Better chemistry education through robust research
We are a chemistry education research group at the University of Iowa. We study how chemists are trained and how chemistry is taught, using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Research
Three connected lines of work: how chemists are trained, how chemistry is taught, and how education research is done.
Doctoral education
What knowledge and skills do chemistry PhD students gain in their programs, and what will they need in their careers? We look for gaps in preparation, and we study how faculty see the goals of doctoral education.
Teaching practice
We study what instructors do in class with the COPUS observation protocol, and how instructors’ teaching beliefs connect to their teaching practice.
Quantitative methods
We advocate for robust statistics and R in chemistry education research, help others learn R, and help build CHIRAL, a central library of research instruments.
The group
A small, friendly team: one principal investigator, two postdoctoral scholars and three PhD students, plus two group mascots.
Dr. Jordan Harshman
Principal Investigator
Cheng-Wen (Nuby) He
Postdoctoral Scholar
Pallavi Nayyar
Postdoctoral Scholar
Joy Moses
PhD Student
Erhunmwense Ann Obayuwana
PhD Candidate
Zoe (Zahra) Pirkoohi
PhD Candidate
Recent publications
Peer-reviewed work from the group. The full list goes back to 2013.
Impact of metacognitive interventions on student performance and confidence in introductory biology courses
Students’ perceptions of staple elements of the doctoral program: Research, courses, exams, and seminars
Navigating academic careers: Personal and institutional experiences of women faculty
