As students, educators, and families prepare for the start of a new school year, experts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education are available to share insights on some of the most pressing issues facing schools today. Their expertise spans topics including artificial intelligence in education, student mental health, teacher shortages, civic learning, college …
UW–Madison’s Courtney Bell, a professor of learning sciences in the School of Education’s top-ranked Department of Educational Psychology, has been appointed chair of the Governing Council of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Bell ICPSR is an international consortium of more than 800 academic and research organizations and is home to the world’s …
A UW–Madison program aimed at helping educators ethically and effectively use artificial intelligence (AI) to support their work will continue for a second year. In its second year, the program will be offered to educators within the Universities of Wisconsin System. The Disillusioning AI for Teachers Fellowship, which launched in fall 2025, offers in-depth sessions aimed at increasing …
UW–Madison’s Mitchell Nathan was recently featured on “The Science of Creativity” podcast, hosted by Keith Sawyer, to discuss embodied cognition — the idea that learning is grounded in the body, in movement, and in the physical world. The episode highlights how, from solving algebra problems to understanding complex ideas, our bodies help us learn in …
Learning Sciences Assistant Professor Icy Zhang received a 2026 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Zhang will utilize her funding on her project, “Bridging the Research-Practice Gap in Statistics and Data Science Education: Co-design ‘Embodied’ Programming Notebooks with Instructors Across Institutions.” Zhang’s research investigates the cognitive and developmental processes that underlie learning in complex domains, such as STEM domains, with …
School Psychology Professor Andy Garbacz received a 2026 APA Division 16 Award. The Tom Oakland Mid-Career Scholarship Award recognizes a mid-career school psychologist (7–20 years post-graduation) who has demonstrated exceptional scholarly contributions throughout their career that merit special recognition.
UW–Madison’s Tai Sun Jeong, a PhD student in the Quantitative Methods area in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, won first place in the 2026 Graduate Student eBoard Competition hosted by the Graduate Student Issues Committee at the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Annual Meeting. Jeong The competition was designed to …
UW–Madison’s David Kaplan, Hilldale Professor and Richard L. Venezky WARF Professor of Educational Psychology, has received a Renewed Research Stay Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Kaplan The award recognizes Kaplan’s research contributions and collaborations with German colleagues since he first received a Humboldt Research Award in 2015. Kaplan will spend two months at …
For the third consecutive year, UW–Madison is home to the top-ranked school of education in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best Education Graduate Schools rankings published on Tuesday. In addition to the overall ranking, 12 graduate programs housed within the UW–Madison School of Education were also highly rated by U.S. News in its …
Ishan Vengurlekar is a School Psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Broadly, Ishan’s research interests center on early intervention for youth with elevated mental health challenges. He is particularly interested in leveraging and optimizing brief mental health interventions in schools to a) reduce the burden on school staff and b) ensure every student …