• physics

• science content-specific pedagogy courses
• interdisciplinary approaches
• professional expertise

A faculty member in the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Education Program, Jody Cohen’s interests include urban education, multicultural education, and education for ecological literacy, with a focus on linkages between identity, equity, and schooling. She has been deeply involved with the evolution of Bryn Mawr’s 360°, a program that involves professors and students in an interdisciplinary cluster of courses focused on a shared theme, and recently she contributed to the 360° “Perspectives on Sustainability.” Jody is a longtime teacher of writing, the mentor to two Posses at Bryn Mawr (the national Posse Program supports young people selected on a leadership scholarship to attend college), and a co-founder of the Social Justice Partnership Program, a student-driven initiative that supports dialogue around diversity and justice in the college community. Jody was a founding member of Research for Action, an educational research organization based in Philadelphia and committed to doing research and program evaluation with the goal of increasing equity in education. Jody’s research, presentations, and publications focus on community-based partnerships between colleges and urban schools and on the impact of curricular and co-curricular programming on undergraduates’ experiences and conceptions of intellectual community and diversity.

I am a mathematician; my research area is chaotic dynamical systems. I have always been very interested in teaching (cooperative learning, use of computers in teaching, student projects, linking math with issues of civic engagement) and over the past decade have gotten involved in math and science education. I was a Co-PI of the Math Science Partneship of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP) part of the  Math Science Partneship program of the NSF. As part of that project, I co-developed and taught a course for math and science majors called "Changing Pedagogies in Math and Science Education". The course  tries to interest math and science majors in education by exposing them to the exciting recent develops in learning theory and cognition and how these ideas are being applied in inquiry oriented, student centered teaching approaches. I am the PI of the joint Bryn Mawr - Haverford Noyce Scholarship Program (which gives scholarship to math and science majors who plan to get certified and then teach in high needs districts) and of the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership which involves the 6 institutes in the Philadelphia region with Noyce grants. These projects apply social network theory (key connectors, Tipping Point) to try to bring about educational change.

One of my present activities is working to connect math and (environmental) sustainability. In spring 2012, I taught a quantiative reasoning course on this topic in which the students also had a service learning component in which they carried out a 'green project'  with a community partner. I will lead a two week institute for secondary teachers on Math and Sustainability in July 2012.

• math

• math content-specific pedagogy courses
• science content-specific pedagogy courses
• interdisciplinary approaches
• project-based learning
• recruitment
• retention
• support structures
• organizational culture

Heather Johnson recently joined the Education Department at the College of the Holy Cross as the Director of the Teacher Education Program (TEP). She previously worked as a mathematics specialist at the Rhode Island Department of Education and as a mathematics teacher in the middle grades at The Learning Community, a K-8 charter school in Central Falls, RI. Her interests are in mathematics instruction and in the preparation of all teachers through meaningful field-based experiences and coaching.

• social justice education
• urban education
• gender and education
• support structures
• organizational culture