Curriculum and Instruction

Leema Berland

Associate Professor

lberland@wisc.edu

(608) 263-2707

226-A Teacher Education Building

225 N. Mills Street

Madison, WI 53706

Berland, Leema

Download CV  

Leema K. Berland earned her PhD in the Learning Sciences from Northwestern University in 2008. Prior to joining the WI faculty, Dr. Berland was an assistant professor in STEM education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Berland is currently a Principal Investigator on the National Science Foundation funded project “Fostering Pedagogical Argumentation: Reasoning With and About Student Ideas” and Co-Principal Investigator on the NSF funded project “Supporting scientific practices in elementary and middle school classrooms.” Dr. Berland’s work focuses on supporting and understanding student engagement in the scientific practices and on helping teachers do the same.

Education

  • PhD Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, 2008
  • BA Computer Science, Carleton College, 1999

Select Publications

  • Russ, R., & Berland, L. K. (2019). Invented Science. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(3), 279-301.
  • Miller, E., Manz, E., Russ, R., Stroupe, D., & Berland, L. K. (2018). Addressing the epistemic elephant in the room: Epistemic agency and the Next Generation Science Standards. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(7), 1053-1075. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21459.
  • McNeill, K., & Berland, L. K. (2017). What is (or should be) scientific evidence use in K-12 classrooms? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(5), 672-289.
  • Berland, L. K., Schwarz, C., Kenyon, L., Lo, A., Krist, C., & Reiser, B. (2016). Epistemologies in Practice: making scientific practices meaningful for students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(7), 1082-1112.
  • Berland, L. K., & Crucet, K. C. (2015). Epistemological Tradeoffs: accounting for context when evaluating epistemological sophistication of student engagement in scientific practices. Science Education, 100(1), 5-29.
  • Hammer, D., & Berland, L. K. (2013). Confusing claims for data: A critique of common practices for presenting qualitative research on learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 23(1), 37-46.
  • Berland, L. K., & Hammer, D. (2012). Framing for scientific argumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49(1), 68-94.
  • Berland, L. K., & Reiser, B. J. (2011). Classroom communities’ adaptations of the practice of scientific argumentation. Science Education, 95(2), 191-216.
  • Berland, L. K. (2011). Explaining variation in how classroom communities adapt the practice of scientific argumentation. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 20(4), 625-664.
  • Berland, L. K., & McNeill, K. L. (2010). A learning progression for scientific argumentation: understanding student work and designing supportive instructional contexts. Science Education, 94(1), 765-793.

Select Presentations

  • Berland, L. K., Russ, R., & Feinstein, N. W. Curiosity Practice: A powerful new lever for fostering scientific engagement. In J. Kay and R. Luckin (Eds.), Rethinking learning in the digital age: making the Learning Sciences count. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2018), London, UK.
  • Berland, L. K., & McNeill, K. L. How can personal experiences be leveraged as “scientific evidence” in k-12 classrooms? Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2018), London, UK.
  • Russ, R., & Berland, L. K. Inquiry Science vs Invented Science. Paper presented at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.
  • Berland, L. K., Russ, R., & West, C. Pre-service teachers reframing pedagogy to support scientific sensemaking practices. Paper presented at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.
  • Berland, L. K. How context influences pre-service teachers attending and responding to student ideas. Paper presented at the 17th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Tampere, Finland.
  • Russ, R., & Berland, L. K. How can students have epistemic agency when they have not identified what to learn? Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX.
  • Berland, L. K., & Russ, R. Using responsive teaching to turn teacher attention to student epistemic agency (Poster). Poster presented at the Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX.
  • Berland, L. K., & Russ, R. Learning Through Argumentation: A Process of Dynamic Refinement. Paper presented at the EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, Ghent, Belgium.
  • Berland, L. K., Allen, D., Crawford, R., Farmer, C., & Guerra, L. Learning Sciences guided high school engineering curriculum development. Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education annual meeting, San Antonio, TX.
  • Berland, L. K., & McKenna, W. Student responses to challenge-based curricula. Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education annual meeting, San Antonio, TX.