Andrew Phuong

Andrew Estrada Phuong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He earned a Master's degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Phuong studies what makes great teaching transformational. He uses rigorous research methods—including randomized controlled trials, multilevel regression modeling, and advanced qualitative techniques—to study how evidence-based teaching practices and professional development strategies improve student learning. His work focuses on how adaptive teaching, advising practices, and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, can support student engagement, sense of self efficacy, and success across college settings.

Prior to UC San Diego, he taught pedagogy courses and led campus-wide professional development programs at UC Berkeley. This work, informed by his research, has been recognized by multiple awards including the Teaching Effectiveness Award (2021), the Outstanding Peer Advisor, Mentor, Counselor, or Ambassador Award (2021), the Service to the Advising and Student Services Community Award (2022), the 2023 Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Team Award, and the Advising Innovation Award (2024) at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Phuong’s research spans multiple disciplines including STEM (e.g., Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics), the Humanities, and the Social Sciences. Committed to organizational transformation, he leverages multilevel modeling and qualitative research to explain how professional development innovations increase the adoption of evidence-based practices. In over a dozen college STEM courses, his research has demonstrated that adaptive professional development can enhance teaching effectiveness, which positively impacts students’ success at scale.  

He has consulted for a wide range of educational professionals—faculty, staff, advisors, and leaders—and has worked to improve assessment practices, increase student achievement, and support the success of instructors, counselors, advisors, and managers. Phuong was a recipient of a Chancellor’s Fellowship at UC Berkeley, a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and multiple grants from organizations such as the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. His work has also been featured in Times Higher Education, and he earned the 2024 Robert J. Menges New Researcher Award from the American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Faculty Teaching, Evaluation, and Development SIG.

At UC San Diego, Dr. Phuong teaches undergraduate and graduate courses that cover topics such as research design, introductory and advanced quantitative methods, measurement and assessment methods, organizational change and leadership, learning sciences, coaching, counseling, advising, design-based research, and professional development. He also collaborates with cross-campus partners to develop interdisciplinary curriculum and support student success.

For fun, Phuong embarks on food excursions, travel, and raps with a T. Rex he built!