Dr. Eric Kirk

Biography

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences department at Utah State University. I am motivated by a desire to improve how people learn to use science to make sense of the world, improve their personal lives, and contribute to society more broadly. My work focuses on how people reason about problems that emerge at the intersections of science and society, and how their ideas about knowledge and knowing shape that reasoning. I investigate and design issues-based learning resources that target learners’ epistemic cognition, causal reasoning, perspective-taking, and use of representations to cultivate science literacy. Before earning my Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I received a B.A. in Biology and an M.A.T. in Science Education. I also taught high school Environmental Science and AP Biology. When I’m not working, you can usually find me in the woods hiking or mountain biking.