SESP Faculty

Reed Stevens

Faculty Profile

Reed Stevens’ research examines and compares cognitive activity in a range of settings including classrooms, workplaces, and science museums. On the basis of this comparative work, he is exploring new ways to conceptualize cognition and organize learning environments. Dr. Stevens’ specific interests include how mathematical activity contributes to various settings and how technology mediates thinking and learning. His multidisciplinary research draws on cognitive science, interactionist traditions, and the social studies of science and technology.

To understand learners’ naturally occurring activities, Dr. Stevens collects audio-video records of people working and analyzes them with a variety of methods adapted from cognitive science, science studies, and ethnomethodology/conversation analysis, in addition to long-term ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing. He also designs curriculum, activities, and technologies, including Video Traces software that allows people to collect digital video clips and annotate them with talk or gestures.

Learning and activity in a wide range of places and situations; design of learning tools curriculum, activities, and technologies.

Stevens, Reed (2012). The Missing Bodies of Mathematical Thinking and Learning Have Been Found. Journal of the Learning Sciences: 337-346.

Stevens, Reed; Penney, Lauren; Keifert, Danielle; Davis, Pryce; Mehus, Siri; Lehrer, Rich (2012). Everyday interactions and activities: Field studies of early learning across settings. 10th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Future of Learning, ICLS 2012 : 91-98.

Timothy K. O’Mahony; Nancy JBransford, John; Sanders, Elizabeth; Stevens, Reed; Stephens, Richard; Richey, Michael; Lin, Kuen; Soleiman, Moe (2012). A Comparison of Lecture-Based and Challenge-Based Learning in a Workplace Setting: Course Designs, Patterns of Interactivity, and Learning Outcomes. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21(1): 182-206.