Marcia Linn Receives New National Award for Educational Research
GSE Professor Marcia Linn has been named by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents
(CSSP) one of two national recipients of a new award to honor those meeting the highest standards in
educational research. The award was created to recognize, "Outstanding Achievement in Educational Research
that Improved Children's Learning and Understanding."
To qualify for the award, Professor Linn's work had to pass the strictest test conducted by the presidents
of the nation's scientific societies. "To screen for the award, we brought together the toughest group of
skeptics we could find, our scientific society presidents," explained Dr. Martin Apple, CSSP president.
"One of the unique aspects of this award," he added, "is that it is based not only on the scientific solidity
of the conclusions reached in the researchers' writings, but also on the impact of the work on children's
learning, and on how often the research has influenced others in the field." The CSSP presented Professor
Linn with the award at their semi-annual meeting in Washington DC on December 7, 1998.
Professor Linn was honored for research that "has improved student learning of science and led other researchers
to reach this goal. Her work built our understanding of scaffolding and creating curriculum design principles
that foster students' science learning and lead to a knowledge integration environment," according to the text
of her award.
Professor Linn began her work at Berkeley as a research psychologist at the Lawrence Hall of Science in 1970.
She became a member of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education faculty in 1985. Her research concerns the
way that students integrate scientific ideas, and she studies how technological learning environments can help
students develop cohesive and coherent scientific knowledge. She has also done innovative work on how gender
roles influence the views students construct of themselves.
The Council of Scientific Society Presidents created this award to highlight the crucial role of educational
research. The CSSP has called for a billion dollar increase in federal funding for educational research as
the most certain way of improving our educational results as a nation.
The Council of Scientific Society Presidents is comprised of the presidents, presidents-elect and immediate
past presidents of over sixty scientific societies and federations, whose combined membership numbers well
over 1.58 million scientists and science educators. Since 1973 CSSP has served as a strong voice in support
of science and science education, as the premier national science leadership development center, and as a
forum for open, substantive exchanges on current scientific issues.
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Marcia Linn advising GSE student |