Brian J. Reiser is Professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Professor Reiser served as chair of Northwestern’s Learning Sciences Ph.D. program from 1993, shortly after its inception, until 2001. His research focuses on the design and enactment of learning environments that support students’ inquiry in science, including both science curriculum materials and scaffolded software tools. His research investigates the design of learning environments that scaffold scientific practices, including investigation, argumentation, and explanation; design principles for technology-infused curricula that engage students in inquiry projects; and the teaching practices that support student inquiry. Reiser co-directs the IQWST (Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology) curriculum project, a collaboration with the University of Michigan to develop middle school standards-based science curriculum materials that engage students in learning science through inquiry projects. Professor Reiser also directed BGuILE (Biology Guided Inquiry Learning Environments) to develop software tools for supporting middle school and high school students in analyzing data and constructing explanations with biological data. Reiser is a co-principal investigator in the NSF Center for Curriculum Materials in Science. He recently served as member of the NRC panel authoring the report Taking Science to School. Professor Reiser received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Yale University in 1983.
Smith, Brian K. and Reiser, Brian J. (1998): National Geographic Unplugged: Classroom-Centered Design of Interactive Nature Films. In: Karat, Clare-Marie, Lund, Arnold, Coutaz, Joëlle and Karat, John (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 98 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 18-23, 1998, Los Angeles, California. pp. 424-431. Available online
Loh, Ben, Radinsky, Josh, Russell, Eric, Gomez, Louis M., Reiser, Brian J. and Edelson, Daniel C. (1998): The Progress Portfolio: Designing Reflective Tools for a Classroom Context. In: Karat, Clare-Marie, Lund, Arnold, Coutaz, Joëlle and Karat, John (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 98 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 18-23, 1998, Los Angeles, California. pp. 627-634. Available online
Gray, Wayne D., Anderson, John R., Reiser, Brian J., Soloway, Elliot and Spohrer, James C. (1991): Tutors and Environments for Novice Programmers. In: Koenemann-Belliveau, Jurgen, Moher, Thomas G. and Robertson, Scott P. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Workshop on Empirical Studies of Programmers 1991, Norwood, New Jersey, USA. pp. 3-4.
Ranney, Michael and Reiser, Brian J. (1989): Reasoning and Explanation in an Intelligent Tutor for Programming. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 1989. pp. 88-95.
Reiser, Brian J., Friedmann, Patricia, Gevins, Jody, Kimberg, Daniel Y., Ranney, Michael and Romero, Antonio (1988): A Graphical Programming Language Interface for an Intelligent Lisp Tutor. In: Soloway, Elliot, Frye, Douglas and Sheppard, Sylvia B. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 88 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference June 15-19, 1988, Washington, DC, USA. pp. 39-44.
Egan, Dennis E., Gomez, Louis M., McKeown, Kathleen R., Soloway, Elliot, Reiser, Brian J. and Marshall, Catherine C. (1988): Dealing with Diversity: Approaches to Individual Differences in Human-Computer Interaction. In: Soloway, Elliot, Frye, Douglas and Sheppard, Sylvia B. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 88 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference June 15-19, 1988, Washington, DC, USA. pp. 79-81.