Hillary Swanson (she/her)

Biography

Hillary is an assistant professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences and Director of the Learning Dynamics Lab at Utah State University. She is a former high school science and mathematics teacher. Her research focuses on how students' everyday thinking can play a productive role in their science learning. Her research challenges deficit views of students and makes a foundational contribution to efforts to honor and build on the diversity of perspectives and experiences students bring to their learning. Viewing learning through a Knowledge in Pieces lens, she investigates how students articulate and refine their thinking through engagement in knowledge-building practices of science. Her work includes designing technological tools and instructional activities that support students’ engagement in science practices, characterizing the nature of their engagement in such practices, and modeling how engagement in science practices refines their thinking. Hillary works closely with classroom teachers to codesign technology and activities that meet their authentic needs and help them gain confidence with teaching in ways that elicit and build on student thinking. Hillary earned a Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics Education from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. in Physics from Colorado College.

View Hillary's faculty webpage