Increased attention to STEM education in schools highlights on-going trends both for young people and adults of inequities within STEM contexts. The Center is committed to creating a more equitable society, especially for those most marginalized, through high-quality research on formal and informal STEM learning environments.

School leadership is critical to student success, instructional capacity, and school culture.  In many schools, teachers assume leadership responsibilities centered on developing the instructional capacity of faculty while promoting a collective leadership model.  Research in this area focuses on the influence this model has on various components of teaching, learning, and leadership.

Teaching matters. The Center’s research on instructional practice recognizes the influence that pedagogy has on a variety of student outcomes, including achievement, interest, and identity. Studies on instruction explore how teachers from the STEM disciplines learn and apply new practices, how these practices evolve over time, and the effect of different instructional approaches on student outcomes.

Robust learning occurs in many contexts outside of formal classroom settings. The Center’s research explores opportunities for STEM learning within and among families, in public spaces such as museums and libraries, and through a vast array of publicly available tools.

Curricular decisions shape educational experiences in formal settings. The Center’s research in curriculum studies explores the questions of why STEM should be addressed as part of schooling, what ideas should be addressed, and how might they best be organized to engage young people in the core ideas and practices of the disciplines.

Advances in psychology and neuroscience have opened the door to a better understanding of how young people learn. The Center’s research on cognition focuses on young people in STEM learning environments - both formal and informal - and how they construct and apply knowledge and engage in STEM practices.

Recent trends in education, including Catholic schools, have increased the visibility and engagement in STEM education in our nation’s schools. However, the field lacks a robust research literature on the ways in which STEM integrates with the existing Catholic identity of schools. The Center’s research on STEM in Catholic schools draws on existing partnerships to better understand, theoretically and practically, how school organization, teaching, and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are addressed in faith-based contexts.