Behind Our Research

Jan Bulgren

"Research and developments are based on the understanding that most students will be taught in large inclusive general education content classrooms. The problem is to reach all students, including those with learning disabilities and other needs AND to provide teachers with researched ways to do this."

What do you do at KUCRL?

I am a Research Professor at the KUCRL. Beginning with my dissertation research on the Content Mastery Routine, I have had the opportunity to continue developing a line of higher order reasoning Content Enhancement Routines. The goal of these routines is to help teachers as they guide students to collaboratively understand, analyze, evaluate and explain complex concepts and topics.

What projects are you currently working on?

I am currently engaged in research and development of technology supports for Content Enhancement Routines and associated graphics. One of these is funded by the National Science Foundation and the other by the Office of Special Education. These allow me to contribute to technology-supported teaching and learning as well as to continue to develop entire sets of Content Enhancement units – most recently in high school American History and Biology and in middle school science. This is being done in collaboration with CAST, Inc. using CORGI instructional technology.

What are your hopes as you look forward to the future of your work?

Future work always involves staying ahead of the curve in innovative research and development. In addition, future educational innovation must simultaneously respond to increasingly challenging higher performance standards and the need for technology supports.

Can you share one of the biggest challenges you have faced?

One of the biggest challenges is to continue to acquire funding to support growing needs in our nation’s schools. Another challenge is to bring together several research strands at the KUCRL. I see diverse lines of research at the KUCRL as valuable in and of themselves but also holding the promise to come together to develop even more powerful instructional procedures that will help all students learn.

What's an interesting, little-known fact about you?

My first two degrees were in English literature from the University of Iowa. That explains how Shakespeare and Mark Twain find their way into sample Content Enhancement graphics. This background provided insights for many of my subsequent projects. I have since worked in areas such as science, history and mathematics as well as literature. Recognizing common reasoning patterns across subjects allows teachers to build foundational reasoning skills and to support generalization of reasoning across content areas.