Please join the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) in Autumn Quarter for a 10-week seminar on current topics in the field by HCDE faculty. Each 40-minute talk will be followed by a Q&A session. Members of the UW community and the public are welcome. More information about the series is available online at hcde.uw.edu/521

Title: Promoting Evidence-Based Practice
Date: October 24, 2012
Speaker: Jennifer Turns, HCDE Professor

When: Wednesdays, 5:00-5:50 PM
Where: Mary Gates Hall, Room 241, UW Seattle campus

The idea of evidence-based practice is gaining traction in a number of fields, such as design, medicine, and education. In general, the idea makes sense—after all, each of these fields has significant research on which practice can be based. At the same time, this topic can generate a great deal of controversy. In this talk, I will discuss a project in which I explore the idea of promoting evidence-based practice in teaching. Specifically, I will describe research on naturally occurring educator decision-making, and what an interpretation of the results through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory can tell us about what might be entailed in helping educators move to more evidence-based approaches.

Instructor: Professor Jan Spyridakis
1 Credit (Credit/Non-credit)
Registration for UW students is available by entry code; contact the HCDE advisor by emailing hcde@uw.edu.

About the Speaker

Jennifer Turns is a Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. She researches the intersection of engineering education, cognitive/learning sciences, and user-centered design. Her engineering education work has focused on engineering design learning, knowledge integration, and disciplinary understanding, and has involved the use of a wide variety of research methods including verbal protocol analysis, concept mapping, and ethnography.
Turns’ ground-breaking research makes her one of the most highly-respected specialists in the engineering education field.