| Constance Steinkuehler | |
|---|---|
| Born | Constance Anne Steinkuehler |
| Fields | Education Game-based learning Literacy |
| Institutions | University of Wisconsin–Madison Office of Science and Technology Policy |
| Alma mater | University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Doctoral advisor | James Paul Gee |
| Known for | Game-based learning |
| Spouse | Kurt Squire |
Constance Steinkuehler currently holds a position as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. For this position she advises on national policy decisions relating to the impact of video games and also how play relates to learning.[1]
For the duration of her position with OSTP, Steinkuehler is on leave from her position as an Assistant Professor in the Digital Media program in the Curriculum & Instruction department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison[2]
Dr. Steinkuehler is a founding fellow of the Games+Learning+Society Initiative and chairs the annual Games, Learning & Society Conference held each summer in Madison, Wisconsin[3]. In 2009, she served on the National Academy of Sciences committee on games. She was also in a pilot TV show called Brain Trust[4]. The show was piloted in 2008 and featured a team of thought leaders working collaboratively to solve seemingly unsolvable problems.
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Dr. Steinkuehler graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri with three bachelors degrees in Mathematics, English, and Religious Studies in 1993, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a MS degree in Educational Psychology in 2000, and with a Ph.D. in Literacy Studies in 2005, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral thesis was titled Cognition & Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Critical Approach. Her advisor was linguist and literacy scholar James Paul Gee. [5]
Steinkuehler runs a research lab with doctoral and undergraduate students, investigating forms of cognition and cultural practices as they relate to gameplay and learning. The group focuses largely on online game communities and fandoms. They take a sociocultural approach to their research, using mixed methods, including ethnographic work and experimental research.[6]
Steinkuehler ran a casual learning lab for at-risk adolescent boys from 2007-2009. The guys in the study, largely from rural areas, were considered to be disengaged from or failing in school, particularly in subjects related to literacy. The experiments in the lab focused on comparing game and school contexts in order to figure out how to leverage the boys’ interest in games toward productive literacy practices.[7]
In 2010 Dr. Steinkuehler received a $350,000 research grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Called Adolescent Online Games and Reading, the grant will enable Steinkuehler and her research team to investigate the nature, function, and quality of texts that are a regular part of online videogame play, how reading performance of adolescents on such game-related texts compares to performance on school-related texts, as well as the factors that contribute to such differences (e.g., prior knowledge, strategy, persistence, choice), and how game-related reading activities are situated within (or against) children’s everyday literacy networks across contexts, including both school and home. She has also received funding from the Spencer Foundation and worked with James Paul Gee on an additional project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, called "A Productive Approach To Learning & Media Literacy Through Videogames & Simulations." [8]
Steinkuehler is married to Dr. Kurt Squire. Squire is a Senior Investigator and Creative Director at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery[9] and is also a Professor in the Educational Communications and Technology division of the department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison[10]. Squire is also the Director of the Games, Learning & Society group.
Steinkuehler has acted as an author or editor on four different books and has contributed chapters to eight other book titles. Additionally, she has published more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals in areas ranging from cognition to education to technology. [11]
Some selected works can be found below: