Barbara Rogoff, a leading developmental psychologist, will deliver the annual faculty research lecture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Thursday, February 5, at 8 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Rogoff, whose talk is entitled "Learning through Intent Participation in Cultural Activity," has spent more than 25 years exploring how children learn. Her work has helped illuminate the extent to which notions of human development are culturally defined.
Rogoff conducts research on the ways that children learn through their engagement in everyday activities with their family and friends. She specializes in cultural aspects of child development, and she has a particular interest in exploring cultural variation in the roles of adults as guides, or instructors, in shared problem solving. Her latest books are The Cultural Nature of Human Development and Learning Together: Children and Adults in a School Community.
Rogoff was selected to deliver the annual faculty research lecture by a committee of the UCSC Academic Senate, which voted unanimously to recommend her for the honor. In their recommendation, the committee described Rogoff as "amazingly productive in her research and writing" and said her books and articles have had a "major impact."
Rogoff joined the UCSC faculty in 1992 after serving on the faculty at the University of Utah. She was named UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology in 1995, and last year received one of the university's top honors for faculty when she was named holder of a UC Presidential Chair in Psychology for the years 2003-2006. An accomplished teacher, she received a UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award in 1999-2000.
Rogoff has been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a Kellogg Fellow, and an Osher Fellow of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. She has been the editor of Human Development, received the Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association for her book, Apprenticeship in Thinking, and coauthored the National Academy of Sciences book, How People Learn. A popular speaker, she is often invited to give talks at other universities and at professional meetings around the world.
