Dr. Dana Vedder-Weiss
Lecturer
Department of Education
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Dr. Dana Vedder-Weiss was selected to receive the NARST 2020 Early Career Research Award (ECRA). This honor recognizes Dr. Dana Vedder-Weiss professional accomplishments as the most significant among other researchers nominated for the ECRA this year.

Dr. Vedder-Weiss’s research is based on the premise that learning takes place throughout one's entire life-course, in a broad array of contexts and interactions, including those that are not specifically designed for learning. She draws on the notion that learning is a multidimensional process, entailing cognitive, social and affective dimensions, and unfolding in a socio-cultural context. Her innovative research agenda is approached through three inter-related lines of research: adolescents' motivation for science learning in and out of school, science learning in informal environments, and teacher informal on-the-job training. Dr. Vedder- Weiss’s research is characterized by an ever-expanding and novel suite of qualitative research methodologies including self-ethnography and linguistic ethnographic microanalysis, and her work has made a significant scholarly impact in the field in the areas of motivation toward science learning and informal learning.