Research

Teacher Knowledge, Teacher Efficacy, and Teacher Evaluation

My own research examines:

• How each teacher’s knowledge of a pedagogical construct (such as normalization in Montessori education) influences their teacher efficacy beliefs and their behaviors with students in the classroom.

• How the subjective interpretation of an assumed shared understanding of a pedagogical construct adversely affects the teacher evaluation process.

• How a community of practice process can bring consensual agreement as to the meaning of pedagogical constructs and increase teachers’ sense of efficacy.

• Consensual agreement regarding pedagogical constructs within schools can also lead to more reliable and valid teacher evaluation programs as well as potentially increased fidelity of implementation of the school’s pedagogy.

• How Montessori’s construct of normalization maps to self-regulated learning.

Education From a Sensorimotor and Ethological Oriented Perspective

I’m also interested in understanding how the development of the sensorimotor system is intertwined with the development of cognition and emotion regulation. Understanding development from a sensorimotor and ethological oriented perspective has implications for how we design education for children. It can also help educators and parents better understand children’s behaviors.

Montessori education, with its richly and purposely prepared sensorimotor environment, provides the opportunity to research the entangled development of the sensorimotor, cognitive, and emotional systems within a natural setting.