University
of Illinois at Chicago Office of Public Affairs (MC 288)
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| May 1, 2001 | Contact: Anne Dybek (312) 996-8279; adybek@uic.edu |
TWO LEADING PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCHERS JOIN UIC
World-renowned cognition researchers Susan Goldman and Jim Pellegrino are joining the University of Illinois at Chicago as Distinguished College Professors in Liberal Arts and Sciences and Education. Beginning this fall, they will serve as co-directors of a new interdisciplinary research center on cognition, instruction and teacher development. Their appointments are subject to the approval of the university board of trustees.
"Adding Susan Goldman and Jim Pellegrino to the psychology department will help make UIC one of the premiere universities in the nation for studying issues related to learning, instruction and teacher education," said Stanley Fish, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "They will develop an interdisciplinary research center that will attract worldwide attention by bringing together theory, research and practice related to cognition and instruction."
"We could not be more pleased to have our esteemed colleagues, Jim and Susan, join psychology and education at UIC," said Victoria Chou, dean of the College of Education. "Their presence is certain to energize relationships among our faculty."
"Goldman and Pellegrino are very distinguished intellectual leaders," said Christopher Keys, psychology department chair. "Susan has led pioneering efforts in the development of innovative curricula actually grounded in our scientific understanding of how students learn. Jim has conducted important work on the assessment of student progress that has valuable implications for current educational policy."
Goldman and Pellegrino, who are husband and wife, look forward to coming to UIC.
"One of the things that excites us about UIC is that faculty are doing important work on issues of learning, instruction, assessment and teacher development," Goldman said. "From our conversations with many of the faculty, it's clear that there is the interest and desire for greater collaboration and the emergence of a center to support that. So working together with them, we hope to develop such a center and increase the visibility of the important contributions being made to theory, research and practice."
"Equally impressive is the administration's commitment to this effort," Pellegrino said. "They clearly appreciate the contributions a center can make to addressing current educational concerns, including the rethinking of undergraduate and graduate education at UIC. We are very pleased to have been given this opportunity and look forward to working with our new colleagues."
Goldman and Pellegrino come to UIC from Vanderbilt University. As co-director of the Vanderbilt Learning Technology Center, Goldman has made important contributions to understanding how children learn in the classroom. Regarded as one of the nation's leading researchers in the area of research-based instruction and teacher development, she has had a substantial impact on educational practice.
She is co-developer of "Adventures of Jasper Woodbury," a set of multimedia-based learning scenarios for mathematics and "Little Planet Literacy Series," a multimedia-based literacy series for young children that is focused on reading comprehension and writing. More recently, her work focuses on multimedia literacies needed for success in the 21st century.
Goldman served as president and governing board chair of the Society for Text and Discourse 2000. She earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Barnard College, an independent college affiliated with Columbia University.
Pellegrino is one of the nation's top researchers in the area of individual differences and educational assessment. His research has strongly influenced educational policy and practice.
He served as dean of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt from 1992 to 1998. As a researcher, he has applied study results regarding individual differences to the development of educational assessment procedures, particularly assessments that can be used to adapt instruction to individual students and guide the development of educational materials.
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