Faculty Directory
Janice Gobert
- Co-Director, Learning Sciences & Technologies
- Associate Professor, Social Science & Policy Studies
- Affiliated with:
Professor Gobert is a cognitive scientist by training. Her expertise is in the design of the learning and assessment techniques and technologies for science. She enjoys teaching because it allows for opportunity to both impart knowledge and skills to students and learn about how they use technology and what they think about its future for learning.
Professor Gobert enjoys teaching at WPI in particular because the students are innovation minded and dedicated. What she finds exciting about working in the area of learning technologies is that it allows for the combination of technological innovation with theoretical knowledge of how people learn.
She and her team are working towards developing an intelligent tutoring system that will assess students and tutor them in real time as they learn science. Her group has also developed an eye tracking system that guides students to more expert-like reading and viewing patterns for science learning.
Research Interests
- Learning with visualizations and simulations in science
- Learning and assessment with technology
- Student characteristics such as epistemology and its relationship to content learning
Education
- BA, Psychology (Honors), Laurentian University, Ontario, 1985
- MA, Educational Psychology & Cognitive Science, McGill University, 1989
- PhD, Cognitive Science, University of Toronto, 1994
Featured Publications
- Cobern, W., Schuster, D., Adams, B., Undreiu, A., Applegate, B., Skjold, B., Loving, C. & Gobert, J. (in press, 2010). Experimental Comparison of Inquiry and Direct Instruction in Science. To appear in Research in Science and Technological Education.
- Gobert, J.D, Pallant, A.R., & Krach, N., & Daniels, J.T.M. (in press). Unpacking inquiry skills from content knowledge in Geoscience: A research perspective with implications for assessment design. Int. Journal of Learning Technology.
- Buckley, B.C. Gobert, J., Horwitz, P. & O’Dwyer, L. (in press). Looking inside the black box: Assessments and decision-making in BioLogica. Int. Journal of Learning Technology.
- Horwitz, P. Gobert, J., & Buckley, B. (in press). Learning Genetics From Dragons: From Computer-Based Manipulatives to Hypermodels. To be published in M. Jacobson & P. Reimann (Eds.), Designs for Learning Environments of the Future. Springer Publishers.
- Quellmalz, E.S., DeBarger, A.H., Haertel, G., Schank, P., Buckley, B., Gobert, J., Horwitz, P., & Ayala, C. (in press). Exploring the Role of Technology-Based Simulations in Science Assessment: The Calipers Project. In Science Assessment: Research And Practical Approaches. Washington, DC: NSTA.
