Dr. Hillary Swanson (she/her) Associate Professor <p>PhD, Science and Mathematics Education - University of California at Berkeley</p> <p>BA, Physics - Colorado College</p> EDUC 216 (435) 797-0782 hillary.swanson@usu.edu https://profile.usu.edu/itls/images/people/hillary-swanson.jpeg https://docs.google.com/document/d/19Dm6niz3zsdO9cZ5FXJCNtYH9cS_Sb5aBoJegDxjolQ/edit <p>Across her teaching and research, Hillary likes to share her favorite Einstein quote: “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.” The idea has been a driving force behind her research, which explores how engaging in scientific practices helps students refine their everyday thinking into scientific understanding.</p> <p>Hillary brings years of experience as a classroom teacher to her academic work. Before transitioning to research, she taught physics, chemistry, and math at high schools including High Tech High, a project-based school in San Diego, California.</p> <p>Through her experience as a teacher, Hillary became interested in understanding how learning works. Her research focuses on how students develop new understanding by refining and building on their prior thinking, and how technology and instruction can support this process. By focusing on the productive resources students bring to their learning, Hillary’s work challenges deficit views of students and contributes to efforts aimed at honoring and building on the diversity of perspectives and experiences students bring to their learning.</p> <p>Before joining the ITLS faculty, Hillary worked at the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) and the Tangible Interaction Design and Learning Lab (TIDAL) at Northwestern University.</p> <p>Students who are interested in developing learning technologies and activities and building fine-grained models of the cognitive mechanisms through which learning occurs will be especially interested in Hillary’s work.</p> <p> Not accepting PhD students for the 2027-2028 academic year. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IKPGH3gAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao Google Scholar