KRISTEN
PILNER BLAIR
Graduate School of Education
Stanford, CA 94305
Email: kpilner@stanford.edu
EDUCATION
2009
– Ph.D. Stanford University School of
Education
Educational Psychology with Specialization
in Learning Sciences and Technology Design (Advisor: Daniel L. Schwartz)
Dissertation: The neglected importance
of feedback perception in learning: An analysis of children and adults’ uptake
of quantitative feedback in a mathematics simulation environment.
PhD Minor in Psychology
2002
– B.S. Stanford University
Mathematical and Computational Science
with Interdisciplinary Honors in Education
PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
2020 – Current
Director of Research, Digital
Learning Initiative, Transforming Learning Accelerator
·
Help develop a research and design vision for the Digital
Learning Initiative, as well as annual goals and benchmarks that align with the
University’s long range project, the Transforming
Learning Accelerator.
·
Oversee
and administer research activities and seed grant competitions and awards.
2002 – Current
Researcher, Human
Sciences & Technology Advanced Research (H-STAR) Institute, Stanford
Graduate School of Education.
2014
– Current Senior Research Scholar
2009 – 2014 Research
Associate
2002 – 2009 Research
Assistant
Specific Projects:
§ Maximizing
Informativeness and Minimizing Neglect – the next step in feedback research
(with Lund University, Sweden)
§ New Teachers
Learning Disciplined Improvisation for Meaningful Talk in Diverse Classrooms
(with UC Davis)
§ Designing
Contrasting Cases for Inductive Learning
§ Teachable
Agents: Assisting and assessing middle school science learning in formal and
informal settings
§ Real World
Real Science (with Gulf of Maine Research Institute)
§ C2STEM:
synergistic STEM + computational thinking learning (with Vanderbilt, SRI, and
Salem State)
§ Learning
Through Making (with the Exploratorium)
§ Early Math
Learning with Tablets
§ Cognitive and
Cortical Restructuring in the Acquisition of Negative Number Concepts (with
Dept. of Psychiatry)
§ Choice Based
Learning Assessments
§ Family Math Project
- part of the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) center
§ Biological
Bases of Alphanumeric Learning Interventions (with Sackler institute)
2015 - Current
Lecturer, Stanford University, Stanford
CA.
§ EDUC 398: Core
Mechanics for Learning
2014 – 2015
Consulting Partner, Literacy Lab, Oakland, CA.
§ Evaluated and
recommend as suite of STEM apps and e-books for inclusion in a pilot tablet
program for low income preschool children.
§ Created
workshops to help preschool parents support their children’s math development at
home and through their everyday activities.
2006 - 2007
Instructor, Child and Adolescent Development
Department, San Jose State University
2002 - 2003
Research Assistant, Bermuda Computing Curriculum Project,
Stanford University School of Education and Department of Computer Science
2001 - 2002
Research Assistant, Stanford Mathematics Teaching and
Learning Study, Stanford University School of Education
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND
PROCEEDINGS
· Kjällander, S. & Blair, K. P. (2021). Designs for learning with adaptive games
and Teachable Agents. In: Brooks, E. & Selander,S. Springer Nature:
Emerging Practices and Technologies II. Design methodologies and digital
learning ecologies.
· Hallinen, N. R., Sprague, L. N., Blair, K. P., Adler,
R. M., & Newcombe, N. S. (2021). Finding formulas: Does active search
facilitate appropriate generalization?. Cognitive
Research: Principles and Implications, 6(1), 1-18.
· Silvervarg, A., Wolf, R., Blair, K.P., Haake, M., & Gulz, A. (2020).
How Teachable Agents Influence Students’ Responses to Critical Constructive
Feedback. Journal of Research on
Technology in Education.
·
Hutchins,
N.M., Biswas, G., Maróti, M., Lédeczi,
Á., Grover, S., Wolf, R., Blair, K.P., Chin, D., Conlin,
L., Basu, S. and McElhaney, K., (2020). C2STEM: a
System for Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking. Journal
of Science Education and Technology, 29(1), pp.83-100.
·
Chin, D. B., Blair, K., Wolf, R., Conlin, L., Cutumisu, M., &
Schwartz, D. L. (2019). Educating and
measuring choice: A test of the transfer of design thinking in problem solving
and learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(3), 337-380.
·
Varma,
S., Blair, K. P., & Schwartz, D. L. (2019). Cognitive science foundations
of integer understanding and instruction. In A. Norton & M. Alibali (Eds.), Constructing
number: Merging perspectives from psychology and mathematics education (pp.
307-327). NCTM/Springer
·
Cutumisu, M., Blair, K. P., Chin, D., & Schwartz, D. L. (2017)
Assessing whether students seek constructive criticism: The design of an
automated feedback system for a graphic design task. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED),
DOI: 10.1007/s40593-016-0137-5, Springer.
·
Schwartz,
D. L., Tsang, J. T., Blair, K. P. (2016).
The ABCs of how we learn: 26 scientifically proven approaches, how they
work, and when to use them. New York,
NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
·
Chin,
D., Blair, K. P., & Schwartz, D. L. (2016). Got Game? A Choice-Based
Learning Assessment of Data Literacy and Visualization Skills. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 21 (2).
·
Cutumisu,
M., Blair, K. P., Chin, D., & Schwartz, D. L. (2015). A game-based
assessment of children’s choices to seek feedback and to revise. Journal of Learning Analytics, 2(1), 49-71.
·
Tsang,
J., Blair, K. P., Bofferding, L., & Schwartz, D.
L. (2015). Learning to “see” less than
nothing: Putting perceptual skills to work for learning numerical
structure. Cognition & Instruction, 33 (2), 154-197.
·
Blair,
K., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Neurothreats and
how to prevent them [Letter to the editor: Comment on the paper A voyeuristic view of possibilities and threats: Neurosciences and education, by
C. Lee]. Human Development, 57 (1), 4-7.
·
Hallinen, N.R., Blair, K.P., Chin, D.B., &
Schwartz, D.L. (2014). Combining Generation and Direct Instruction to Prepare
Students to Transfer Big Ideas Across School Topics. In Polman, J. L., Kyza, E. A., O'Neill, D. K., Tabak, I., Penuel, W. R., Jurow, A. S., O'Connor, K., Lee, T., and D'Amico, L.
(Eds.). Learning and becoming in practice: The International Conference of
the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Boulder, CO.
·
Chi,
M., Schwartz, D.L., Blair, K.P., & Chin, D. (2014). Choice-based
Assessment: Can Choices Made in Digital Games Predict 6th-Grade Students' Math
Test Scores? In Stamper, J., Pardos, Z., Mavrikis, M.,
McLaren, B.M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on
Educational Data Mining. 36-43
·
Blair,
K. P. (2013). Feedback and Learning in
an iPad App Targeting Number Concepts for Preschoolers. In Martinez, M. &
Castro Superfine, A. (Eds) Proceedings of
the 35th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Chicago,
IL. (pp. 1157-1160).
·
Blair,
K. P. (2013). Learning in Critter Corral: Evaluating three kinds of feedback in
a preschool math game. In Sawhney, N., Reardon, E., & J. P. Hourcade (Eds.), Proceedings
of the Interaction Design and Children 2013 Conference. New York: ACM
·
Blair,
K. P., Tsang, J. M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2013). The bundling hypothesis: How perception and culture give rise to
abstract mathematical concepts. In S. Vosniadou
(Ed.), International Handbook of Research
on Conceptual Change II. New York:
Taylor & Francis.
·
Blair,
K. P. and Schwartz, D. L. (2012). A value of concrete learning materials in
adolescence. In Reyna, V., Chapman, S., Dougherty, M. & Confrey,
J (Eds.) The Adolescent Brain: Learning,
Reasoning, and Decision Making. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
·
Blair,
K.P & Schwartz, D. L
(2012). How technology can
change assessment. UNESCO policy brief.
·
Blair,
K. P., Rosenberg-Lee, M., Tsang, J., Schwartz, D. L., and Menon, V. (2012). Beyond
natural numbers: Representation of negative numbers in the intraparietal
sulcus. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience,
6 (7).
·
Schwartz,
D. L., Blair, K. P., & Tsang, J. (2012).
How to build educational neuroscience: two approaches with concrete
instances. British Journal of Educational
Psychology Monograph Series, 8.
·
Esmonde,
I., Blair, K. P.,
Goldman, S., Martin, L.,
Jimenez, O., and Pea, R. (2011). Math I AM: What we learn from stories
that people tell about math in their lives.
In B. Bevan, P. Bell, and R. Stevens, (Eds.) Learning outside of school time. New York: Springer Publishing.
·
Alexander,
A., Blair, K.P., Goldman, S., Jimenez, O., Nakaue,
M., Pea, R., & Russell, A. (2010). Go Math! How research anchors new mobile
learning environments. Proceedings of the
Sixth International IEEE Conference on Wireless, Mobile, and Ubiquitous
Technologies in Education (WMUTE), pp. 57-64. Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
·
Blair,
K.P., Schwartz, D. L., Biswas, G. and Leelawong, K.
(2007). Pedagogical agents for learning
by teaching: Teachable Agents. Educational Technology. 47(1) 56-61.
·
Schwartz,
D. L., Blair, K., Biswas, G., Leelawong, K., &
Davis, J. (2007). Animations of thought: Evidence from the teachable agent
paradigm. In R. Lowe & W. Schnotz
(Eds.), Learning with animation: Research and implications for design.
UK: Cambridge University Press.
·
Pea,
R. D., Goldman, S., Martin, L., Blair, K. P., Booker, A., Esmonde,
I., & Jimenez, O. Situations and values in family mathematics. (2007). Proceedings of CSCL-2007
(Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning), pp. 26-35. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Associates.
·
Blair,
K. P. (2006). Students’ understanding of ambiguity in symbols. In J. Novotná, H. Moraová, M. Krátká & N. Stehlíková (Eds.), Proceedings
of the 30th conference of the International Group for the Psychology of
Mathematics Education, Prague, Czech Republic.
·
Goldman,
S., Martin, L., Pea, R.,
Booker, A., & Blair, K. P. (2006). Problem emergence, problem
solving, and mathematics in family life. Proceedings of the 7th
International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Bloomington,
Indiana (pp. 1088-1093).
·
Hartman,
K , and Blair, K. P. (2005). The
Unless Switch: Adding Conditional Logic to Concept Mapping for Middle School
Students. In Gerrit van der Veer & Carolyn Gale (Eds.),
Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2005, Portland, Oregon. (pp.
1439-1442)
·
Blair,
K. P., and Schwartz, D. L. (2004). Milo and J-Mole: Computers as Constructivist
Teachable Agents. In Y. Kafai et al.
(Eds.), Embracing Diversity in the Learning Sciences: The proceedings of the
Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Santa
Monica, California. (pp. 588).
SELECTED
PEER REVIEWED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
·
Banes,
L., Martin, L., & Blair, K. P. (2020). Fostering Pre-Service Teacher
Noticing of Classroom Discourse Features through Analysis of Contrasting Cases.
Poster accepted for presentation at the 2020 American Educational Research
Association Annual Meeting.
·
Blair,
K. P., Chin, D. B., (2020). A Game-based Assessment to Measure Persistence and
Response to Failure after Design-Focused Summer Camp Programs. Poster accepted
for presentation at the 2020 American Educational Research Association Annual
Meeting.
·
Wolf,
R., Blair, K. P., Chin, D. B. (2020). Measuring Students' Transfer of
Modeling and Meta-Modeling Skills Using an Online Simulation Environment.
Poster accepted for presentation at the 2020 American Educational Research
Association Annual Meeting.
·
Blair,
K. P., Chin, D. B., & Schwartz, D. L. (2019). Using a Choice-Based
Assessment to Measure the Effects of a Summer Camp Program on Persistence.
Presented at the 2019 American Educational Research Assoication
Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada.
·
Chin,
D. B., Conlin, L. D., Blair, K. B., Tsang, J. T.,
& Schwartz, D. L. (2018) Top this! Assessing the impact of making in formal
and informal science learning contexts. Presented at the 2018 American
Educational Research Assoication Annual Conference,
New York, NY.
·
Conlin,
L. D., Chin, D. B., Blair, K. P., Cutumisu, M., &
Schwartz, D. L. (2015). Guardian angels of our better nature: Finding evidence
of the benefits of design thinking. Proc. of the 122nd American Society for
Engineering Education (ASEE’15), 14-17.
·
Chin,
D.B., Blair, K. P. & Schwartz, D.L. (2015, April). Got game? A choice-based
learning assessment of data visualization skills. Paper presented at American
Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
·
Blair, K. P., Pfaffman, J., Cutumisu, M., Hallinen, N., &
Schwartz, D. L. (2015, April). Testing the effectiveness of iPad math game:
Lessons learned from running a multi-classroom study. Case Study to be
presented at the CHI 2015 conference, Seoul, South Korea.
·
Blair,
K.P. (2013, April). Feedback in Critter Corral: The effectiveness of
implication versus corrective feedback in a math learning game. Paper presented
at the 2013 Early Education and
Technology for Children Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.
·
Blair,
K.P., Tsang, J. T., Hallinen, N., Rosenberg-Lee, M.,
Menon, V., & Schwartz, D. L (2013) Extending Natural Number
Understanding to the Integers: Cross-disciplinary research in Education,
Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science. Paper presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Educational
Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
·
Goldman,
S., Pea, R., Hendrick, B. Jimenez, O, & Blair, K.P. (2013). Making
Mathematics Mobile: The Promises and Problems. Paper presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Educational
Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
·
Tsang,
J., Blair, K. P., Bofferding, L, Rosenberg-Lee, M., & Schwartz, D.
(2011). Educational Neuroscience: An
example in the context of the integers. Paper presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
·
Goldman,
S., Pea, R., Blair, K. P., Jimenez, O., & Fairless, C. (2011, June).
Justification in Everyday Mathematics: The proof is in the pudding. Paper
presented at the 41st Annual
Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Berkeley, CA.
·
Blair,
K. P., Rosenberg-Lee, M., Tsang, J., Schwartz, D. L., & Menon, V. (2010,
June). The Neural and Educational Basis of Integer Representations: Magnitude.
Presented at the 2010 Meeting of the
Special Interest Group ‘Neuroscience and Education’ of the European Association for Research on
Learning and Instruction (EARLI).
·
Blair,
K. P., Rosenberg-Lee, M., Tsang, J., Schwartz, D. L., & Menon, V. (2010,
June). Representations and Rules in Negative Number Processing. Poster
presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of
the Organization for Human Brian Mapping, Barcelona, Spain.
·
Blair,
K. P. & Schwartz, D. L. (2010, May). Focusing on Feedback Perception. Paper
presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of
the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.
·
Blair,
K. P., Goldman, S. & Alexander, A. (2010, April). Go Math! Cell phone
applications to support families’ everyday mathematics use. Research Session
presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, San Diego, CA.
·
Pea,
R., Martin, L.M., Goldman, S., Blair, K.P., Jimenez, O., Booker, A., & Esmonde, I. (2009, April). Values that occasion and guide
mathematics in the family. Paper presented in Symposium: Research on Learning
as a Human Science. Annual Meetings of
the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
·
Blair,
K. P. and Hartman, K. (2008)
Computer-based interventions to improve grouping skills. Paper presented as part of the GroupThink symposium at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
New York, NY.
·
Esmonde,
I., Pea, R., Goldman, S., Blair, K. P., Booker, A., Jimenez, O., and Martin, L. (2008) Families
talk math: Counts, accounts, and accountabilities. Presented as part of the LOST symposium at
the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, New York, NY.
·
Pea,
R., Goldman, S., Blair, K. P., Booker, A., Esmonde, I., Jimenez, O., and Martin, L. (2007) The people
behind the numbers: using qualitative and quantitative methods to characterize
family engagement in math. Presented at
the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
·
Pea,
R., Goldman, S., Booker, A., Martin, L. and Blair, K. P. (2006). Understanding the nature of
mathematical activities in middle-school learners’ family life. A Symposium Presentation. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
San Francisco, CA.
·
Blair,
K. P., and Schwartz, D. L. (2005) Guided Discovery Games with Teachable Agents.
Presented at the Games, Learning and
Society Conference, Madison, WI.
·
Schwartz,
D. L., Blair, K. P., Davis, J. M., Chang, J., & Hartman, K. (2005).
Iterative dynamic assessments with feedback to students. A
Symposium Presentation. Annual
Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
EDUCATIONAL
TECHNOLOGIES CREATED
Betty’s Brain: A Teachable Agent for supporting causal
reasoning in science (Contributor with the Teachable Agents group)
Idolet, Vetlet, Vislet, Posterlet, Photolet, Farmlet, Storylet, Datalet: Online
interactive game-based assessment tools.
Critter Corral:
An iPad game for teaching core number concepts for children ages 4-6.
Go Roadtrip! A
web-based mobile app to help families engage in mathematics and problem solving
together. (Developed with the Family Math project.)
Milo: A Teachable Agent for teaching
modeling and statistics.
JMole: A Teachable Agent-based multi-player
game for learning fractions.
The Magnet Game: A physical and virtual
game for teaching negative numbers (Physical manipulatives and virtual manipuatives)
Spiderkid: A mathematics simulation game targeting
multiplicative reasoning.
PEER REVIEWER
National
Science Foundation (grants)
Cognition and
Instruction (journal)
Cognitive
Science (journal)
Instructional
Science (journal)
Journal of the
Learning Sciences (journal)
American
Educational Research Association (annual conference)
International
Conference of the Learning Sciences (bi-annual conference)
Cognitive
Science Society (annual conference)