Paul, Cassandra
Professor, Physics & Astronomy | Science Education Program
Preferred: cassandra.paul@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-5228
Office Hours
by appointment
Education
- Doctor of Physics, Physics, Univ Of Cal-Davis, California, United States, 2012
- M.S., Physics, Univ Of Wyoming, Wyoming, United States, 2005
- B.A., Physics, Suny College At Oswego, New York, United States, 2002
Bio
Cassandra Paul earned her PhD in Physics from the University of California Davis with an emphasis in Physics Education Research. There she studied the interactions between instructors and students in an interactive introductory physics course called Collaborative Learning through active Sense-making in Physics (CLASP). She was a part of a team of researchers who developed the Real-time Instructor Observing Tool (RIOT) an observation protocol that allows an observer to broadly categorize actions that take place between instructors and students in real-time.
Dr. Paul also co-developed the Student Participation Observation Tool (SPOT), a similar observing protocol to the RIOT but with more emphasis on categorizing classroom opportunities for student voice, and better suited for classroom environments that are not quite as reformed as the CLASP curriculum.
Currently, Dr. Paul's main research interests efforts involve how instructors implement interactive engagement and active learning pedagogies, and professional development activities that support these efforts. Dr. Paul is also very interested in better understanding the intricacies of the relationships between student assessments, instructor feedback, grading practices and how these factors determine student performance and success in the classroom, and what implications this has for student equity.