Learning Sciences Initiative
In collaboration with UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, and School of Architecture and Planning, the Graduate School of Education recently launched the Learning Sciences Initiative.
Focused on integrative learning sciences scholarship, the initiative will assemble a group of prominent faculty in the disciplines of learning sciences, human-computer partnerships, cognitive science and psychology, design, and learning environments.
The interdisciplinary group of researchers will strive to build a community whose knowledge and ideas will lead to improvements in learning and learning environments in K-12 and higher education through the application and development of cutting-edge technologies and pedagogies across the educational lifespan while also considering the vital need to eliminate persistent inequities.
Initiative Director
Christopher Hoadley, PhD, an expert in designing collaborative technologies and enhancing computer support for collaborative learning, joined the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education in September, 2022. Hoadley began his joint appointment as a professor in UB’s Department of Learning and Instruction and Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He is also affiliated with the Department of Information Science.
Throughout his career, Christopher Hoadley has focused on exploring the ways that technology can help improve people’s lives. He has over 45 years of experience designing and building educational technology and over 30 years of experience researching the connections between technology, learning and collaboration. His work focuses on collaborative technologies, computer support for cooperative learning, and design-based research methods—a term he coined in the late 1990s.
Before joining UB, Hoadley served as an associate professor of educational communications at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development from 2008-2022. During his tenure at NYU, he founded the Design of Learning, Collaboration, and Experience Lab (dolcelab) to study the interconnections between design, learning, technology and collaboration. He was also the founding program director of the world’s first Games for Learning degree program.
Hoadley has more than 100 publications, including two edited books, 29 peer-refereed journal articles, 21 book chapters, 39 refereed conference proceedings and 11 invited editorial articles. His work has appeared in top-tier educational journals, including Educational Researcher, Educational Psychologist, International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and Educational Technology Research and Development.
He has played a critical role in shaping the learning sciences field by co-founding the International Society of the Learning Sciences. He served as the Society’s inaugural president and helped establish its successful organizational structure and conference organization.
Hoadley holds a PhD in science and math education and an MS in computer science—both from the University of California at Berkeley—and a BS in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Faculty represent UB departments including architecture, computer science and engineering, engineering education, information science, learning and instruction, and psychology.
Graduate School of Education
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Academic
Our doctoral program in curriculum, instruction and the science of learning is a multidisciplinary program that focuses on addressing practical educational problems through research in diverse contexts for learning and teaching.
In this program, you can:
Customize the program to meet your particular research and career interests, or follow the general track for an an innovative interdisciplinary focus; if you customize the program, you can choose from these concentrations:
- Elementary education
- English education
- Learning sciences
- Literacy and reading education
- Mathematics education
- Science education
- Social studies education