Sarah Schneider Kavanagh looks for ways to improve how teachers are supported to develop their practice. A former secondary teacher, she is an expert in questions about how teachers are mentored, coached, and educated. She has a special interest in designs for teacher learning that make the practice of teaching public by giving teachers opportunities to collaborate in the classroom or to watch themselves or others as they work with students. Her work is premised on the idea that without revolutionizing teacher learning experiences, we will continue to struggle with transforming student learning experiences. By focusing on revolutionizing designs for teacher learning, her work contributes to larger efforts that aim to transform K-12 schools. In particular, she is interested in efforts that aim to transform schools into places where students are routinely engaged in meaningful activity that engages their passions and has real consequence outside classroom walls.

Professional Biography

Dr. Sarah Schneider Kavanagh is an associate professor of teacher education in the Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Division. She is currently a Co-Principal Investigator of several large research projects studying innovative designs for teacher learning. Prior to joining Penn GSE, Dr. Kavanagh was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University's Center to Support Excellence in Teaching and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s College of Education, where she also received her PhD. She began her career in education as a classroom teacher, first in the Bay area and then in the Baltimore area.

Her work has appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Cognition & Instruction, the Journal of Teacher Education, and other journals.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. Kavanagh studies the pedagogy of teacher education. In particular, her scholarship focuses on practice-based pedagogical approaches to preparing teachers to engage in inquiry-based instruction. She is currently leading several large research teams in multiyear investigations of innovative designs for teacher learning. The first is a study of teacher learning within Penn GSE’s Project-Based Learning Certificate Program. The second is a study of teaching learning within the school-based learning labs that she facilitates in the School District of Philadelphia and the third is a study of learning labs in public schools in Delaware.

These current projects build off of Dr. Kavanagh’s recent work, including an investigation of the relationship between teacher educators’ pedagogy and novice teacher take-up of instructional practices associated with facilitating discussions of texts in secondary English and history classrooms. Her work on this topic has appeared in the American Educational Research Journal (2017; 2020), the Journal of Teacher Education (2018; 2020), English Education (2020) and Teaching and Teacher Education (2019a; 2019b; 2019c; 2020). Along with studying English and history teachers’ practice as it relates to content instruction, Dr. Kavanagh has also investigated their practice as it relates to equity issues, particularly how teachers’ instructional practice changes when they integrate content relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBTQ) people, families, and communities. This work has appeared in Teachers College Record (2016), the International Journal of Multicultural Education (2016), and Equity & Excellence in Education (2018).

Publications

Featured

Core Practices for Project-Based Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Leaders

Selected Publications

Kavanagh, S. S., Resnick, A. F., Ghousseini, H., Gotwalt, E. S.,* Siy, E., Kazemi, E., & Dutro, E. (2022). Breaking the Fourth Wall in Collaborative Research: Beyond the Observer/Performer Binary in Research on Teacher Learning and Practice. Cognition & Instruction, 40(1). 126-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2021.2010209

Ghousseini, H., Kavanagh, S. S., Kazemi, E., & Dutro, E. (2021). The fourth wall of professional learning and cultures of collaboration. Educational Researcher. 51(3). 216-222. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211058751

Kavanagh, S. S. (2021). Toward non-binary theories of practice in teacher education. Educational Researcher. 51(1). 66-71. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211052058

Kavanagh, S.S. & Danielson, K. (2020). Practicing justice, justifying practice: Towards critical practice teacher education. American Educational Research Journal. 57(1). 69-105. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219848691

Kavanagh, S.S., Conrad, J.,* & Dagogo-Jack, S*. (2020). From rote to reasoned: Examining the role of pedagogical reasoning in practice-based teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education. 89. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102991

Farrow, J., Kavanagh, S. S., Samudra, P., (2022) Exploring relationships between professional development and teachers’ enactments of project-based learning. Education Sciences. 12(282), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040282

Potvin, A, Miller, E., Kuck, R.,* Berland, L, Boardman, A G., Kavanagh, S. S., Clark, T., Cheng, B. (2022). Mapping enabling conditions for high-quality PBL: A collaboratory approach. Education Sciences. 12(222), pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12030222

Rangu, S.,* Danielson, K., Kavanagh, S. S., Catanoso, L.,* Magee, L., & Castelo-Soccio, L. (2021). Effects of a pilot educational intervention on perceptions of visible skin diseases in the pediatric population. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 85(5). 1329-1331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.10.068

Grossman P., Herrmann, Z., Kavanagh, S. S., Pupik Dean, C. G. (2021). Core practices for project-based learning: A guide for teachers and leaders. Harvard Education Press.

Kavanagh, S. S., Metz, M., Hauser, M., Fogo, B., Carlson, J., & Taylor, M. (2020). Practicing responsiveness: Using approximations of teaching to build teachers’ instructional judgment. Journal of Teacher Education. 71(1). 94-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119841884

Metz, M., Kavanagh, S. S., Hauser, M.* (2020). Developing Adaptive Expertise in Facilitating Text-based Discussions: Attending to Generalities and Novelty. English Education, 52(4). 310-334.

Kavanagh, S.S., Monte-Sano, C., Reisman, A., Fogo, B., McGrew, S.,* Cipparone, P.* & Jay, L.* (2019). Teaching content in practice: Investigating rehearsals of social studies discussions. Teaching and Teacher Education. 86. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.06.017

Kavanagh, S. S. (2018). Practicing resistance: Teacher responses to intergroup aggression in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2). 146-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1509748

Grossman, P., Kazemi, E., Kavanagh, S. S., Franke, M., & Dutro, E. (2019). Learning to Facilitate Discussions: Collaborations in Practice-Based Teacher Education. Teaching & Teacher Education, 81. 97-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.02.002

Grossman, P., Dean, C. P., Kavanagh, S. S. & Herrmann, Z. (2019). Preparing teachers for student-centered teaching: The core practices of project-based teaching. Phi Delta Kappan.

Reisman, A., Cipparone, P., Jay, L., Monte-Sano, C., Kavanagh, S. S., McGrew, S., & Fogo, B. (2019). Evidence of emergent practice: Teacher candidates facilitating historical discussions in their field placements. Teaching & Teacher Education. 80. 145-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.12.014

Von Esch, K. & Kavanagh, S. S. (2018). Preparing mainstream classroom teachers of English language learner (EL) students: Grounding practice-based designs for teacher learning in theories of expertise development. Journal of Teacher Education, 69(3), 239–251. DOI: 10.1177/0022487117717467

Reisman, A., Kavanagh, S. S., Monte-Sano, C., Fogo, B., Simmons, E., & Cipparone, P. (2018). Facilitating whole-class discussions in history: A framework for preparing teacher candidates. Journal of Teacher Education, 69(3), 278–293. DOI: 10.1177/0022487117707463

Hauser, M., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2019). Practice-based teacher education. In G. W. Noblit (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of education. Oxford University Press.

Grossman, P., Kavanagh, S. S. , & Dean, C. P. (2018). The turn to practice in teacher education. In P. Grossman (Ed.), Teaching core practices in teacher education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Danielson, K., Kavanagh, S. S. , & Kazemi, E. (2018). Learning together. In P. Grossman (Ed.), Teaching core practices in teacher education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Kavanagh, S. S., & Rainey, E. (2017). Learning to support adolescent literacy: Teacher educator pedagogy and novice teacher take up in secondary English language arts teacher preparation. American Educational Research Journal, 54(5), 904–937. DOI: 10.3102/0002831217710423

Kavanagh, S. S. (2017). Practicing social justice: Towards a practice-based approach to learning to teach for social justice. In R. Brandenburg, K. Glasswell, M. Jones, & J. Ryan (Eds.), Reflective theories in teacher education practice: Process, impact, and enactment. New York, NY: Springer.

Kavanagh, S. S. (2016). The promise of anonymity: Investigating the instructional practice of ELA teachers who teach LGBTQ content. Teachers College Record, 118(12), 1–36.

Kavanagh, S. S. (2016). From contagious to resilient and beyond: A periodization of educational research on LGBTQ issues from Stonewall to today. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 18(3), 95–113.

McDonald, M., Kazemi, E., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2013). Core practices and pedagogies of teacher education: A call for a common language and collective activity. Journal of Teacher Education, 64, 378–386.

Kavanagh, S. S. (2012). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in K-12 education. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The encyclopedia of diversity in education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Kavanagh, S. S. (2012). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students: Conceptual approaches in research literature. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The encyclopedia of diversity in education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

McDonald, M., Brayko, K., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2012). Service-learning in teacher education. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), The encyclopedia of diversity in education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Kavanagh, S. S. (2011). Haunting remains: Educating a new American citizenry at Indian Hill Cemetery. In C. E. Boyd, & C. Thrush (Eds.), Phantom past, Indigenous presence: Native ghosts in North American culture and history. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

News & Media

Penn GSE News

Taking small steps towards project-based learning

In an op-ed in EdWeek, Penn GSE’s Dean Pam Grossman, Zachary Herrmann, and Sarah Schneider Kavanagh write that incorporating project-based learning is just like running: start a little at a time.

October 21, 2021

How school leaders can support project-based learning

Project-based learning could change the game for students this fall. Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Zachary Herrmann have some thoughts on what school leaders need to do to support it.

July 29, 2021

How can project-based learning prepare students for the 21st century?

In a new book, Penn GSE Dean Pam Grossman and GSE’s Zachary Herrmann, Sarah Schneider Kavanagh, and Christopher Pupik Dean say the approach can empower students to be engaged citizens and take on modern challenges.

June 22, 2021

Awards & Honors

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and a cross-institutional team of researchers have recently been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to conduct a research study investigating how teachers learn to support disciplinary argumentation when facilitating classroom discussions. Focusing on understanding how instructional tools influence how teachers make sense of their practice as discussion facilitators, the study will be conducted across five years as a collaboration between researchers at four institutions: The University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin, The University of Colorado, and The University of Washington.

Posted on January 19, 2018

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