Lee Branum-Martin
Associate Professor Psychology- Biography
I am interested in issues in psychological and educational measurement, especially those applied to language and literacy. I pursue this interest in three main ways in my research.
First, I am interested in empirically testing theory. If our ideas about psychology, the brain, and education have validity, we should be able to find measurable evidence of those theories. Such tests are most informative when we can weigh evidence of competing theories against each other to see which theories best describe what we observe.
Second, most phenomena in education and psychology occur over time and within a social context. For example, we may observe multiple tests per child, or multiple children per classroom. I am interested in multilevel statistical models to disentangle social and contextual effects from the typical level of observation. Often, this can entail different types of measurement and theory at each level, such as those for individual learning versus those for instructional or social groups.
Third, I am interested in language and literacy. My particular interest is in bilingualism and second language learning, where we might expect interesting and potentially complex patterns of skills across languages. These patterns can be suggestive for improving instruction and student learning.
- Publications
For more details, please see my Academia and Google Scholar pages.