Daniel R. Zalles

Daniel R. Zalles, Ph.D., a former high school teacher, teacher educator, and curriculum developer, is a senior educational researcher in SRI International’s Center for Technology and Learning. As a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on various NSF and NASA-funded research projects, Zalles researches how technology can be used to prompt students to reason scientifically when carrying out inquiry tasks with real geospatial data, and how assessments can be designed that best capture the consequent learning outcomes.

In recent projects, Zalles has turned to researching ways to build the capacities of middle school, high school, and community college teachers to implement local place-based geospatial data-centered inquiry tasks into their curricula (DICCE and STORE). He offers to these teachers geographical information system technology applications and data sets with built-in supports for teacher capacity building, plus a curriculum authoring tool, curriculum exemplars, and assessment instruments that the teachers can use as is or adapt.

To get students to better understand and appreciate the challenges of environmental sustainability, Zalles facilitates the study of earth system phenomena in a manner that crosses traditional subject matter disciplines and shows how the phenomena are related. In addition, he has created curriculum exemplars for teaching about these topics via integration with social science information (DICCE) and Native American traditional ecological knowledge (DIGERS). Environmental sustainability topics he has concentrated on include climate change, geomorphology, and ecosystem biology.

Zalles also leads evaluations of technology-based educational innovations, such as applications of data literacy tools InspireData™ and Kids Survey Network in formal and informal learning settings, enhancements to science curricula that follow principles of universal design for learning, uses of video cases for showcasing student reasoning on math problem-solving tasks, and uses of geospatially situated demographic data for improving social science instruction.

Zalles was also instrumental in the development of NSF’s Online Evaluation Resource Library, authoring professional development modules on evaluation methodology topics such as methodological approach and sampling, writing questionnaires, and instrument triangulation and adaptation.

Education

• Religious Studies, Vassar College, B.A., 1975
• Education, Stanford University, Ph.D., 1986

Professional Experience

• Senior Educational Researcher, SRI International, 1999-present
• Curriculum Specialist and Project Manager, Computer Curriculum Corp., 1991-1999
• Educational Researcher, RMC Research Corporation, 1990-1991
• Policy Analyst and Survey Researcher, Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1986-1990

Current Projects

• Studying Topography, Orographic Rainfall, and Ecosystems with Geospatial Information Technology (STORE) (PI)
• Data-enhanced Investigations for Climate Change Education (DICCE) (PI)
• Collaborative Research: R&D: Cyber-Enabled Design Research to Enhance Teachers' Critical Thinking Using a Major Video Collection on Children's Mathematical Reasoning (lead evaluator)
• Creating Disseminating Tools to Teach with Demographic Data Maps and Materials (lead evaluator)

Past Projects

• Thinking with Data (TWD) (Co-PI)
• Data Sets and Inquiry in Geoscience Education (DIGS) (PI)
• Collaborative Research: Data-driven Inquiry in Geoscience Environmental Restoration Studies (DIGERS) (PI)
• Universal Design of Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum (lead evaluator)
• The Universally Designed Science Notebook: An Intervention to Support Science Learning for Students with Disabilities (lead evaluator)
• Kid's Survey Network (lead evaluator)
• Foundational Tools for Data Literacy (lead evaluator)