Kevin Crowley

Professor of Learning Sciences and Policy

• Postdoctoral fellow, Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1994-1997
• Ph.D., Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, 1994
• M.S., Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, 1991
• B.A., Psychology and Education, Swarthmore College, 1989

Selected Fellowships, Awards, etc.

• William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 2010-2013.
• Visiting Professor, University of Tokyo, 2006.
• Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award, Association of Science and Technology Centers, in recognition of the UPCLOSE partnership with the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, 2005.
• MetLife Promising Practice award from the Association of Children’s Museums, in recognition of the UPCLOSE partnership with the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, 2004.

Selected Professional Activities

• Journal of the Learning Sciences, Editor of the out of school learning strand 2009-2012.
• Executive Committee, 21st Century Learning in Natural History Museums, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, 2012
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Study Panel on Learning Science, Kindergarten through Eight Grade, 2004-2005. We produced the volume, Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8.
• American Educational Research Journal: Section on Teaching Learning and Human Development, Associate Editor, 2001 to 2004
• Selected Keynotes and Invited Addresses: Roskilde University, Denmark; New York Hall of Science; University of Washington; University of Oslo; Smithsonian Institute; Australian Museum; Northwestern University; University of Tokyo; National Academy of Sciences; Tubingen University; Science Museum of Minnesota; Academies of Youth Scientists; Informal Science Education Summit; et al.

Selected Publications

• Crowley, K., Pierroux, P., & Knutson, K. (in press). The museum as learning environment. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Handbook of the Learning Sciences, 2nd Edition.
• Crowley, K., Barron, B.J., Knutson, K., & Martin, C. (in press). Interest and the Development of Pathways To Science. In Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning and Related Activity. In K. A. Renninger, M. Nieswandt, and S. Hidi (Eds.). Washington DC: AERA.

• Snyder, S., Hoffstadt, R. M., Allen, L., Crowley, K., Bader, D., & Horton, R. (in press). City-wide collaborations for urban climate education. In Hamilton, P. (Ed.), Future Earth:  Advancing Civic Understanding of the Anthropocene, Geophysical Monograph Series, Vol. 197, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
• Allen, L. & Crowley, K. (2014). How museum educators change: Changing notions of learning through changing practice. Science Education, 98 (1), 84-105.
• Steiner, M.A. & Crowley, K. (2013). The natural history museum: Taking on a learning research agenda. Curator: The Museum Journal. 56(2): 267-272.
• Russell, J., Knutson, K., & Crowley, K. (2013). Informal learning organizations as part of an educational ecology: Lessons from collaboration across the formal/informal divide. Journal of Educational Change 14(3): 259-281.
• Louw, M. & Crowley, K. (2013). New ways of looking and learning in natural history museums: The use of gigapixel imagingto bring science and publics together. Curator: The Museum Journal 52(1): 87-104.
• Giarrantani, L., Parikh, A., Di Salvo, B., Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2011). Click!: Pre-teen girls and a mixed reality role playing game for science and technology. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 3.6, 121-138.
• Knutson, K., Crowley, K., Russell, J., & Steiner, M.A. (2011). Approaching art education as an ecology: Exploring the role of museums. Studies in Art Education, 52 (4), 310-322.
• Eberbach, C.E. & Crowley, K. (2009). From Everyday to Scientific Observation: How Children Learn to Observe the Biologist’s World. Review of Educational Research, 79 (1), 39-69.
• Bernstein, D. & Crowley, K. (2009). Can robots think for themselves? Identifying spaces for the exploration of children’s ideas about robots. In the proceedings of Computer Human Interaction.

• DiSalvo, B.J., Crowley, K. & Norwood, R. (2008). “Learning in Context: Digital games and young black men.” Games and Culture 3, 131-141.
• Bernstein, D. & Crowley, K. (2008). Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life: An Investigation of Young Children’s Beliefs About Robot Intelligence. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17:2, 225-247.
• Sanford, C., Knutson, K., & Crowley, K. (2007). We Always Spend Time Together on Sundays: Grandparents and Informal Learning. Visitor Studies, 10(2), 136-151.
• Palmquist, S.D. & Crowley, K. (2007). From teachers to testers: Parents’ role in child expertise development in informal settings. Science Education, 91(5), 712-732.
• Fender, J. G. & Crowley, K. (2007). How parent explanation changes what children learn from everyday scientific thinking. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 189-210.
• Bernstein, D., Crowley, K. & Nourbakhsh, I. (2007). Working with a robot: Exploring relationship potential in human-robot systems. Interaction Studies, 8 (3), 465-482.
• Nourbakhsh, I., Hamner, E., E. Ayoob, Porter, E., Dunlavey, B., Bernstein, D., Crowley, K., Lotter, M., Shelly, S., Hsiu, T., & Clancy, D. (2006). The personal exploration rover: Educational assessment of a robotic exhibit for informal learning venues, The International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp 777-791.
• Stubbs, K., Bernstein, D., Crowley, K., & Nourbakhsh, I.  (2006).  Cognitive evaluation of human-robot systems:  A method for analyzing cognitive change in human-robot systems.  In Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 59-65.
• Stubbs, K., Bernstein, D., Crowley, K., & Nourbakhsh, I. (2005). Long term human-robot interaction: The personal exploration rovers and museum docents. In Proceedings of Artificial Intelligence and Education.
• Eberbach, C.E. & Crowley, K, (2005). From living to virtual: Learning from museum objects. Curator, 48 (3), 317-338.
• Swartz, M. I. & Crowley, K, (2004). Parent beliefs about teaching in a children’s museum. Visitor Studies, 7(2), 1-16.
• Crowley, K., Leinhardt, G., & Chang, C.F. (2001). Emerging research communities and the World Wide Web: Analysis of a Web-based resource for the field of museum learning. Computers and Education, 36 (1), 1-14.
• Crowley, K., Callanan, M.A., Tenenbaum, H.R., & Allen, E. (2001). Parents explain more often to boys than to girls during shared scientific thinking. Psychological Science, 12 (3), 258-261.
• Crowley, K., Callanan, M.A., Jipson, J., Galco, J., Topping, K., & Shrager, J. (2001). Shared scientific thinking in everyday parent-child activity. Science Education, 85 (6), 712-732.
• Crowley, K. (2000). Parent explanations during museum visits: Gender differences in how children hear informal science. Visitor Studies, 3 (3), 21-28.
• Crowley, K. & Siegler, R.S. (1999). Explanation and generalization in young children’s strategy learning. Child Development, 70, 304-316.
• Schunn, C.D., Crowley, K.  & Okada, T. (1998). The growth of multidisciplinarity in the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science, 22, 107-130.
• Crowley, K. & Callanan, M.A. (1998). Identifying and supporting shared scientific reasoning in parent-child interactions. Journal of Museum Education, 23, 12-17.
• Crowley, K., Shrager, J., & Siegler, R.S. (1997). Strategy discovery as a competitive negotiation between metacognitive and associative knowledge. Developmental Review, 17, 462-489.
• Siegler, R.S.  & Crowley, K. (1994). Constraints on learning in non-privileged domains. Cognitive Psychology, 27, 194-226.
• Crowley, K. & Siegler, R.S. (1993). Flexible strategy use in young children’s tic-tac-toe. Cognitive Science, 17, 531-561.
• Siegler, R. S. & Crowley, K. (1992). Microgenetic methods revisited. American Psychologist, 47, 1241-1243.
• Invited Journal Articles
• Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2005). Museum as learning laboratory: Developing and using a practical theory of informal learning. Hand to Hand, the publication of the Association of Children’s Museums, 18(4), 4-5.
• Crowley, K. & Knutson, K (2005). Museum as learning laboratory: Bringing research and practice together. Hand to Hand, the publication of the Association of Children’s Museums, 19(1), 3-6.
• Books
• Leinhardt, G., Crowley, K., & Knutson, K. (Eds.) (2002). Learning conversations in museums. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Crowley, K., Schunn, C.D., & Okada, T. (Eds.) (2001). Designing for science: Implications from everyday, classroom, and professional settings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Book Chapters
• Kim, K.Y. & Crowley, K. (2010). Negotiating the goal of museum inquiry: How families engineer and experiment. M.K. Stein & L. Kucan (Eds). Instructional Explanations in the Disciplines. New York: Springer.
• Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2010). Connecting with Art: How families talk about art in a museum setting. M.K. Stein & L. Kucan (Eds). Instructional Explanations in the Disciplines. New York: Springer.
• Palmquist, S. D. & Crowley, K. (2007). Studying dinosaur learning on an island of expertise. In R. Goldman, R. Pea, B. Barron, & S. Derry (Eds.), Video Research in the Learning Sciences (pp. 271-286). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Leinhardt, G. & Crowley, K. (2002). Objects of learning, objects of talk: Changing minds in museums. In S. Paris (Ed.) Multiple Perspectives on Children’s Object-Centered Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
• Crowley, K. & Jacobs, M. (2002). Islands of expertise and the development of family scientific literacy. In G. Leinhardt, K. Crowley, & K. Knutson (Eds.) Learning conversations in museums. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Crowley, K. & Galco, J (2001). Everyday activity and the development of scientific thinking. In K. Crowley, C. D. Schunn, & T. Okada (Eds.), Designing for science: Implications from everyday, classroom, and professional settings (pp. 393-413). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Azmitia, M.A. & Crowley, K. (2001). The rhythms of scientific thinking: A study of collaboration in an earthquake microworld. In K. Crowley, C. Schunn, & T. Okada (Eds.) Designing for science: Implications from everyday, classroom, and professional settings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.