Learning to Learn (L2L) Lab
projects
Some of our current projects are listed below.
To see produced work within each of these larger projects, see my research foci.
explanations
Long have the effects of explanations been documented as having cognitive, developmental, and social benefits. Do different types of explanations differ in their roles based on developmental period?
We are currently testing the role of explanations in child and adolescent learning, investigating their varying roles in belief revision.
deeper learning study
Across 22 matched-pair schools in the US, we are investigating the effects of “treatment” / deeper learning culture (compared to non-treatment schools) and respective effects on teacher development, and adolescent cognitive and academic outcomes.
We are currently testing the “explore-exploit trade-off” theory – learners are either given opportunities to explore and think freely, or resort to prior knowledge. This portion of the project includes n=409 teacher assignments, from math and English subjects, guided by the hypothesis that teachers at deeper learning/treatment schools may offer more opportunities for exploratory, imaginative thinking—the type of learning commonly retired by adolescence—alongside the more common evidence-based, argumentative learning.
This project is supported by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and the American Educational Research Association Fellowship Program on the Study of Deeper Learning (AERA-SDL) in collaboration with American Institutes for Research (AIR).
autonomy
Autonomy – a context to freely choose how to act and behave – more often puts individuals in a situation of having to consider multiple options, or causes, and hence they will likely reason about cause and effect differently (Modrek & Sandoval, 2020; Modrek et al., 2021).
What can the development of autonomy do for reasoning and attribution skill?
At what age do individuals want more autonomy? Why?
analogue / causal reasoning
When seeking to understand a phenomenon, we need to identify both the cause(s) and its outcome. Can highlighting counterfactual cases decrease endorsement of a false inference?
How do people use semantic knowledge to identity multiple, causal, attributions?
pedagogy and scientific thinking
We have been examining insights into the challenges of pedagogy. This project has developed and studied pedagogical strategies to engender scientific reasoning and thinking in a sample of Latinx students based in eastern Los Angeles.
How do pedagogical shifts affect student learning and participation?
Collaborator/ PI: William A. Sandoval (UCLA)
short- v. long-term outcomes on learning and achievement
Collaborator: Gerardo Ramirez (Ball State University)
(duration: 2 years)
We have been examining longitudinal outcomes of an urban sample of middle school students, where we are investigating cognitive, versus behavioral, predictors of young adolescents’ short-term versus long-term learning and academic outcomes.
Do short-term contributors differ from long-term contributors of learning and achievement?
individual differences in self-regulation
(duration: 3 years)
Collaborator: Deanna Kuhn (Columbia University)
Why do people learn more effectively than others? Are the contributing factors identical to academic achievement, or do they differ?
We conducted a study across three boroughs of New York - Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn – investigating low-income children’s self-regulation and inquiry learning.
It was evident that self-regulation as a construct needed to be unpacked, such as differentiating between the different facets within cognitive regulation and their relations to behavior regulation.
get involved.
We’re always looking for undergraduate and graduate RA's, volunteers, and research partners. Apply to join the L2L Lab! →