Ira Caspari-Gnann

Ira Caspari-Gnann

Academic Leave
62 Talbot Avenue
Research/Areas of Interest:

Chemistry and STEM Education. In order to understand how and why successful teaching and learning of chemistry at the university level works, the Caspari research group focuses on analyzing students', teaching assistants' (TA), learning assistants' (LA), and instructors' reasoning, interactions, and culture. The group collects video data of classroom practices and conducts qualitative research interviews with instructors, TAs, LAs, and students to better understand how certain interactions and ways of reasoning lead to student sense making and learning. While zooming in and investigating how students connect aspects of chemistry, the group also zooms out and investigates classroom culture and how individual interactions and personal experiences integrate into larger systems of teaching and learning. The group uses this fundamental research as a theoretical basis for implementing teaching innovations and designing training opportunities in order to promote supportive learning environments for students that value and encourage their unique ways of being, knowing and doing.

Education

  • PhD Chemistry, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, 2018
  • MEd Chemistry and Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, 2013
  • BEd Chemistry and Biology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, 2010