Education Researcher, SRI Education
Elica Sharifnia, PhD, is an education researcher in SRI’s Center for Learning and Development. She has expertise in applied research on early childhood STEM teaching and learning, particularly in the development and evaluation of programs and interventions supporting high-quality education for young children in both the school and home contexts. She is skilled in quantitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation, including data collection (child assessments, classroom observations, interviews, focus groups), analysis, and dissemination. She also specializes in developing and delivering curricula and interventions and conducting professional development for early childhood teachers.
At SRI, Sharifnia is involved in several studies focused on early childhood learning and development, STEM and computer science, and digital learning and technology. She currently supports evaluation efforts for the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia’s Teaching Math to Young Children Toolkit project and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Ready to Learn Initiative project.
Before joining SRI, Sharifnia completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Marsico Institute for Early Learning at University of Denver, where she engaged in multiple early childhood STEM research projects. She worked closely with the national STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMIE) Center, which aims to promote STEM education for all children, especially children with disabilities. As a graduate student, Sharifnia supported multiple research and assessment projects focused on early childhood science teaching and learning. Prior to graduate school, she was a research analyst at SRI, primarily working on projects focused on early math and science education and using digital learning and technology to support young children’s learning. Sharifnia earned her PhD in developmental psychology with a concentration in quantitative psychology and her MS in developmental psychology from the University of Miami, where she was an Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Head Start Research Scholar. She received her BA in neuroscience from Claremont McKenna College.
Projects
Publications and Products
- *Guss, S. S., Clements, D. H., Sharifnia, E., Sarama, J., Holland, A., Lim, C.-I., & Vinh, M. (2024). Designing inclusive computational thinking learning trajectories for the youngest learners. Education Sciences, 14(7), Article 733. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14070733
- *Guss, S. S., Lim, C.-I., Clements, D. H., Sharifnia, E. B., Holland, A. L., Vinh, M., & Sarama, J. (2023). Building learning trajectories for intentional, inclusive, and individualized instructional experiences in STEM. Education Sciences, 14(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14010008
- *Rumper, B., Frechette, E., Sharifnia, E., Greenfield, D. B., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2021). Portrait of early science education in majority dual language learner classrooms: Where do we start? Journal of Childhood, Education & Society, 2(3), 235–266. https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.2021231191
