Dr. Toni Kempler Rogat Receives 2021 Kinley Trust Award

Dr. Toni Kempler Rogat, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, in Purdue University’s College of Education, has been selected to receive a 2021 Clifford B. Kinley Trust Award to support her research, Productive disciplinary engagement during collaborative design projects with authentic features.

In the research project, Dr. Rogat will examine how rural middle school student groups’ interactions over the course of a science and engineering design unit may affect their engagement and subsequent intentions to pursue STEM majors and careers, and remain committed to science literacy.

In collaboration with College of Education colleagues’ Drs. Guzey and Traynor, Dr. Rogat will be exploring how and why groups’ engagement trajectories are shaped over the course of science and engineering design unit. To explain observed shifts in collaborative engagement, the research will consider the role of authentic unit features and teachers’ interventions during group work for elevating group engagement, with benefits for individual students’ self-reported motivation.

“We are excited to have the support to learn how science and engineering design projects completed within collaborative groups can deepen students’ personal connections with curricular tasks, and enhance students’ valuing and identification with science,” stated Dr. Rogat.

The Clifford B. Kinley Trust award was established in 1978 to fund research relating to human welfare, and was activated in 1991 upon Mrs. Kinley’s passing. The annual award recognizes the important role of faculty principal investigators (PIs) from the West Lafayette campus and was established to fund research which uses a social science perspective to explore methods for improving the human condition.

Dr. Rogat joined Purdue University’s College of Education in 2014 and has a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her research interests involve the investigation of the quality of students’ motivation and engagement contextualized in collaborative group and STEM classroom learning environments.

Learn more about Purdue University College of Education: https://education.purdue.edu//

Learn more about Professor Toni Kempler Rogat: https://education.purdue.edu//faculty-profiles/name/toni-kempler-rogat/

Source: Toni Kempler Rogat, (765) 494-7295, trogat@purdue.edu

Writer: Conner Porter, porte143@purdue.edu