Dr. Yoon’s research in the Learning Sciences uses multiple theoretical lenses to study learning and interaction in designed interventions. In one line of research she studies how student and teacher populations can improve understanding and instruction about complex systems in middle and high school science courses. Using varying learning tools such as mobile technologies and multi-agent computational models, she investigates how abilities in important scientific practices, such as theory building, evidence-based decision-making and argumentation, can increase. This work also assesses how understanding of complex systems processes and states change through participation in curricula and activities that integrate these learning tools in classrooms. Furthermore, she examines educational system affordances and constraints (e.g., teacher learning trajectories, professional development, school-level contextual factors) that enable or impede adoption of progressive learning tools and approaches.
