Pitt's Lauren Resnick Receives Award For Distinguished Contributions to Education

PITTSBURGH-Lauren B. Resnick, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), was honored with the American Psychological Association's (APA) Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award on Aug. 18. Resnick was recognized for her study of how to improve the nation's schools and for implementing the ideas she developed over several decades, keeping apace with evolving educational issues.

Resnick's research spans the teaching of different subject matters, the professional development of teachers and school leaders, and socially shared cognition and learning. A national leader and mentor, Resnick has shared her expertise through books, journals, and conferences.

The APA established the Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award in 1999 to acknowledge the career achievements of psychologists who have contributed solutions to learning problems through research findings and evidence-based practices. Of APA's more than 150,000 members in the United States and Canada, Resnick is the eighth awardee and joins Pitt's School of Education Dean Alan M. Lesgold, who received the award in 2001.

Resnick also founded and directs LRDC's Institute for Learning, which fosters school reform through professional development for educators. The Institute has achieved national recognition for helping to improve the academic performance of children in urban school districts throughout the United States.

As founding editor of "Research Points," a quarterly brief for education policymakers published by the American Educational Research Association, Resnick is striving to link educational research to critical issues of education policy-a vital precept of the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2002. Resnick led the development of standards for school learning that have been adopted by most states.

Resnick, recognized as a University Professor in 2006, has received multiple awards for her research, including the 1998 E. L. Thorndike Award and the 1999 "Oeuvre" Award from the European Association on Research for Learning and Instruction (EARLI). She is currently a member of EARLI's executive committee. She is also a past president of the American Educational Research Association, an APA Fellow, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an elected member of both the U.S. National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education.

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8/28/07/tmw