A Conversation with Chandra Orrill

Chandra Orrill is a first-generation college graduate who has earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University and a B.A. in Computer Applications in Music from the University of Alabama. She worked as faculty in higher education for 24 years before stepping out to lead Rethink Learning Labs. Her work for most of those years has been driven by her own observation that even as an honors student in K-12, her educational experiences were not particularly engaging or enriching. She is driven by a desire to support students in learning to think critically, to feel capable of success, and to be able to succeed in any field(s) they want. To this end, her research has focused on middle grades mathematics. She is particularly interested in how teachers understand the math they teach and how to support teachers in becoming more expert in their content. More recently, she has expanded these efforts to include more problem-solving approaches and content areas. Specifically, she has worked in computational, cybersecurity, and design thinking in elementary and middle grades. Chandra's goals for Rethink Learning Labs are to transform education through research, to partner with schools and teachers who want to rethink education for the 21st century, and to mentor new researchers into applied research efforts that are driven by data and theory, but that also have a clear impact on teachers, students, and schools.

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