Ph.D. (2019) Cultural Studies And Social Thought In Education – Washington State University
M.A. (2015) Africana Studies – SUNY Albany
B.A. (2011) History – SUNY Albany
Amir Gilmore’s interdisciplinary background in Cultural Studies, Africana Studies, and Education allows him to traverse the boundaries across the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. His interests in Black Critical Theory and Black Masculinities ground his scholarship on Black Boy Joy, and he is well-versed in Critical Race Theory, feminisms, and social theory. His vision and scholarship make critical contributions to the fields of Black Studies and Education, as well as connects to larger discussions of Afrofuturism and Black Aesthetics.
Courses Taught:
MIT 552: Multicultural Education In A Global Society
TCH_LRN 467: Adolescence, Community, and School
CSSTE 533: Race, Identity, and Representation
CSSTE 534: Social Theory in Education
TCH_LRN 522: BlackCrit and The Afterlife of Slavery (Special Topics)
MIT 508: Curriculum and Instruction Methods (Summer)
Originally from Jamaica, Robert Harris has an extensive history in sports, namely track & field and soccer.
He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. During his time at Wyoming, he was an all Mountain West athlete in the 400 meters, the 4×100 and the 4×400 meter relays. Robert received his master’s degree in Sport Management from WSU in 2020.
Robert is currently a Fiscal Specialist for Washington State University Athletics.
Prior to WSU, Robert spent three years (2013–2016) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he was the on-campus recruiting coordinator and operations assistant for the men’s and women’s track & field teams.
Robert is married to Dr. Kat Harris who is an assistant professor of accounting. They reside in Pullman with their son Robert James and daughters Elizabeth and Victoria.
Kaitlyn Layman joins the Washington State University graduate program as a teaching assistant under Dr. Tammy Crawford.
Prior to WSU, Layman spent one year at the University at Buffalo as an Assistant Sports Information Director-Intern in the Athletic Communications department for the Bulls. While at Buffalo, she was the primary contact for the cross country, swimming & diving teams, and track & field teams; while also assisting in football, basketball, volleyball, and soccer.
Layman graduated from Hilbert College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in May 2016. Her major was in Digital Media and Communications, with a concentration in marketing. While at Hilbert, she was a four-year Division III soccer player. She was actively involved in the college’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, where she served as President and conference representative. She interned with the school’s sports information department and attended the 2015 NCAA Convention and 2016 NCAA Career in Sports Forum.
Layman also interned with Upper Allegheny Health System based in Olean, NY. Her focus was primarily in marketing, where she assisted on various advertising projects and events. Her internships allowed her to be actively involved in various community service projects as well.
Layman plans to graduate from Washington State University in May 2019 with her master’s degree. She plans to pursue a professional career in Athletic Communications at the Division I level.
“[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world…”
How learning with texts and graphics may promote epistemic and conceptual change around STEM concepts. My research focuses on students in K-12 through college, as well as members of the public. I also examine the educational, policy, and health-related implications of the public’s understanding of science.
Education
Ph. D. in Urban Education Policy, University of Southern California
Concentration: Educational Psychology
M. A. in Psychological Science, California State University, Chico
B. A. in Psychology, California State University, Chico
Selected Publications
Peer Reviewed Journals
Danielson, R. W., Sinatra, G. M., Dai, S., Seyranian, V., Heddy, B. C., Polikoff, M. S., & Marsh, J. A. (2024). Validating an Instrument to Assess 4th Grade Students’ Interest in STEM Content. Journal of Experimental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2023.2276933
*Ramazan, O., Dai, S., Danielson, R. W., Ardasheva, Y., *Hao, T., & Austin, B. W. (2023). Students’ 2018 PISA Reading Self-concept: Identifying Predictors and Examining Model Generalizability for Emergent Bilingual Students. Journal of School Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2023.101254
*Jin, G., *Ramazan, O., & Danielson, R. W. (2023). Effects of refutational texts and seductive pictures on conceptual change, situational interest, and cognitive loads. Journal of Experimental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2023.2238644
Heddy, B. C., Danielson, R. W., *Ross, K., & Goldman, J. A. (2023). Everyday engineering: The effects of transformative experience in middle school engineering. The Journal of Engineering Education. https://doi.org.10.1002/jee.20527
* Ramazan, O., Danielson, R. W., Rougée, A., Ardasheva, Y., & Austin, B. W. (2023). Effects of Classroom and School Climate on Linguistically Diverse Students’ PISA Mathematics Self-Concept and Achievement Scores. Large-scale Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-023-00156-w
Dai, S., *Hao, T., Ardasheva, Y., *Ramazan, O., Danielson, R. W., & Austin, B. W. (2023). PISA Reading Achievement: Identifying Predictors and examining Model Generalizability for Multilingual Students. Reading and Writing.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10357-4
Danielson, R. W., Sinatra, G. M., Trevors, G., Muis, K. R., Pekrun, R., & Heddy, B. C. (2022). Can Multiple Texts Prompt Causal Thinking? The Role of Epistemic Emotions. Journal of Experimental Education.https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2022.2107604
Danielson, R. W., *Grace, E., White, A. J., Kelton, M. K., Owen, J. P., Saba Fisher, K., Diaz Martinez, A., & +Mozo, M. (2022). Facilitating Systems Thinking Through Arts-Based STEM Integration. Frontiers in STEM Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.915333
Taasoobshirazi, G., Heddy, B. C., Danielson, R. W., Abraham, E. R. I. & Joji, S. (2022). Development and psychometric analysis of the meta-representations survey for physics: Understanding students’ free-body diagrams. Journal of Learning Theory and Methodology, 3(3), 93-101 https://doi.org/10.17309/jltm.2022.3.01
*Turk, M., Heddy, B. C., & Danielson, R. W. (2022). Teaching and social presences supporting basic needs satisfaction in online learning environments: How can presences and basic needs happily meet online? Computers & Education, 180, 104432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104432
Heddy, B. C, Lombardi, D., & Danielson, R. W. (2021). The Moral Side of the Climate Crisis: The Effect of Moral Conviction on Learning about Climate Change. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist Special Issue: Climate Crisis. https://doi.org/10.1080/20590776.2021.2011203
Lippmann, M., Danielson, R. W., Schwartz, N. H., Körndle, H., & Narciss, S. (2020). Effects of Keyword Tasks and Biasing Titles on Metacognition and Recall. Metacognition and Learning. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11409-020-09246-4
*Thacker, I., Sinatra, G. M., Muis, K. R., Danielson, R. W., Pekrun, R., Winne, P. H., & Chevrier, M. (2019). Using Persuasive Refutation Texts to Prompt Attitudinal and Conceptual Change. Journal of Educational Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000434
Heddy, B. C., Taasoobshirazi, G., *Chancey, J. B., & Danielson, R. W. (2018). Developing and Validating a Conceptual Change Cognitive Engagement Instrument. Frontiers in Education. (Vol 3, p. 43). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00043
Polikoff, M. S., Le, Q. T., Danielson, R. W., Sinatra, G. M., & Marsh, J. (2018). The Impact of Speedometry on Student Knowledge, Interest, and Emotions. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. 1-23, https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2017.1390025
Mason, L., Baldi, R., Di Ronco, S., Scrimin, S., Danielson, R. W., & Sinatra, G. M. (2017). Textual and graphical refutations: Effects on conceptual change learning. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 49, 275-288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2017.03.007
Danielson, R. W. & Sinatra, G. M. (2017). A Relational Reasoning Approach to Text-Graphic Processing. Educational Psychology Review, 29(1), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-016-9374-2
Heddy, B. C., Danielson, R. W., Sinatra, G. M., & Graham, J. (2017). Modifying Knowledge, Emotions, and Attitudes about Genetically Modified Organisms. Journal of Experimental Education. 85(3), 513-533. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2016.1260523
Danielson, R. W. & Sinatra, G. M., Kendeou, P. (2016). Augmenting the Refutation Text Effect with Metaphors and Graphics. Discourse Processes, 53(5-6), 392-414. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2016.1166334
Lombardi, D., Danielson, R. W., and Young, N. (2016). A plausible connection: Critical evaluation, the refutation effect, and plausibility reappraisal. Learning and Instruction, 44 74-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.03.003
Corwin, Z.B. & Danielson, R. (2016). Admission is the Mission: How First Generation Students Approach Learning About College Through Games. In: Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat: Carnegie-Mellon Press
Sinatra, G. M., & Danielson, R. W. (2016). Adapting Evolution Education to a Warming Climate of Teaching and Learning. In Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Development and Education (pp. 271-290). Springer International Publishing.
Corwin, B. Z., Danielson, R. W., Ragusa, G., & Tierney, W., G. (2016). Can Games Facilitate Access to College? In: O’Neil, H. F., Baker, E. L., & Perez, R. S. (Eds.) Using Games and Simulations for Teaching and Assessment: Key Issues. Routledge/Taylor Francis.
Virtual reality and augmented reality. It’s a two-headed beast, set to be a $5 BILLION (with a B) industry by 2021 and almost $12 billion industry by 2025. How does that fit into education?
The college’s research on the two is taking place at WSU Pullman and WSU Tri-Cities
Pullman
Don McMahon runs WSU’s Assistive Technology Research and Development Lab. It’s main focus is to create and test next generation assistive technology interventions. This includes refining the use of existing tools, such as augmented reality and virtual reality.
Murrow News 8 produced this video by reporter Kyla Emme:
The lab is high-tech. Much of the technology used in this lab was formerly part of the Neurocognitive Lab. Here’s a video from the Daily Evergreen:
Virtual and augmented reality have healthcare applications, as well. Yes, many of them deal with very serious things. But it can also just help with patient anxiety.
Jonah recently joined the Education Eclipse podcast to talk about the lab:
Professor researching virtual & augmented reality for special education
July 20, 2017 – By Maegan Murray, WSU Tri-Cities
RICHLAND, Wash. – Jonah Firestone, an education professor at Washington State University Tri-Cities, knows that technology is the future of education, which is why he is researching the use of virtual and augmented reality as tools for not only the general classroom, but specifically with special education in the kindergarten through 12th-grade setting.
“With regular video games, you’re looking at a flat screen,” he said. “But with virtual reality, you wear a head set and you can look all around. It’s a 360-degree view up and down and you can see this complete world around you. As kids get more used to using this type of technology and as the price goes down, schools are going to start adopting these because you can now send an entire classroom on a field trip to The Louvre without leaving the classroom.”
Firestone said for subjects like science and history, teachers rely on textbook and stationary images to give students a picture of what they’re talking about as it is expensive to take students to laboratories and settings that are referenced in those lessons. With virtual and augmented reality, however, teachers can bring those settings and projects to the students in the virtual sphere.
“We can use this technology to put children and adults into complete virtual worlds where they can be a cell in the human body, or students can do experiments in physics and chemistry that they couldn’t normally safely do in the classroom setting,” he said. “You can then repeat those over and over again.”
Overcoming learning disabilities
Firestone said virtual and augmented reality have different purposes, but both can be applied as additional tools in the classroom, which could help students who struggle with traditional learning methods.
“We used to talk about this thing called learning theories where certain people were characterized as different types of learners, but that’s not really true,” he said. “We all learn in a variety of different ways. But with the more modes in which we learn, whether it be oral, visual or tactile, the more we’re readily going to learn.”
Some students may have problems processing information that is given to them orally, or students may have visual disabilities where they have difficulty processing static information like documents with lots of text, he said. Students also may have issues holding their attention for an extended period of time.
“So what virtual and augmented reality do is reinforce learning in ways that helps from a variety of different vectors,” he said. “And realistically, strategies used in special education are good practices for any education setting. We can translate what we learn about these tools into the general classroom setting, as well.”
With virtual reality, students wear a head set where it provides them with a complete 360-degree view of a setting or project that the students can interact with. With augmented reality, students use a device like a tablet or a headset where the device projects an image into the real-world setting. Firestone said a good example of augmented reality is Pokemon Go, where the image of a Pokemon is projected through a screen into the real world.
“We’ve all taken classes where we’ve aced the class, but we have no idea what we’ve learned,” he said. “What we want to accomplish with virtual and augmented reality is a more organic method of learning. This organic method of learning is accomplished through learning by doing.”
Research results so far
Firestone worked with Don McMahon on the WSU Pullman campus to run a study with special education students at the college level who studied bones and skeletons using augmented reality with the help of iPad Minis. They compared what the students learned and absorbed with augmented reality to what they learned and observed from textbooks and the team got great results.
Firestone is now taking that research a step further by applying the same tools to kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms.
“College kids are great, but I am very much interested in how these technologies can be applied to the k-12 setting,” he said. “What we’re currently doing is taking this same process and we’re modifying it for fifth-graders. Then, we’re going to modify it for middle school and high school.”
Firestone said he is using augmented reality to supplement different school lessons, including science where students observe and learn about the human body.
“Imagine looking at a picture of a femur, but with augmented reality, not only do you see a picture of a femur, but it has a voice that defines it for you and then shows you where it is on the human body,” he said.
Firestone is also looking into using virtual reality to immerse the kindergarten through 12th-grade students in an underwater experience called “The Blue.”
“It’s an underwater application where you see whales and you’re in a reef,” he said. “I’m then comparing that to the same information that the students glean from a text.”
Firestone said he’s had great results with the technology so far and that blending the virtual experiences with what students are presented with in a textbook is a winning combination.
“There is no one magic solution for learning, but the more things we can put together, the more kids are going to end up learning,” he said.
From time to time, participants in the college’s study abroad to Nishinomiya, Japan, led by Tom Salsbury, will be giving updates on their experiences. This one was written by preservice teacher Kierstin Laisne, and received no editing from the college.
Today was such an exciting day!
We started it off as per usual with going to school and teaching/observing classes. Some of us continued teaching past tense verbs through charades while others were used to help one of the most energetic teachers demonstrate the differences between “this is” and “that is”. The classes that we got to teach were actually split into half the normal size so interacting with the students went smoother than usual.
After our school day ended, we all hustled back to the hostel, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and out we** went! Today’s destination: Nara. We’ve all been fairly excited about this trip because it meant we got to see and pet deer! …Okay there were other reasons to be excited about Nara but c’mon– there was the opportunity to pet cute little deer! Lots of selfies were taken and we even saw certain people teaching the deer to bow and other random citizens combing and taking care of the deer.
Next up, we walked to the Isuien Gardens, which were by far one of the prettiest things I’ve seen in Japan. This country never ceases to amaze me and just seems to get more beautiful the longer we stay! The picture taking opportunities went on and on so don’t be so surprised when you look at how many photos are included today!
The next place we went to was Todaiji Temple: home of the Great Buddha of Nara, which was built in the early 8th century! It’s safe to say that everyone was shocked by just how huge the statue is! The Great Buddha is about 50 feet tall while also being on a platform so you can only imagine our faces when our eyes adjusted to the dark temple to find a giant in the center! While in the temple, we also learned that this temple was one of the “Seven Great Temples” of Japan! Shrines, dozens of deer, and interesting cement lanterns also surrounded the temple, which seemed to stretch on for a while.
To top off the night though was the most refreshing summer storm that could’ve possibly happened. It was the whole nine yards with thunder, lightning, and completely soaked hair! Although we typically complain whenever it pours back home, rain was a sight for sore eyes, especially after experiencing the humidity here! We all want to make the most of the rest of our trip, so hopefully the weekend will be just as fun as today!
**The “we” in this case would be our group minus one member. Sadly Jeremiah couldn’t be with us today… He’s completely fine but just stayed behind to finish the grant he’s been working super hard on! Congrats Jeremiah! We felt that he should still get to experience Nara though, which led to some interesting pictures and videos… Enjoy!
From time to time, participants in the college’s study abroad to Nishinomiya, Japan, led by Tom Salsbury, will be giving updates on their experiences. This one was written by preservice teacher Maria Garcia, and received no editing from the college.
Today at Imazu Junior High school we got the chance to interact with the students more by participating in class activities as well as leading our own activities that we came up with as a group.We started off the day in the second year English class. The students were divided into smaller groups so that each group had the chance to interview one of the English teachers (us!). The students were so excited to practice their English with us! They then presented each of us to th
We started off the day in the second year English class. The students were divided into smaller groups so that each group had the chance to interview one of the English teachers (us!). The students were so excited to practice their English with us! They then presented each of us to the class. The students that interviewed our professor, Tom, took some time to draw great pictures of him. It was really cute! After we were done with the interviews Kim and Gracie taught the kids how to play charades, also known as the gesture game. The kids played in their lunch groups with the help of the teachers. It was great to see the kids having a good time and enjoying themselves!
After that class was over we broke up into smaller groups and went to separate English classes. My group had the opportunity to work with the third year English students. We created a Jeopardy activity to help students practice spelling and listening, as well as to learn a bit more about American culture. It was my turn to lead todays activity, so I was pretty excited to practice my teaching skills. The students understood the rules and all the hints that we provided, and they also did a great job guessing all the trivia questions. I think it is safe to say that all the students and teachers included, had a great time teaching and learning English together!
To wrap up our day we hit it hard at the Coco Curry and afterwards hit up the Karaoke bar! It was a great way to unwind from a successful and busy day! Lets see what tomorrow brings, rest well my fellow Cougs!
From time to time, participants in the college’s study abroad to Nishinomiya, Japan, led by Tom Salsbury, will be giving updates on their experiences. This one was written by preservice teachers Sandra Larios, and received no editing from the college.
It’s sad to know that our time in Japan is dwindling down. I’m sure many of us are growing to really love and appreciate this beautiful culture.
Today we had the opportunity to travel to Kobe city, if Kobe sounds familiar it may be because of Kobe Beef, which I’ve heard is both delicious and pricey!
We started out our day taking a ferry through the Osaka Bay. The sound of the ferry clashing through the water was soothing and I personally found it to be quite therapeutic. I found myself reflecting on this experience thus far and really thought how blessed and lucky I am to be here at this moment and in this place. It’s not often that first generation students from migrant farmworking homes get the chance to study abroad. The sounds and the views were beautiful and the weather was only complimenting this experience.
After our ferry ride, we headed to the Kobe Port Tower, which stands at a height of 108 meters, 80 meters shy of the Seattle Space Needle. The view was breathtakingly beautiful (please refer to images below and see for yourself).
Once lunch time approached we headed out to China Town where we ate lunch and had the chance to eat street food and explore the various shops. It was both a delicious and unique experience!
Overall today was a fun-filled day, full of over 20,000 steps, delicious food, and beautiful views. I really wish I could extend my time here in Japan, but I promise to visit again!
