Elaine B. Coleman

Professional Address

University of Delaware
College of Education
Dept., of Educational Studies
Cognition and Instruction Group
Newark, Delaware, 19716
(302) 831-3058 831-4445(FAX)
email: elainec@udel.edu

Professional Experience
1994-Present Assistant Professor, Dept. of Educational Studies College of Education, University of Delaware
1992-1994 James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Berkeley, CA (In collaboration with Dr. Ann L. Brown)

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Applied Cognitive Science Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto, 1992 Thesis: Facilitating conceptual understanding in science: A collaborative explanation-based approach
Master of Arts Department of Educational Psychology McGill University, 1988 Thesis: Problem-solving differences between high and average performers on physics problems
Bachelor of Arts Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1984

Awards and Distinctions


MENSA award for newly published research paper 1994
Nominated for a Governor General Gold Medal for Academic Distinction
James S. McDonnell Post Doctoral Fellowship (1992-1994)
Fonds Pour La Formation De Chercheurs et L'Aide A la Recherche
(FCAR Doctoral Fellowship) (1988-1991)
Ontario Institute For Studies in Education Scholarship (OISE Doctoral Scholarship)
Master's Thesis - Dean's Honour List

Grants

General University of Delaware Research Grant (GUR) 1995 "Learning by Drawing and Drawing to Explain" $5, 444

James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellowship 1992-1994, "Articulation of explanation as a mechanism for memory retrieval, comprehension and inference: A situation-based model" $60,000


Professional Affiliations


Cognitive Science Society
American Educational Research Association
Canadian Psychological Association
American Psychological Society

Publications

Coleman, E. B. (1995). Learning by explaining: Fostering collaborative progressive discourse in science. In R.J. Beun, Baker, M.J., & Reiner, M. (Eds.), Natural Dialogue and Interactive Student Modelling. (pp. 123-135) Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Coleman, E. B., (1993, June). Inducing a shift from intuitive to scientific knowledge with inquiry training. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Cognitive Science Society, Boulder, Co., pp. 347-352.

Shore, B. M., Coleman, E. B. & Moss, E. (1992). Cognitive psychology and the use of protocols in the understanding of giftedness and high level thinking. In K. K. Urban (Chair) Research on giftedness: The contribution of different approaches and methods. Talent for the Future: Social and personality development of gifted children. Proceedings of the 9th World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children, (pp. 259-263) Hague, July 1991.

Coleman, E. B. (1991). Facilitating conceptual change in science (Technical Report No. KB-91-06-01). O.I.S.E., Centre for Applied Cognitive Science.

Coleman, E. B. & Shore, B. M. (1991). Problem solving processes of high and average performers in physics. Journal for the Education of the Gifted., 14(4), 366-379.

Derevensky, J. & Coleman, E. B. (1990). Gifted children's fears? Gifted Child Quarterly, Vol. 33(2),p.65-68.

Manuscripts in Progress

Coleman, E. B. (in preparation). The use of explanatory knowledge in collaborative problem solving. To be submitted to Cognition and Instruction.

Gobert, J., & Coleman, E. B., Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (in preparation). Using diagrammatic representations and causal explanations to investigate children's models of continental drift.

Coleman, E. B., & Brown, A. L., & Rivkin, I. (in preparation). The effect of instructional explanations on inferences from scientific texts. To be submitted to the Journal of the Learning Sciences

Presentations

Coleman, E. B. (1995, December). What is applied cognitive science? Invited talk for the Cognitive Science Colloquium Series, University of Delaware.

Coleman, E. B. (1995, January). Explanation-failure driven learning. Invited paper presented at the Sixth Annual Winter Text Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Coleman, E. B., Brown, A.L., (1994, November). Explanation as process: A final report. Poster presentation at the James S. McDonnell Foundation Meeting: Cognitive Studies for Educational Practice (CSEP), Berkeley, CA.

Coleman, E. B., Brown, A. L., & Rivkin, I. (1994, April). The effect of instructional explanations on inferences from scientific text. Paper presented at the Annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New Orleans.

Coleman, E. B., Brown, A.L., & Rivkin, I. (1994, January). The effect of explanation versus summarization of scientific text on memory and inference. Invited paper to be given at the Fifth Annual Winter Text Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Coleman, E. B., (1993, June). Inducing a shift from intuitive to scientific knowledge with inquiry training. Paper presentation at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Coleman, E. B., (1993, May). Facilitating conceptual understanding in science: A collaborative explanation-based approach. Invited talk at the SESAME/EMST Colloquium Series, Graduate School of Education, University of California at Berkeley.

Gobert, J. D., & Coleman, E. B. (1993, March). Using diagrammatic representation and causal explanations to investigate children's models of continental drift. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, LA.

Gobert, J. D., Coleman, E. B., Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1993, April). In Denis Newman (Chair), Restructuring the classroom: Implementing Knowledge Building Via CSILE. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA.

Coleman, E. B. (1992, April). Reflection through explanation. In Carl Bereiter (Chair) Peer collaboration for reflective thinking, Symposium presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in San Francisco.

Coleman, E. B. (1991, June). Collaboration and conceptual change in science. Paper presented at the Canadian Psychological Association,(CPA) in Calgary.

Coleman, E. B. (1991, August). Conceptual change in science through collaborative learning. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Chicago.

Coleman, E. B. (1987, April). Cognitive processing differences between high and average performers in physics, In Bruce Shore (Chair) Exploring qualitative differences in cognitive processing between high and average performers on problem-solving tasks. Symposium presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New Orleans.

Professional Service to the Field

Reviewer for the Cognitive Science Society
Reviewer for the American Educational Research Association
Reviewer for the American association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)