![[Person photo]](https://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/people/images/crowley_k.jpg)
Office: 822 LRDC
Phone: (412) 624-8116
Kevin Crowley
Associate Dean, University of Pittsburgh School of Education
Professor, Learning Sciences and Policy, School of Education
Director, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE)
Senior Scientist, Learning Research & Development Center
Research Interests
I am director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), which is a project of the Learning Research and Development Center and the School of Education. UPCLOSE conceptualizes, develops, and studies informal learning experiences. Our work explores what it means to learn and change as a result of activity in everyday environments including museums, commercial and community settings, on the web, and at home. We connect academic theory and real world practice. Our research focuses on relationships between learners, mediators, and environments, and experiences.
Knutson, K., Okada, T., & Crowley, K. (Eds.). (2020). Multidisciplinary approaches to art learning and creativity: Fostering artistic exploration in formal and informal settings. Routledge.
Knutson, K., Okada, T., & Crowley, K. (Eds.). (2020). Multidisciplinary approaches to art learning and creativity: Fostering artistic exploration in formal and informal settings. Routledge.
Schunn, C. D., & Crowley, K. (2019). Falling in love and staying in love with science: Ongoing informal science experiences support fascination for all children. International Journal of Science Education, (12), 1626-1643.
Akiva, T., Russell, J., Hecht, M., & Crowley, K. (2018). Leadership in out-of-school learning: The educational doctorate program at the University of Pittsburgh. International Journal for Research on Extended Education.
Russell, J. L., Kehoe, S., & Crowley, K. (2017). Linking in and out-of-school learning. In K. Peppler (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Out-of-School Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Allen, L. B. & Crowley, K. (2017). From acquisition to inquiry: Supporting informal educators through iterative implementation of practice. In P. Patrick (Ed), Preparing Informal Educators. New York: Springer.
Allen, L. B. & Crowley, K. (2017). Knowledge is not enough: A learning ecologies approach to climate change education. International Journal of Global Warming.
Allen, L. B. & Crowley, K. (2017). Moving beyond scientific knowledge: Leveraging participation, relevance, and interconnectedness for climate education. International Journal of Global Warming.
Crowley, K., Dorph, R., & Schunn, C. (2017). Crumpled molecules and edible plastic: Science learning activation in out-of-school time. Afterschool Matters, 25, 22-28.
Eberbach, C.E. & Crowley, K. (2017). From seeing to observing: How parents and children learn to see science in a botanical garden. Journal of the Learning Sciences.
Louw, M., Barbuto, N., & Crowley, K. (2017). Designing learning pathways in a complex learning ecology: A research practice partnership focused on parent brokering. In B. DiSalvo, J. Yip, E. Bonsignore, & C. DiSalvo (Eds.), Participatory design for learning: perspectives from research and practice. (pp. 93-112). New York, NY: Routledge.
Russell, J. L., Kehoe, S., & Crowley, K. (2017). Linking in and out-of-school learning. In K. Peppler (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Out-of-School Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Stein, M.K., Crowley, K., & Resnick, L.B. (2016). Education policy and the learning sciences: The case for a new alliance. In M. Evans, M. Packer, & K. Sawyer (Eds.), Reflections on the Learning Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2016). Collaborating across the university/informal boundary: Broader impacts through informal science education. In L. Avraamidou & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), Intersections of formal and informal science. New York, NY: Routledge.
Brahms, L. & Crowley, K. (2016). Making in the museum: Launching a learning trajectory in an informal setting. In K. Pepler, E. Halverson, & Y. Kafai (Eds).Makeology in K-12, Higher, and Informal Education: The Maker Movement and the Future of Learning. Routledge.
Brahms, L. & Crowley, K. (2016). Making sense of making: Defining learning practices in MAKE Magazine. In K. Peppler, E. Rosenfeld Halverson, & Y. B. Kafai (Eds), Makeology: Makers as learners. New York: Routledge.
Brahms, L. & Crowley, K. (2016). Learning to make in the museum: The role of maker educators. In K. Pepler, E. Halverson, & Y. Kafai (Eds.), Makeology: Makerspaces as learning environments. New York: Routledge.
Knutson, K, Lyon, M., Crowley, K., & Giarratani, L. (2016). Flexible interventions to increase family engagement at natural history museum dioramas. Curator: The Museum Journal, 59(4), 339-352.
Knutson, K. & Crowley, K. (2016). Learning in art museums: Creating and responding to art. In K. Nakakoji, H. Shindo, Y. Yamamoto, & T. Okada (Eds.), Museums that inspire: In search of new possibilities for public cultural spaces. Kyoto: Airi Shuppan. [in Japanese]
Tison Povis, K. & Crowley, K. (2015). Family learning in object-based museums: The role of joint attention. Visitor Studies. 18(2), 168-182.
Crowley, K., Barron, B. J., Knutson, K., & Martin, C. (2015). Interest and the development of pathways to science. In Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning and Related Activity. In K. A. Renninger, M. Nieswandt, and S. Hidi (Eds.). Washington DC: AERA.
Allen, L. B., & Crowley, K. (2014). Challenging beliefs, practices and content: How museum educators change. Science Education, 98(1), 84-105.
Allen, L. & Crowley, K. (2014). How museum educators change: Changing notions of learning through changing practice. Science Education, 98(1), 84-105.
Crowley, K., Pierroux, P., & Knutson, K. (2014). The museum as learning environment. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Handbook of the Learning Sciences, 2nd Edition.
Snyder, S., Hoffstadt, R. M., Allen, L., Crowley, K., Bader, D., & Horton, R. (2014). City-wide collaborations for urban climate education. In Hamilton, P. (Ed.), Future Earth: Advancing Civic Understanding of the Anthropocene, Geophysical Monograph Series, Vol. 197, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.
Pittwire article "Research Team Sparks Community Conversation about Climate Change, "features the community outreach of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE) Director Kevin Crowley, Associate Director Karen Knutson, research associate Mary Ann Steiner, and undergrad anthropology team member Sean Barill.
March 2, 2020
The Philadelphia-based William Penn Foundation has awarded nearly $1.6 million to renew the Informal Learning Initiative, a two-year collaboration of organizations that includes the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE).
September 4, 2019
The Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE) involvement in Museum Lab was mentioned in the September 21 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Innovative Museum Lab Aims to Put New Twist on Education.”
September 21, 2018
Kevin Crowley, Karen Knutson, and their collaborators at the Carnegie Museum of have been awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation for their project " The 21st Century Naturalist: A Research-practice Collaboration for Informal Science Education." The grant will expand their joint work on bringing museum resources to the public in informal learning environments and develop new nature-based learning opportunities.
February 2016
UPCLOSE Director Kevin Crowley and CMU Learning Media Design Center Director Marti Louw are co-PIs on a National Science Foundation funded project. This project, "Learning to See, Seeing to Learn: A Sociotechnical System Supporting Taxonomic Identification Activities in Volunteer-Based Water Quality Biomonitoring," is under the direction of Marti Louw. The project will develop and study a cyber-enhanced informal learning environment to improve observational practices and classification skills among citizen scientists.
September 2, 2015
UPCLOSE, MAKEHSOP, and Drew Davidson
February 17, 2013
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Kevin Crowley and His Partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History were Published
January 16, 2013
Nature
Kevin Crowley and Chris Schunn's Science Activation Lab was the inspiration for a Spark Strategy Session sponsored by the Sprout Fund on July 26th.
July 26, 2012
Popcity
Science Learning Outside the Classroom article interviews LRDC faculty member Kevin Crowley
April 6, 2011
Education Week Special Report
Science for Life article discusses Kevin Crowley's role in the revitalization of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Spring 2011
Carnegie Magazine
Carnegie Museum of Natural History Launches Center for Lifelong Science Learning with Grant from PNC Foundation
November 17, 2010
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
PNC Foundation, Carnegie Museum plan new science center
November 17, 2010
University Times
William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow
2010-2012
Visiting Professor
2006
Nagoya University
Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award
2005
Association of Science and Technology Centers
MetLife Promising Practice Award
2004
Association of Children's Museums
Visiting Professor
2003
Nagoya University School of Education
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Visiting Fellow
1996
Nagoya University
American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award
1993
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Undergraduate Fellowship
1989