Jason Chen

Jason Chen is a professor of educational psychology at William & Mary’s School of Education. The questions that drive his research have to do with the variety of ways that innovative technologies can be used as a tool for motivation, engagement and learning. Rather than assuming that technology is inherently motivating for students (it's not!), Jason is interested in understanding how to design learning environments (especially digital ones) to direct people’s motivation toward difficult tasks such as scientific inquiry or advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion.

A couple years ago, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Jason and his multidisciplinary team of geoscientists, social scientists, theatre professionals and technologists created a program (called GeoDES) that involved the use of innovative mixed-reality simulations designed to help university faculty practice advocating for more diverse, equitable and inclusive departments. Now a new NSF planning grant will help him and his team further this work. The outcome of this planning grant is to link GeoDES and four other pilot projects together so that they can submit a grant proposal to the NSF for a large five-year project that builds and leverages infrastructure for making significant progress on a national scale regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sciences.  

Learn more about Professor Chen

• Read this news story about the grant he secured to form the JEDI Alliance.
• Watch a video about his work to disrupt prejudicial structures in the sciences and beyond.
• Read about the grant he obtained to research diversity leadership in geosciences.