Douglas Clark

Douglas Clark

Positions

Professor

Werklund School of Education

Contact information

Web presence

Phone number

Office: 403.220.3242

Location

Office: EDT838

Background

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy , Univ. of Calif. - Berkeley, 2000

M.A. , Stanford University, 1991

B.A. , University of North Carolina, 1989

Biography

Dr. Clark taught high school and middle school science in Arizona and California. Dr. Clark completed his MA at Stanford University and PhD at University of California at Berkeley in Math, Science, and Technology Education. Prior to joining University of Calgary in 2017, Dr. Clark was a professor of the learning sciences and science education at Vanderbilt University in the United States. Dr. Clark loves playing digital games and board games of all kinds.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Dr. Clark has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Learning Sciences. He has also served on the editorial boards of several of the most prestigious journals in Science Education and the Learning Sciences including Journal of the Learning Sciences, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and Science Education. He has been a Survey Assessment Innovations Lab Network advisor to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the United States and was one of the original twenty members of the Academic Consortium on Games for Impact that was initially commissioned by the US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  

  • International Society of the Learning Sciences
  • American Educational Research Association
  • Games, Learning, and Society

Research

Areas of Research

Scholarly Activity

My research spans multiple areas, and I look for students who are interested in working with me in one or more of these general areas:

  1. Analyzing and designing to support how in-service and pre-teachers think about and engage in design. Our goal is to support teachers in thinking about design for more fundamental changes to the cultural configurations and opportunities of their classrooms in support of increasing equity and support for diversity within their classrooms. 
  2. Engaging students and teachers in explanation and argumentation alone or in groups online, face-to-face, or in writing to learn about scientific and socio-scientific topics. This work has focused on supporting people in critical thinking around claims and evidence.
  3. Designing simulations, games, and multimedia inquiry environments for science learning (e.g., http://www.surgeuniverse.com).

Across all of these projects I am very interested in issues of learning, design, engagement, critical thinking, problem solving, motivation, and equity. If you are interested in potentially applying to University of Calgary and working with me at University of Calgary in one of these areas or other related areas, please email me about your interests.

Interests:
  • Design Education
  • Game-based learning
  • Science education
  • Informal science education
  • Online learning communities
  • Design based research
  • Learning sciences
  • User-centered design

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
EDUC 521 Design for Learning

Awards

  • Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award, Werklund School of Education. 2022
  • Reviewer of the Year, Journal of the Learning Sciences . 2016
  • Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Academy of Education. 2006
  • Outstanding Dissertation Award, UC Berkeley School of Education. 2001
  • Science and Design Fellowship, National Science Foundation. 1999
  • Chancellor's Award for Botany, University of North Carolina. 1989

Publications

More Information

Media:

Clark, D. B. (2017). Can Typical Educational Games Support Learning Within Curriculum? Blog on Joan Ganz Cooney Center site about games and learning. http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/2017/06/21/can-typical-educational-games-support-learning-within-curriculum/