Janis A. Bulgren, Ph.D.

Dr. Janis Bulgren

 

Affliations: 

  • Research Professor, Emeritus - University of Kansas
  • Certified SIM Professional Development Leader - University of Kansas, Center for Research on Learning Lawrence, KS

Background and Interests:
The focus of my research has been developing ways to help adolescents, including those with disabilities, succeed in inclusive general education classes. Having two degrees in English and teaching at the high school level for several years made me very aware of the needs of both teachers and students in diverse subject-area classes. This led to me to pursue a degree in special education from the University of Kansas. My combined background of general education and special education has allowed me to pursue my interests and insights about how teachers teach and how students learn. As a result, I have been privileged to work with teachers in a variety of subject areas and to do research on instructional techniques that support all students, including those who are low achieving, average achieving, and high achieving, as well as students with disabilities.

My focus has been on a programmatic line of research that builds upon a foundation of knowledge of factual information to create an understanding of critical concepts, to enable manipulation of information including making comparisons, analyzing causes and effects, weighing options to make decisions, and using reasoning to analyze claims and arguments. The goal of the instructional practices that I and my colleagues have designed is to guide students as they engage in deep learning and comprehension across subject-area domains and ultimately in the generalization of thinking to subject-area and real-world issues.

​Dr. Bulgren’s recent research on analysis and evaluation of scientific and socio-scientific arguments has been extended to the development of an educational game to support student learning and engagement in argumentation. She collaborated on an Innovation in Instruction grant with SRI and CAST to develop integrated sets of instructional procedures for units in science and social studies, and to support that instruction with technology. She has served as PI or co-PI on grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education. Dr. Bulgren has collaborated with many researchers at the KUCRL as well as specialists in the KU School of Education and other research and development entities.