Brown Bag - Dr. Ji Shen
Please join us for the next Brown Bag seminar of the Fall semester. The seminar will be held on Wednesday, October 14 in the Collaboratory Commons at the Friday Institute on NC State's Centennial Campus. Refreshments will be served at 8:30am and the seminar will begin at 9:00am. Please feel free to bring colleagues and students along with you. The speaker will be Dr. Ji Shen, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Georgia. His presentation is entitled "Transformative Modeling: Towards an Instructional Theory of Learning Science.”
Dr. Shen’s focus will be the physical models and computerized visualizations that are pervasive in science classrooms. Problems emerge when teachers use learning tools whose mechanisms either are concealed in a black box (e.g., a laser pointer) or too intuitive to notice (e.g., a meter stick). From the framework of transformative modeling, this presentation engages in a discussion on how learning tools should be constructed, presented and used in science classrooms to promote students’ deep conceptual learning. Transformative modeling delineates learning and instruction as a process of modeling the world through transforming both the constructs of models and forms of representations from crafted experience. Examples in pre-service teacher education settings are illustrated.
Dr. Shen’s research is built upon model-based instruction to bridge students’ own ideas and scientific concepts. He develops online curricula and computerized visualizations for middle and high school students. He is also engaged in the design of technology-enhanced learning environments to connect to physical reality, and conducting research on the effects of various scaffolding strategies. Currently, he is working with a team of scientists and educators to create 3-D animations and games for helping students learn biology. Dr. Shen received a B.S. from Beijing University in 2001, followed by his M.A. in physics in 2003 and Ph.D. in physics education in 2006, both from Washington University in St Louis. From 2006 to 2008 he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Technology-enhanced Learning Center at U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Shen joined the Department of Mathematics and Science at the University of Georgia in August 2008.