Schwartz, Dan
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Research
A member of the SUSE faculty since 2000, Dr. Schwartz studies student understanding and representation and the ways that technology can facilitate learning. He works at the intersection of cognitive science, computer science, and education, examining cognition and instruction in individual, cross-cultural, and technological settings. A theme throughout Dr. Schwartz's research is how people's facility for spatial thinking can inform and influence processes of learning, instruction, assessment and problem solving. He finds that new media make it possible to exploit spatial representations and activities in fundamentally new ways, offering an exciting complement to the verbal approaches that dominate educational research and practice.
Instructional methods, transfer of learning and assessment, mathematical development, teachable agents, cognition, and cognitive neuroscience.
Quote
"Constructivism is a broad vision of learning; it is not just an approach to instruction. It enables us to consider students’ abilities to create new knowledge when they are outside of instruction and we no longer have control over precise instructional variables. By shifting the focus [of constructivism] to assessment, we can ask the question, “What experiences prepare students to construct knowledge in the future and in the wild?” This question is important because learning should not end once students leave the classroom and lose a teacher’s direct guidance. By creating constructivist assessments, it will be possible to identify the elements of instruction — constructivist or otherwise — that facilitate the development of continued learning."
- From "Constuctivism in an Age of Non-Constructivist Assessments" with Robb Lindgren and Sarah Lewis.
Education
- PhD (Human Cognition and Learning), Columbia University, 1992
- MA (Computers and Education), Columbia University, 1988
- BA (Philosophy and Anthropology), Swarthmore College, 1979
- Teaching Certificate, University of Southern California, 1981
Time at Stanford
Since 2000
Professor of Education
Professional Experience
Teacher of Mathematics, Kitiwanga Day School, Kitiwanga, Kenya
Teacher of Remedial Reading and Writing, John Muir Jr. High, Los Angeles, CA)
Teacher of Mathematics, Science, Reading and Language Arts, Kaltag Jr. & Sr. High Schools, Kaltag, AK
Programmer & Instructor in Lisp, C, & Assembler
Research Scientist, Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt
Assistant and Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University
Courses Taught
Instructional methods, transfer of learning and assessment, mathematical development, teachable agents, cognition, and cognitive neuroscience.
Recent Publications
Schwartz, D. L., Bransford, J. D., Sears, D. L. (2005). Efficiency and innovation in transfer. In J. Mestre (Ed.), Transfer of learning from a modern multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 1 - 51). CT: Information Age Publishing.
Varma, S., McCandliss, B. D., & Schwartz, D. L. (2008). Scientific and pragmatic challenges for bridging education and neuroscience. Educational Researcher, 37(3), 140-152.
Martin, L. & Schwartz, D. L. (in press). Prospective adaptation in the use of representational tools. Cognition and Instruction.
Chase, C., Chin, D. B., Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (in press). Teachable agents and the protégé effect: Increasing the effort towards learning. Journal of Science Education and Technology.
Current Activities
Co-Director of the National Science Foundation, Science of Learning Center called Learning in Informal and Formal Environments.
