individualized and optimal learning experiences for students.
In summary, my research agenda centers around the design, development, evaluation, and integration of advanced learning technologies to engage students in STEM learning and support learners’ individual needs so as to promote accessible, inclusive, and equitable education. I am open to interdisciplinary collaboration to sustain these research lines and push forward my research agenda to make contributions to education.