Research & Teaching

Description of Research Interests

Lee's work has involved study of external representations in middle school science instruction, conceptual change, and the cognitive clinical interview as a research instrument. Other strands of work include the study of learning that takes place in complex collaborative strategy games and the investigation of ways in which physical activity data recording technologies can be used to support mathematics and science learning in schools.

Research Keywords

external representations, cognitive science, science education, clinical interviews, human computer interaction, face-to-face learning in game environments, physical activity data recording technologies

Background and Experience

 

Ph.D. Learning Sciences - Northwestern University, December 2008.

 

BS Cognitive Science - University of California, San Diego, 2001.

BA Math/Applied Science - University of California, San Diego, 2001.

 

 

Selected Publications and Presentations

Lee, V. R. (in press). Adaptations and continuities in the use and design of visual representations in US middle school science textbooks. International Journal of Science Education.

 

Lee, V.R. (to appear). A Feasibility Study of Physical Activity Data Technologies as Investigative Tools for High School Students. Paper to be presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO.

 

Lee, V.R. (to appear). Misconstruals or more? The interactions of orbit diagrams and explanations of the seasons. Paper to be presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO.

 

Berland, M.W. & Lee, V.R. (to appear). Using Designer Board Games to Understand Distributed Computational Thinking. Paper to be presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO.

 

Lee, V. R. (2009). Examining patterns of visual representation use in middle school science classrooms. Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.

 

Russ, R. S., Lee, V. R., Sherin, B. (2009). Framing in clinical interviews: Cues and interpretations. Paper presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.

 

Lee, V. R., Russ, R. S., & Sherin, B. (2008). A functional taxonomy of discourse moves for conversation management during cognitive clinical Interviews about scientific phenomena. In V. Sloutsky, B. Love & K. McRae (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1723-1728). Austin, TX.

 

Lee, V. R. (2007). Trends, changes, and challenges in a half-century of textbook representations. Paper presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Resesarch Assocation. Chicago, IL.

Lee, V. R., & Sherin, B. (2006). Beyond transparency: How students make representations meaningful. In S. A. Barab, K. E. Hay & D. T. Hickey (Eds.), Proceedings of The Seventh International Conference of the Learning Sciences (Vol. 1, pp. 397-403). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kanter, D., Sherin, B., & Lee, V. (2006). Changing conceptual ecologies in task-structured science curricula. In S. A. Barab, K. E. Hay & D. T. Hickey (Eds.), Proceedings of The Seventh International Conference of the Learning Sciences (Vol. 1, pp. 293-299). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Sherin, B., Krakowski, M., Lee, V., Bang, M., & Dam, G. (2006). Conceptual dynamics in clinical interviews: An introduction, Paper presnted at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.

Krakowski, M., Sherin, B., Lee, V., Bang, M., & Dam, G. (2006). Modes and nodes: A cognitive framework for capturing conceptual dynamics, Paper presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.

Lee, V., Krakowski, M., Sherin, B., Bang, M., & Dam, G. (2006). Methodological challenges for identifying and coding diverse knowledge elements in interview data, Paper presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.

Lee, V. (2006). Moving beyond epistemic fidelity for evaluating curricular representations, Poster presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.

Sherin, B., & Lee, V. (2005). On the interpretation of scientific representations. Paper presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. pdf

Lee, V. R., & Sherin, B. L. (2004). What makes teaching special? In Y. Kafai, W. Sandoval, N. Enyedy, A. Nixon & F. Herrera (Eds.), Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 302-309). Santa Monica, CA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

 

Awards & Honors

• Northwestern University Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2007.
• Best Student Paper Award for AERA SIG-ATL (Advanced Technologies for Learning)/EST (Education in Science and Technology. now Learning Sciences). 2007.
  
• Graduate Fellow of the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science, 2005.
• Cognitive Science Fellowship, 2002.
• UC San Diego Alumni Award, 2001.
• UC San Diego Regents Scholar, 1997.

 

Professional Memberships

American Educational Research Association, International Society of the Learning Sciences, Cognitive Science Society, National Association for Research in Science Teaching

Related content

Project

• PAD: Physical Activity Data
• Historical Change In Instructional Representations
• Learning to Play: Collaborative Board Games as a Learning Environment
• TwHistory: Re-enacting historical events through Twitter

Course

• INST 5205: Computer Applications for Instruction and Training
• INST 6205: Computer Applications for Instruction and Training