Northwestern University (NU) School of Education and Social Policy seeks applicants for a postdoctoral position in the learning sciences. The candidate will be part of a team of researchers, faculty, and teachers involved in a newly funded initiative by the National Science Foundation's Computing Education for the 21st Century Program. The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate CT activities embedded within high school STEM courses as well as design the curriculum for a full-year CT-STEM course. This position provides opportunities for designing curricula, teacher professional development materials, and CT skills assessment tools as well as evaluating their effectiveness.
The candidate will be part of a collaborative research team involving four Northwestern faculty from three departments (computer science, learning sciences, and physics & astronomy) and three centers (OSEP, CCL, & CIERA). This is a dynamic and vibrant collaborative environment comprised of faculty, post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students, computer programmers, modelers and curriculum developers.
The candidate would co-supervise the work of graduate students and staff, publish research papers, contribute to grant writing and materials development, work closely with implementing schools, and help shape the overall scope and direction of the research. There will be close mentorship from the Co-PIs as well as opportunities to learn from other truly outstanding senior scholars and practitioners.
A successful candidate will have a doctorate in learning sciences or a related field (e.g., science education, computer science, etc.), strengths in research methods, have a science background, good communication skills, experience with classroom-based research, be well-organized and a strong writer. Preference will be given to applicants with expertise in computational thinking (CT) education and work with middle or high school teachers and students.
Start date is as soon as possible and expected duration of the post-doctoral fellowship is two years with possibility of renewal for a third. To apply, please send a cover letter, CV, a sample publication and the names and addresses (including e-mail and phone) of three references to CT-postdoc@ccl.northwestern.edu. Application review will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.
Northwestern is located in an attractive lakefront community adjacent to Chicago. For more information about the School of Education and Social Policy, please visit http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ Minorities and women are strongly urged to apply. Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the United States.
