Research topics range from narrative comprehension to theories of cooperative learning to conflict resolution, education management, children's play behaviors, motivation and math scores, and technology. There's a place here for any focus that has to do with human learning. One program strength is the diversity of background, interests, and goals of students and faculty. Students in various department programs get to know each other through statistics core courses, research methods courses, and the process of written and oral pre-lim exams. Students all face similar challenges, and there's a sense of community among people who have assistantships.
Some students plan to become academics, others hope to pursue public or private research.
Many people hope to work on textbooks, educational measurement, and test creation at the government level or for private foundations. Tina has always tried to gain experience in both teaching and research. I've had the opportunity to do a lot of teaching here. Teaching at the college level is what I want to do. Her research team is doing a national study of afterschool programs.