Research Spotlight: Dr. Chandler Seokmin Kang
Q & A with Dr. Chandler Seokmin Kang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning
What are your research interests and research achievements?
My research is about how people learn. I am interested in students’ engagement in learning tasks and their conceptual understanding both in formal and informal learning settings. Especially, the focus is given to topics such as learning from observing other’s errors (vicarious learning) and embodied learning. To achieve the research goal, I am using multifaced approaches such as analyzing speech, gesture, note-taking, drawings, and so forth.
I have been awarded a grant from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. Also, one of my papers that investigated how students learned from watching an instructional video received the inaugural “Best Paper Award” from the Journal of the Learning Sciences. Also, a paper that analyzed learners’ speech and nonverbal behaviors (gesture) while they were learning was selected for “Featured Article” from the Psychonomic Society.
How does your work align with UTRGV’s and CEP’s strategic plans?
My work is directly connected to the fundamental component of student success in learning in UTRGV’s and CEP’s strategic plans for the following reasons. First, responding to one of the college goals, providing rigorous programs of study founded on the belief that scholarship and life experience are strengthened when integrated, my research is multidisciplinary in nature since it covers topics in education, psychology, communication, engineering and so forth. Second, my research is finding out cognitive mechanism underlying knowledge representation and construction. Throughout my study, I also focus on sustainability in learning which is tightly linked to continuous improvement of students’ knowledge competence. Third, my research encompasses the whole process of knowledge transfer from teacher learning to student learning, where the focus is given to how a teacher as a learner learns a new idea, how to design his/her lesson plan based on the idea, how to implement the lesson plan for his/her class, how students take up the implementation, and the students’ change in knowledge and behaviors.
What are your current projects?
I am currently working on how a different type of affordance influences students’ learning while interacting with a physical tool and a virtual learning tool. Second, based on a level of cognitive engagement theory, I am also investigating the effect of generating gestures on students’ learning. Third, I am working on the positive role of new media literacies (NML) that adolescents hold in combating fake news. Finally, I am trying to find a way to help underprivileged elementary students have higher motivation and learning benefits through engaging in embodied activities in after-school program.