JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS:
The Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education in the College of Education and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University invite applications for an open rank, tenure-track position with primary responsibilities in teaching and research in the Educational Psychology program. The science of learning, teaching, and assessment is at the core of Educational Psychology at Penn State. Students in our graduate program explore how people learn across the lifespan and ways that learning and teaching interconnect and reciprocally influence each other in formal and informal educational settings. Faculty members conduct research in their area of expertise and provide support to graduate degree programs in Educational Psychology and other programs.
Penn State is committed to and accountable for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion with an emphasis on structurally contingent identities such as race/ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, and national origin. We foster a culture of inclusion that supports both broad and specific diversity initiatives, leverage the educational and institutional benefits of diversity, and engage all individuals to help them thrive. We value inclusion as a core strength and an essential element of our public service mission. Therefore, we are seeking candidates whose research, teaching, and service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in higher education.
Appointment Conditions
This position is a tenure track, 36-week faculty appointment in the Educational Psychology program with the possibility of supplemental summer appointments in research and/or teaching. This position is co-funded by the College of Education and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more. The College of Education at Penn State is committed to supporting the work-life balance of its faculty members. Penn State has a strong commitment to the diversity of its workforce and we encourage applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds.
Responsibilities
The successful candidate will: have an active program of research; be responsible for teaching residential and online undergraduate and graduate courses; advise master’s and doctoral students; and provide service to the Department, College, University, and professional organizations or other external agencies.
Required Qualifications
Candidates must have an earned doctorate in Educational Psychology, Learning Sciences, Applied Cognitive or Developmental Science, or a closely related field. Candidates who have completed all doctoral work but have not yet defended their dissertation at the time of the application will also be considered, although candidates must have completed their degree by the time of hire.
Candidates must also demonstrate a commitment to a significant program of research that has the potential to secure external funding, commensurate with experience.
Candidates must provide evidence of the potential for excellence in teaching and advising, commensurate with experience.
Candidates must show potential to work with underserved and/or underrepresented populations.
We seek a candidate with advanced methodological expertise, working at the intersection of (a) large-scale educational data analysis and (b) the development of learning and educational interventions. Examples of areas of methodological expertise may include, but are not limited to, learning analytics, personalized learning, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), natural language processing, social network analysis, or intelligent tutoring. Expertise in High Performance Computing (HPC) is a plus. This list of examples is not exhaustive; other suitably innovative methods for analyzing large datasets in the service of improving learning and instruction will be considered. In addition to methodological expertise, a theory-driven focus on learning and an interest in or evidence of the application of these methods to the design of educational interventions or digital tools is required of the position.
As an ICDS co-hire, the successful candidate is expected to engage in interdisciplinary research that relies substantially on some combination of big data, simulations, machine learning, and related methodologies, as applied to the development, implementation, and evaluation of educational intervention. Further information on the institute and its co-hires can be found: http://icds.psu.edu.
Desirable Qualifications
An established record of publication or the promise of such a record of publication
Evidence of engagement in theoretically-driven research aimed at the development of interventions to support education and improve learning outcomes
Evidence of excellence in teaching courses on campus and online at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Educational Psychology or a related field (e.g., quantitative research methods, implementation science, or learning theories)
An established record of receiving competitive grants or the promise of such record of receiving competitive grants to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of educational interventions
The ability to advise master’s and doctoral graduate students
Commitment to providing service to the Department, College, University, and professional organizations or other external agencies
Those interested will find more details—as well as application instructions—at the full position announcement, here.