Research & Interest

While currently working in a 1:1 setting, my passions extend to:

• Engaging in rigorous study of educational issues, policy, and pedagogical practices

• Conducting transdiciplinary mixed methods research with school- and community-based partners at a university

• Teaching and conducting research with pre-service teachers

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My interests lie at the intersection of developmental psychology, neuroscience, teaching and learning, sociology, and school reform specifically as it relates to secondary education. I am interested in developing pedagogical practices, frameworks, and models of secondary schooling that support the specific biological, cognitive, and social emotional needs of adolescents as they transition from dependent children into independent adults. 

Questions of interest:

• How do we create schools that aren't just safe, but healthy, promote deeper learning and overall long-term well-being for ALL students?

• What factors support teacher and pupil learning and well-being, and what structures and practices support well-being and learning of all students in secondary schools?

• How do we use the successes we have to create frameworks that can be used to scale-up models?

• What role does educational neuroscience and developmental psychology play in answering these crucial questions?

Topics include: interrogating the grammar of schooling; redesigning secondary schools; identifying pedagogical practices that support teacher and student well-being; affective neuroscience and its implications for school design and pedagogical practice; impact of public policy, and educational reform on adolescent health; the role of autonomy, agency, and choice in secondary education models.