Education

• Ph.D. in Education from UCLA (1999)
• B.A. in Psychology from UC Irvine (1994)
• B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine (1994)

Research Interests

• Equity in group interactions: How to overcome differential participation in
  group settings due to relative status?
• Resistance to social justice discourse: What cultural and social factors
  contribute to people's resistance to multicultural and social justice
  discourse?
• Utilization approach to participatory program evaluation: How to maximize
  evaluation utilization while encouraging primary stakeholders to incorporate
  perspectives of unempowered stakeholders?

Current Projects

Cooperative learning in introductory computer science classes.  This NSF-funded project involves the development and evaluation of cooperative learning exercises for an introductory computer science class. The exercises involve students in specific roles to focus their attention on key concepts involved in developing and testing Java programs. To date, experimental results show that the benefits of cooperative learning outweigh any possible losses due to reduced lecture time. These benefits are enjoyed by both male and female students, ethnic-majority and minority students, and by students from a variety of majors. Importantly, the educational benefits of cooperative learning experiences continue when students take subsequent coursework in computer science.  Paper for the 2008 SIGCSE Symposium

Cross-cultural analysis of reflective cases by student teachers: Comparison of classroom-based conflicts and reflections of Russian and American student teachers.  This project involves investigating future/novice teachers' identification, solution, and reflection of classroom-based case studies regarding power-based conflicts in their classrooms. To these ends, we ask student teachers in the U.S. and Russia to write case studies associated with conflicts that they face in the classroom. These cases involve description of the problem/conflict, the resolution process, as well as reflection on the case. Subsequently, we share these cases of conflict with student teachers in the two countries to have them evaluate the conflict - resolution - reflection case of their international colleagues. We are using grounded theory to conduct cross-cultural comparisons of the cases and subsequent students' evaluations of their international colleagues' case studies.

Teaching Philosophy

From my theoretical perspective and teaching experience, students' constructing examples for application is important for their developing deep understandings of theoretical constructs. While students are certainly responsible for constructing their own understandings, my role as an instructor is to provide mediating tools around which socially situated cognition can occur. I accomplish this through having students work in groups to solve complex problems. As a teacher-scholar, I am constantly reflecting on my own teaching practice, reading current research on learning and instruction, and modifying my pedagogy to better serve my students.

Recent Publications

Complete List of Publications

Chizhik, E. W., & Chizhik, A. W. (in press). Resistance theory: From involuntary minorities to social justice.  In Psychology of Classroom Learning: An Encyclopedia.  Cengage Learning:  Farmington Hills, MI.

Chizhik, A. W. (in press).  Literacy for playwriting or playwriting for literacy?  Education and Urban Society.

Chizhik, A. W., Shelly, R. K., & Troyer, L., Eds. (approved formal proposal of Special Issue).  Intragroup Conflict and Cooperation. Journal of Social Issues.

Beck, L. L., & Chizhik, A. W. (2008, March).  An experimental study of cooperative learning in CS1. To be presented and published in the proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education, Portland, OR.

Chizhik, A. W., & Chizhik, E. W. (2006, October).  Обучение детей из этнического меньшинства в мире этнического большинства.  [Educating ethnic minority children in an ethnic majority world].  Presented and published in the proceedings of the Всероссийской научно-практической конференции на тему «Диагностика и профилактика школьной дезадаптации» [All-Russia Scientific-Practical Conference on Diagnosis and Prevention of School Maladaptation], St. Petersburg, Russia.

Chizhik, E. W., & Chizhik, A. W. (2005). Are you privileged or oppressed? Students' conceptions of themselves and others. Urban Education, 40, 116-143.

Chizhik, A. W., & Chizhik, E. W. (2004). Формирование творческого и изменяющегося учителя в процессе изучения педагогической психологии [Development of a creative and transformative teacher in the process of learning educational psychology].  Проблемы Высшего Педагогического Образования в Современных Социокультурных Условиях [Issues of Higher Education Pedagogy in Modern Sociocultural Conditions].

Professional Associations and Affiliated Groups

• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
• National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
• American Sociological Association (ASA)
• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
• Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC)
• Playwrights Project

Travel Log

Our Trip to Ussuriisk, Russia