Asli Sezen-Barrie
Associate Professor of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction
Faculty Member of the RiSE Center
331 Shibles Hall
207.581.2413
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Dr. Sezen-Barrie is an Associate Professor of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction at the University of Maine. Currently, her research interests have an overarching goal of improving science teacher education towards ambitious equitable classroom practices. The research program she developed during her early career years has two lines. The first line involves using the discourse analysis method to look at sociocultural dynamics of learning and teaching practice. Drawn from the fields of sociolinguistics, epistemology and climate change education research, Dr. Sezen-Barrie examines students’ and teachers’ construction of and learning from evidence-based explanations on climate change topics. The second line of research lies at the intersection of anthropology and learning progression studies. She uses the concept of “professional vision” while developing a sustainable support system to improve preservice and novice teachers’ teaching of climate science and effectively assess students’ learning in a meaningful progression. Previously, Dr. Sezen-Barrie was involved in projects to develop a framework for analyzing preservice teachers’ learning to teach science and an extensive international review of learning progression studies.
Prior to her career at University of Maine, Dr. Sezen-Barrie was a faculty member at Towson University where she led a middle school science major and a two-state wide NSF project on climate change. She earned her Ph.D. in Science Education at Penn State University where she worked with local middle school teachers in developing a model of informal formative assessments. Asli’s K-12 teaching experience includes teaching science and math at international middle schools (Istanbul, Turkey), coordinating educational activities for secondary schools at a botanic garden (Istanbul, Turkey & Oxford, England) and teaching elementary and middle school students at Science-U summer camp (State College, PA).
