Senior Education Research Director
American Museum of Natural History
Dr. Karen Hammerness is Senior Director, Educational Research and Evaluation, at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses upon the design and pedagogy of teacher education in the United States and internationally. She recently completed a four-year international, comparative study of teacher education programs in five countries, including Chile, Norway, Cuba, Finland and the United States with colleagues at the University of Oslo. She has authored a book on teacher policy (2017), co-authored with Pasi Sahlberg and Raisa Ahtianen, Empowered Educators in Finland: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality, on the coherent systems supporting quality teaching in Finland. Her latest book Preparing Science Teachers Through Practice-Based Education (Harvard Education Press) is a co-edited volume about preparing teachers to engage in equitable teaching practices so that students’ ideas drive teaching was released in Fall, 2020. It may seem unusual for an educational researcher to work in a museum; but the American Museum of Natural History has been providing preparation for teachers for over 100 years and currently has a teacher preparation program. Through a long-standing partnership with the city’s Department of Education, the museum also provides inservice science professional development to over 900 teachers a year. At the museum, Dr. Hammerness’ research focuses upon the impacts and outcomes of these programs for teachers.
Mentoring the Mentors: Tools to Propel the Complex Work of Preservice Mentoring
Saturday, February 17, 2024
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM MST