Overview

The Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME) is an interdisciplinary academic unit dedicated to advancing the understanding and practice of learning and teaching in science, engineering, and mathematics. It acts in most respects like a regular department, carrying out research, teaching courses, and offering a graduate program leading to a PhD degree in science or mathematics education. The faculty of the group consists of professors from several of the Berkeley science and engineering departments and the School of Education, and instructors associated with other units on campus, such as the Lawrence Hall of Science. The group operates under the auspices of the Graduate Division.

SESAME is closely related to the EMST (Education in Math Science and Technology) program and shares many courses with EMST. A major difference in the programs is that SESAME students are expected to obtain at least master's-level competency in their mathematical or scientific disciplines. It produces scholars who can communicate well with scientists and engineers, as well as with educational researchers and practitioners. The program includes studies that connect human development, cognitive science, and educational technology with the learning of science, mathematics, and engineering.

SESAME PhDs have frequently taken positions in college science, mathematics, and engineering departments, teaching courses in the discipline but also serving as the "education person" in the department and doing research on the teaching and learning of the subject matter. Through the years SESAME students have also focused on learning in informal settings and have gone on to careers in institutions such as museums and science centers.

Undergraduate Program

There is no undergraduate program in Science and Mathematics Education.

Graduate Program

Science and Mathematics Education : PhD

Visit Group Website

Courses

Science and Mathematics Education

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Dor Abrahamson, Associate Professor. Mathematical cognition, design-based research, mixed-media design for mathematics learning environments, embodied interaction.
Research Profile

Alice M. Agogino, Professor. New product development, computer-aided design & databases, theory & methods, intelligent learning systems, information retrieval & data mining, digital libraries, multiobjective & strategic product, nonlinear optimization, probabilistic modeling, supervisory.
Research Profile

Andrea Disessa, Professor. Education, cognition, conceptual development, science education, design of technology for education, computational literacies.
Research Profile

Marcia C. Linn, Professor. Technology, learning, mathematics, science, education, science teaching, gender equity, design of learning environments.
Research Profile

Michael Ranney, Professor. Problem solving, knowledge representation & reorganization, explanatory coherence & inference, conceptual change, societal implications, science instruction, global climate change psychology, numeracy in journalism, naïve/informal physics, computational models of cognition, perceptual-cognitive interactions, intelligent tutoring systems, understandings of biological evolution, Reasoning, qualitative & quantitative thinking.
Research Profile

Alan H. Schoenfeld, Professor. Thinking, teaching, learning, productive learning environments, mathematics education, modeling the process of teaching, understanding how and why teachers do what they do.
Research Profile