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April 2010 > Faculty > Honors
Pearson, Saxe Earn Top Education Research Awards
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) presented its highest presidential honor, the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award, to UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education (GSE) Dean and Professor P. David Pearson; while longtime GSE Professor Geoffrey Saxe was honored for Significant Contributions to Educational Research, at AERA's 91st annual meeting in Denver on May 2.
The Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award, given to Pearson, honors a meritorious contributor to education research and is intended to "publicize, motivate, enourage and suggest models of education research at its best." Pearson was honored for his extraordinary contributions to reading theory, research, practice and policy for the past 41 years. The program noted: "Although there are few areas of reading research that Pearson has not influenced, he is probably best known for his groundbreaking work in the area of of reading comprehension and reading assessment. His early work on children's comprehension processes and comprehension instruction persuaded a generation of educators and future researchers that comprehension could and should be taught, not simply tested. He continues to push on comprehension issues today as he works on improving reading instruction in high-poverty schools and text-based learning in science. Pearson has brought new models of reading comprehension assessment to large-scale and classroom-based settings that have changed conceptions of what matters in reading, placing him squarely in the center of some of the most influential and difficult policy discussions of our time.”
Upon accepting the award from University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Robert Linn, Pearson told the AERA audience: "This is a moment of many emotions: pride, humility, honor and gratitude. I am proud of the commitment to teaching and learning that has always driven my work. I am humbled by the vexing problems we address, and knowing that what I do is but a small part of the greater effort that all of you share with me — to understand and improve the quality of teaching, learning and life for our children."
Saxe was recognized “for his unique and important contributions to the study of cognition and culture. Saxe’s research is foundational to the study of how human learning is shaped by participation in routine cultural practices. His contributions have been conceptual, methodological and substantive. Methodologically, his designs for studying how people come to construct new knowledge and goals through the social organization of settings are classic. Conceptually, his research across cultures and contexts on everyday cognition has been groundbreaking.”
Besides Pearson and Saxe garnering two of AERA's four presidential citations, GSE faculty members Alan Schoenfeld and Zeus Leonardo received AERA awards for their outstanding contributions as reviewers for the journal Review of Educational Research. Leonardo was also recognized for "Interdisciplinary Analysis" by the SIG, "Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender." The Outstanding Research Publication award for Division I, Education in the Professions, was given to GSE alumna Bridget O'Brien, now an assistant professor in the medical education group at UCSF.
The American Educational Research Association is the national interdisciplinary research association for approximately 25,000 scholars who undertake research in education. Founded in 1916, AERA aims to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.
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