Education Research and Practice Opportunities

Our goal is building deep partnerships and inclusive communities that blend research and practice. We strive to disrupt educational inequity by engaging in new intersectional approaches to transform education for a diverse society. Students can do research with EDS faculty for academic credit (EDS 199). There are great ways to work with EDS faculty members who can provide guidance and mentorship while conducting educational research.

For information about our Research Assistantship opportunities, check out our current opportunities below. Eligibility requirements and more details on these opportunities can be found on the Research Experience & Applied Learning (REAL) portal at real.ucsd.edu.

Request Enrollment in Special Studies Classes i.e. EDS 199.

ClassInSight- Undergraduate Researcher Studying Teacher Reflection

Undergraduate Researcher Position:

Our ClassInSight research team is developing and studying an application that can be used to support teacher reflection and learning. This application provides visualizations of classroom data to teachers that can help them to reflect on their facilitation of rich scientific discussion in middle and high school classrooms. Making sense of these visualizations (representations of open and close-ended questions, student and teacher dialogue, and more), teachers refine their teaching and consider how to best prepare students to construct explanations and design solutions and engage in argument from evidence. Overall, teachers use the app to reflect, learn more about strategies for facilitating science discussions, and plan future lessons with these strategies in mind. This year, we are using teacher voices and feedback to shape the design of the application described above. We are looking for passionate, curious, and organized undergraduate collaborators to contribute to this effort. Our undergraduate researchers will be essential in the effort to collect, process, and analyze the data we collect this year (classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and focus group sessions). This project is led by PI Dr. Sherice Clarke. As a team member, you will be a part of our lab and will have access to lab meetings and mentorship that will connect you with a wonderful network of other undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and senior researchers. Check out Dr. Clarke’s website for more information.

Partners at Learning (PAL)- Mentor & Tutor San Diego Youth

The PAL program, part of the Department of Education Studies, is UC San Diego's largest service-learning program. PAL provides opportunities for UC San Diego undergraduates to work with underserved P-12 students and schools while earning upper-division course credit and fulfilling graduation requirements. If you are thinking about being a teacher or pursuing a career in education, PAL courses are a great way to gain classroom experience and fulfill course requirements for the EDS major and minor.

PAL currently has 2 research opportunities for undergraduates.

1. EDS 140/141: Students who have taken an introductory PAL class qualify to enroll in EDS 140/141, a two quarter action research sequence that allows students to develop a research question, collect data at their field site, and present findings at numerous venues. The 2-course sequence is offered beginning every winter term.

Contact: Luz Chung (lmchung@ucsd.edu)

2. La Colonia de Eden Gardens: Work with an after school program and other community-based projects at La Colonia de Eden Gardens. This research is part of UC Links.

Contact: Amy Bintliff (ablintliff@ucsd.edu) or Caren Holtzman (choltzman@ucsd.edu)

Additional UC San Diego Student Research Opportunities

McNair Program: Learn about UC San Diego's McNair Program, which helps low-income, first-generation college students prepare for doctoral study.

Faculty Mentorship Program (FMP)

The Faculty Mentor Program (FMP) offers invaluable research experience to all juniors and seniors with a minimum Grade Point Average of 2.7 who would like to prepare for graduate or professional school.

Program benefits

The Faculty Mentor Program is an excellent way to

Build a professional relationship with a UC San Diego faculty mentor
Prepare for graduate and professional school
Acquire research skills, including writing and presenting a scholarly paper

Whether you continue on to graduate school or begin a career upon graduation, FMP is an excellent way to build lasting academic and professional relationships and develop research skills.