Joseph Polman

Dr. Polman collaborates with other educators and scholars in universities, research and development organizations, community-based organizations, museums, and schools to design and study project-based learning environments for youth and adults. He focuses on learning and identity development connected to practices of science, literacy, history, and journalism, with particular aims of making these pursuits more relevant to learners’ lives, and fostering more engaged democratic participation. His research uses sociocultural lenses to focus on learning and identity development as young people participate in media construction related to their lives and communities.

Over the years, his research and development has received over $10million in generous support from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the McDonnell Foundation.

Dr. Polman teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Learning Sciences and Human Development (LSHD) program area. These include EDUC 4112/5112: Adolescent Development and Learning for Teachers, and Critical Introduction to Learning Theory and Practice, Part 1. He also mentors students in the MA in LSHD and PhD in Education programs who are focusing on LSHD.

As Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Polman seeks to contribute to a positive and thriving research and development culture in the School of Education, by working with faculty, staff, and students, especially on seeking and leading projects and partnerships that improve educational opportunities and contribute to knowledge. He works on collaborative projects with educators in schools, museums, and community-based programs Colorado and several locations across the United States.

(For complete list of publications, please see the faculty member's curriculum vitae.)

Books

Wilkerson, M. H., & Polman, J. L. (Eds.) (2022). Situating data science: Exploring how relationships to data shape learning. Routledge.

Boardman, A. G., Garcia, A., Dalton, B., & Polman, J. L. (2021). Compose our world: Project based learning in secondary English language arts. Teachers College Press. This book was a finalist for the Literacy Research Association’s Edward B. Fry Book Award.

Polman, J. L., Kyza, E. A., O'Neill, D. K., Tabak, I., Penuel, W. R., Jurow, A. S., O'Connor, K., Lee, T., and D'Amico, L. (Eds.). (2014). Learning and becoming in practice: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2014, Volumes 1-3. Boulder, CO: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Polman, J. L. (2000). Designing project-based science: Connecting learners through guided inquiry. New York: Teachers College Press.

Refereed Journal Articles

Parekh, P., Polman, J. L., Kane, S., & Shapiro, R. B. (2023). Reconfiguring science education through caring human inquiry and design with pets. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 32 (4-5), 487-533.

Weidler-Lewis, J., Graville, C. S., & Polman, J. L. (2022). The identity affordances of tools: An examination of visual design tool use in STEM. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 29 (1), 43-59.

Hinojosa, L., Riedy, R., Polman, J., Swanson, R. Nuessle, T., Garneau, N. (2021). Expanding public participation in science practices beyond data collection. Citizen Science: Theory & Practice, 6(1), pp. 1-15.

Verhoeven, M., Polman, J. L., Zijlstra, B., & Volman, M. (2021). Creating space for agency: A conceptual framework to understand and study adolescents’ school engagement from a Funds of Identity perspective. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 28(2), 125-137.

Gebre, E. H., & Polman, J. L. (2020). From “context” to “active contextualization”: Fostering learner agency in contextualizing learning through science news reporting. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 24, 1-15.

Gebre, E. H., & Polman, J. L. (2016). Developing young adults’ representational competence through infographic-based science news reporting. International Journal of Science Education, 38(18), 2667-2687.

Polman, J. L., and Gebre, E. H. (2015). Towards critical appraisal of infographics as scientific inscriptions. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. doi: 10.1002/tea.21225

Polman, J. L., and Hope, J. M. G. (2014). Science news stories as boundary objects affecting engagement with science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51 (3), 315-341.

Polman, J. L., Newman, A., Saul, E. W. & Farrar, C. (2014). Adapting practices of science journalism to foster science literacy. Science Education, 98(5), 766-791. doi: 10.1002/sce.21114

Polman, J. L. (2010). The zone of proximal identity development in apprenticeship learning. Revista de Educación (special issue on Identity and Education),353 (September-December) , 129-155. 

Polman, J. L., and Miller, D. (2010). Changing stories: Trajectories of identification among African American youth in a science outreach apprenticeship. American Educational Research Journal, 47 (4), 879-918.

Polman, J. L. (2006). Mastery and appropriation as means to understand the interplay of history learning and identity trajectories. The Journal of the Learning Sciences . 15 (2), 221-259.

Polman, J. L. (2004). Dialogic activity structures for project-based learning environments. Cognition and Instruction , 22 (4), 431-466 .

O'Neill, D. K., & Polman, J. L. (2004). Why educate "little scientists?" Examining the potential of practice-based scientific literacy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41 (3), 234-266.

Book Chapters

Stamatis, K., Manriquez-Hernandez, J., & Polman, J. L. (2023). Youth curation as collective disruption: Making in museums during the Covid-19 pandemic. In R. M. Reardon & J. Leonard (Eds.), School-University-Community Research in a (Post)COVID-19 World (pp. 181-205). Information Age Publishing.

Herrenkohl, L. R., & Polman, J. L. (2018). Learning within and beyond the disciplines. In Fischer, F., Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Goldman, S. R., & Reimann, P. (Eds.). International handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 106-115). Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

Polman, J. L. (2012). Trajectories of participation and identification in learning communities involving disciplinary practices. In D. Yun Dai, (Ed.), Design research on learning and thinking in educational settings: Enhancing intellectual growth and functioning (pp. 225-242). New York: Routledge.