Faculty Directory
Janet Kolodner
Retired Professor of the Practice
Janet Kolodner
Ph.D.
Contact
Email: janet.kolodner@bc.edu
ORCID
Education
- Ph.D., Yale University
- M.S., Yale University
- B.A., Brandeis University
Research Interests
Design of technology-rich learning environments; design-based, project-based and problem-based learning; implications and applications of cognition to design of learning environments, experiences, and learning technologies; case-based reasoning, novice-expert evolution, learning from experience, design cognition, processes involved in creativity, design of decision-aiding tools and interactive learning environments.
Expertise
- Cognitive and Social Development
- Curriculum & Instruction
- Design of Learning Experiences and Technologies
Department
Profile
Janet Kolodner’s research has addressed a wide variety of issues in learning, memory, and problem solving, both in computers and in people. During the 1980's, she pioneered the computer method called case-based reasoning, which allows a computer to reason and learn from its experiences. The first case-based design aids (CBDA'S) came from her lab. Archie-2, for example, helped architecture students with conceptual design.
During the early 1990's, Kolodner and her students used the cognitive model implied by case-based reasoning to address issues in creative design.  JULIA planned meals, Creative JULIA figured out what to do with leftover rice, and ALEC simulated Alexander Graham Bell in his invention of the telephone. Â
Also beginning in the 1990's, she has been designing middle school science curriculum and learning technologies informed by case-based reasoning’s cognitive model.  Learning by Design is a design-driven learning approach and an inquiry-oriented project-based approach to science learning that has children learn science from their design experiences. The sequencing of activities in the classroom encourages students to reflect on their design and science experiences in ways that CBR says are appropriate for integrating them well into memory. LBD curriculum units and the sequencing structures in LBD are integrated into a published full 3-year middle-school science curriculum called .
Kolodner’s more recent has included investigating how to help pre-teens and young teens consider who they are as thinkers and come to value informed decision making and informed production and consumption of evidence in the context of design-based learning activities. In , 5th and 6th graders come to think about themselves as scientific reasoners and kitchen scientists in the context of cooking and baking. In Hovering Around, they do so in the context of designing hovercraft. An investigation of the use of Harvard’s EcoMUVE in middle-school classrooms has led to suggestions about how to design virtual worlds in support of learning so that they motivate  and sustain engagement in addition to affording deep learning.
Kolodner was founding Director of Georgia Tech's EduTech Institute (1993-1996). She served as coordinator of Georgia Tech's cognitive science program for many years. She is founding Editor in Chief of The Journal of the Learning Sciences (1989-2008). She is a founder of the International Society for the Learning Sciences and served as its first Executive Officer (2003-2005). From 2010 - 2014, Kolodner was a program officer at the US National Science Foundation and led efforts to establish and sustain the .
Select Publications
- Janet L. Kolodner (forthcoming). Fostering identity and disposition development in Jewish education: A view from the learning sciences. In Levisohn, Jon A. & Kress, Jeffrey S. (Eds.), Advancing the Learning Agenda in Jewish Education. New York: Academic Studies Press.
- Janet L. Kolodner (2018). Forward. In Fischer, Frank, Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, Susan R. Goldman & Peter Reimann (Eds.), International Handbook of the Learning Sciences. Routledge/Taylor & Francis: New York.
- Kolodner, Janet, Tamer Said, Kenneth Wright, Amy Pallant (2017). Drawn into Science Through Authentic Virtual Practice. Interaction Design and Children (IDC) 2017.
- Kolodner, Janet L. (Lead Author). (2009 - 2017). Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS). A 13-volume comprehensive middle-school science curriculum. Activate Learning, Greenwich, CT. (formerly It’s About Time, Mt. Kisco, NY).
- Janet L. Kolodner (2016). Cyberlearning. In Bainbridge, William Sims, Roco, Mihail C. (Eds.) Handbook of Science and Technology Convergence. Springer.
- Kolodner, J. L. (2015). Cognitive prosthetics for fostering learning: A view from the learning sciences. AI Magazine.
- Clegg, T., & Kolodner, J. (2014). The role of life-relevant learning environments in helping middle-school learners develop scientific dispositions. Science Education, Special Themed Collection on The Intersection of the Learning Sciences and Science Learning in Everyday Life.
- Janet L. Kolodner (2014). Forward. In Cary Sneider (Ed). Engineering Curricula Ready to Go! (a 3-volume series). Corwyn Press.
- Woolf, Beverly Park, Chad H. Lane, Vinay Chaudri, and Janet L. Kolodner (2013). AI Grand Challenges for Education. AI Magazine, Fall.
- Vattam, S., Warren, C. W., Kim, H. & Kolodner, J. L. (2007). Effects of Technology-based Support for Explanation Construction on Learners’ Discourse during Design-based Learning in Science. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL-2007), New Brunswick, NJ.
- Puntambekar, S., Kolodner, J.L. (2004). Toward implementing distributed scaffolding: Helping students learn science from design. Journal of Research on Science Teaching, Vol. 42, Issue 2, pp. 185-217.
- Kolodner, J.L., Camp, P.J., Crismond D., Fasse, B., Gray, J., Holbrook, J., Puntambekar, S., Ryan, M. (2003). Problem-Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle-School Science Classroom:  Putting Learning by Design™ into Practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, Vol.12, No 4, pp. 495 - 548.
- Kolodner, J.L. (1997). Â Educational Implications of Analogy: A View from Case-Based Reasoning. American Psychologist, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 57-66.
- Kolodner, J.L. & Wills, L.M. (1996). Powers of Observation in Creative Design. Design Studies, Special Issue on Design Cognition and Computation, Rivka Oxman (Ed.), No. 17, pp. 385-416.
- Kolodner, J.L. (1993) Case-Based Reasoning. Morgan Kaufman Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, CA.
Presentations
- Kolodner, Janet L., Kenneth Wright, Tamer Said (2017). Virtual Worlds Fostering Curiosity about the Real World. Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco. June.
- Keynote, International Conference of the Learning Sciences, 2012, Sydney, Australia: Learning Scientists Changing the World: Opportunities and Challenges. ( (pdf) & )
- Clegg, T., & Kolodner, J. (2010). Making Science Social: A Closer Look at How Social Interactions Impact Scientific Participation. Paper presentation at the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.
- Charles, E. S., & Kolodner, J.L. (2007, April). “The medium is the message": A case study of cultural repertoires supporting design-based science. Symposium entitled: Balancing the tensions between science and design in design-based science curricula. American Educational Research Association (AERA): Chicago, IL.
- Charles, E. S., & Kolodner, J.L. (2005, April). “In this classroom we are scientists”: A case study of developing identities as student scientists. In Symposium entitled: What do we know about designing learning environments aimed toward promoting a sense of agency? Co-organizers E.S. Charles & J.L. Kolodner. American Educational Research Association (AERA): Montreal, QC.
- Kolodner, Janet L, Mary L. Starr, and 12 additional authors (2008). Implementing what we know about learning in a middle-school science curriculum for widespread dissemination: The Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS) story. Panel summary in Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Ultrecht, July.
- Charles, L.S. & Kolodner, J.L. (2005).  What Do We Know About Designing Learning Environments Aimed Toward Promoting a Sense of Agency? Paper presentation “In This Classroom We Are Scientists”:  A Case Study of Developing Identities As Student Scientists. AERA, Montreal, Canada, April, 2005.
- Kolodner, J. L & Owensby, J. N. (2004). SMILE: Supporting Teachers’ Facilitation of Project-Based Inquiry Using a System of Software-Realized Scaffolds. Poster presented in Science Teachers Becoming Adept with Promoting Inquiry Using Technology, AERA, San Diego, CA, April 2004.
Honors
Inaugural Fellow, International Society of the Learning Sciences, 2017
Regents’ Professor Emerita, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014
Career Award, International Society of the Learning Sciences, 2011
Editor-in-Chief Emerita, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2008
Regents’ Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004
Fellow, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, 1992
Governor, Cognitive Science Society (elected post), 1991-1997