Carol Smith
Carol Smith is a cognitive developmental psychologist whose research focuses on understanding how concepts develop and change, both in children and scientists. She is interested in understanding why some science concepts are very hard for students to understand and the kinds of instructional practices that foster conceptual change. Recently, she was a member of the National Academies' Committee on Science Learning, which has just completed writing a book on children's science learning from kindergarten to grade 8 called Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. She is also involved in longitudinal studies of conceptual development and change in both elementary school and college students.
Teaching
Undergraduate
Intro Psychology (Psych 100), Infancy & Child Development (Psych 241), Cognitive Development (Psych 347)
Graduate
Critical & Creative Thinking Program (Graduate College of Education), Children & Science (CCT 652), Advanced Cognitive Psychology
Selected Recent Publications
Smith, C., Maclin, D., Grosslight, L. and Davis, H. (1997) Teaching for understanding: A comparison of two approaches to teaching students about matter and density. Cognition and Instruction, 15 (3), 317-393.
Smith, C., Maclin, D., Houghton, C. and Hennessey, M.G. (2000) Sixth graders' epistemologies of science: The impact of school science experiences on epistemological development. Cognition and Instruction, 18(3), 349-422.
Snir, J., Smith, C., and Raz, G. (2003) Linking Phenomena with Competing Underlying Models: A Software Tool for Introducing Students to the Particulate Model of Matter. Science Education, 87, 794-830.
Smith, C., Solomon, G., and Carey, S. (2005). Never getting to zero: Elementary school students' understanding of the infinite divisibility of matter and number. Cognitive Psychology 51, 101-140.
Smith, C., Wiser, M., Anderson, C., and Krajcik, J. (2006) (Focus Article of combined double issue of journal): Implications of Research on Children's Learning for Standards and Assessment: A Proposed Learning Progression for Matter and Atomic-Molecular Theory. Measurement, 14 (1&2), 1-98.
Smith, C. and Wenk, L. (2006) The Relation Among Three Aspects of College Freshmen's Epistemology of Science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43 (8), 747-85.
Home page: http://psych.umb.edu/faculty/smith/smith.htm
Email: carol.smith@umb.edu
Phone: 617-287-6359
Office: McCormack, 4th floor, Room 265