Nicole McNeil, ACE Professor of Psychology and Director of Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS), presents on her ongoing research at the University of Notre Dame to to an interdisciplinary group of scholars, artists, and scientists comprised of fellows, guest faculty and students.
 

Professor McNeil studies cognitive development, with a primary focus on how children think, learn, and solve problems in the domain of mathematics. This work encompasses several interrelated areas such as numerical representation, symbolic reasoning, concept construction, skill acquisition, and problem solving. She asks questions like “What do children understand about math before they start learning it in school?” “How does children’s understanding of math change as the result of different environments?” “How does existing knowledge affect learning of new information?” and “How do children construct new problem-solving strategies”?
 

Her research is funded by grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is interested in theoretical issues related to the construction and organization of knowledge, as well as practical issues related to learning and instruction.