Andrea Christensen: Education, Motivated.
From coffee ice cream and hoagies, submarines, or po’boys, to how designing instruction that optimizes motivation over memorization in the classroom also optimizes learning Dr. Andrea Christensen, the director of Education, Schooling and Society, shares why teaching her students is the privilege of her life and how we all have a role to play in affecting positive change in schools, as well as, celebrating punctuation marks, talking like a pirate, and wishing every day was National Literacy Day.
Experience the Episode
Presented by Institute for Educational Initiatives
Thursday, May 29, 2025 12:00 pm
From coffee ice cream and hoagies, submarines, or po’boys, to how designing instruction that optimizes motivation over memorization in the classroom also optimizes learning
Dr. Andrea Christensen, Director of Education, Schooling and Society, shares why teaching her students is the privilege of her life and how we all have a role to play in affecting positive change in schools, as well as, celebrating punctuation marks, talking like a pirate, and wishing every day was National Literacy Day.
MoreMeet the Faculty: Andrea Christensen '06, '09 MA, '12 Ph.D.
Andrea Christensen ’06, ’09 MA, ’12 Ph.D. is the director of Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS), and teaches core courses and electives for ESS and psychology. She is a former school teacher, who received her bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame in psychology, with a minor in ESS. Andrea received her Ph.D. in the department of psychology at Notre Dame under the direction of Julie Turner. While in graduate school, she was the recipient of one of Notre Dame’s prestigious Presidential Fellowships, and she received a Kaneb Center TA Award in recognition of her excellence in teaching. Andrea’s research concerns effective teacher instruction and classroom practices that support student motivation to learn. She is currently working on a project with Julie Turner investigating how teachers’ involvement in long-term, collaborative professional development focused on students’ motivation influences teacher change and subsequently students’ engagement. She has taught courses in both ESS and psychology, to wide acclaim, and she will also teach Development and Moral Education in Childhood and Adolescence for the ACE Teaching Fellows summer program.