About

Dr. June Ahn leads the Design and Partnership Lab (daplab) at UC Irvine, a design research group focused on co-designing learning innovations that address community needs and generate new knowledge about creating equitable learning systems. The lab employs design-based methods to collaboratively create technology, curricula, social programs, and strategic initiatives with a diverse range of partners including students, teachers, families, and school districts. Their work centers on producing knowledge and tools that reimagine and facilitate learning for both children and adults. Dr. Ahn and her team emphasize the importance of partnerships, leveraging community collaboration to translate future visions into strategic plans for implementation and continuous improvement. Equity is a core value in their work, as they build from the histories and assets of community partners to develop culturally sustaining solutions that originate from within the community.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Computer Security
• Data science
• Psychology
• Medicine
• Medical education
• Knowledge management
• Mathematics education
• Internet privacy
• Botany
• Management science
• Social psychology
• Geography
• Pedagogy
• Biology
• Applied psychology
• Socioeconomics
• Human–computer interaction
• World Wide Web
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Teacher development with learning analytics: a design narrative

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2026-05-07

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing Flexible Transfer of Fractions: The Role of Sequential and Simultaneous Games With Multiple Representations

  Cognitive Science · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  We codesigned and evaluated a brief intervention combining two fraction games: Fraction Ball (played on a basketball court) and Bottle Caps Bonanza (played on a tabletop shuffleboard). Using participatory design principles, we engaged teachers and students in codesigning playful learning experiences aimed at improving knowledge transfer and adding fractions with unlike denominators. Students were randomly assigned within seven treatment classrooms to practice fractions with different denominators on one board simultaneously (N = 87) versus practicing on separate boards sequentially (N = 79). Three comparison classrooms (N = 75) only took the pretest and posttest. Our preregistered models suggested significant impacts on multiple aspects of fraction knowledge, including far transfer and overall fraction knowledge, when comparing both treatment groups to the comparison group. The simultaneous condition performed higher on untimed fraction addition with unequal denominators, though this difference was not statistically significant (b = 0.21, p = .05). Furthermore, students with higher prior knowledge benefited more from the simultaneous condition. We conclude that this playful and accessible intervention can effectively improve students' fraction knowledge.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Leveraging community science to encourage a more inclusive and culturally representative developmental science

  British Journal of Developmental Psychology · 2026-03-10

  article

  The field of developmental science is increasingly interested in conducting research that is more representative, equitable, inclusive and generalizable. One way to achieve these aims is to conduct research that positions communities as key collaborators and central contributors to our scientific inquiries. These principles are evident in community science approaches like community-based participatory research (CBPR) and participatory action research (PAR). We argue that CBPR and PAR can be implemented by developmental scientists. Here, we describe two initiatives that utilized CBPR and PAR. The first initiative is Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL). PLL embeds research from the learning sciences into public spaces to offer playful learning opportunities for children and families, and community science practices are leveraged throughout the process. The second initiative is the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance (GERA). GERA harnesses the tools of community science by working directly with communities in the fragile environment of Galápagos to gather data about ecosystem health and build community-based plans for climate change adaptation. Together, these two initiatives offer rich examples of how CBPR and PAR principles engender active participation from the community throughout the design and evaluation of a research project. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of using community-centred approaches.

  PublisherDOI

• From Accommodation to Inclusive Play: A Culturally Sustaining Design Approach to Play and Learning

  Proceedings. · 2025-06-10

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This project moves beyond accommodation for individuals with disabilities toward true inclusion in learning spaces.In collaboration with a community organization and public school district, we employed participatory design to transform playgrounds into inclusive computational thinking environments for kindergarteners.We shifted from accommodationfocused design to centering the experiences of learners with disabilities.These vignettes highlight how culturally sustaining design can empower marginalized communities, extend design paradigms, and create equitable educational environments that serve all children through inclusive play.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mapping Organizational Infrastructure: Semiotic Cluster Analysis in a School District Change Initiative

  Proceedings. · 2025-06-10

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Designing for organizational change has become an increasingly important goal in the learning sciences.To do so, we must develop processes that highlight organizational infrastructures that inform both research and design.In this paper, we share our experience conducting semiotic cluster analysis to map organizational infrastructures within a research practice partnership.We describe how semiotic analysis attuned us to relationships that speak to organizational factors influencing the objectives of our RPP.Then, we share our process for generating design conjectures that attend to the organizational infrastructure identified through semiotic analysis.Our work provides an example of tracing surface level observations to core organizational needs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 'How Did We Miss It?': Examining the Infrastructural Work of Practitioners Supporting Housing Insecure and Foster Youth Students

  Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · 2025-10-16 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Youth experiencing housing insecurity or living in foster care have complex social, emotional, and material needs. While policies and structures exist to support these youth, intra- and interorganizational challenges pose barriers to effective collaboration. In contrast to prior work that focuses on the collaborative practices of individual stakeholders, this study draws on the insights of practitioners in different roles and organizations within the same county. Through 12 in-depth interviews with practitioners working across the system, we identify the key activities and infrastructural work performed by practitioners to support housing insecure and foster youth in light of social, technical, and institutional constraints. Based on our findings, we shed light on stigma management at an organizational level and the role of human infrastructure in responding to time-sensitive needs in highly institutionalized contexts.

  PublisherDOI

• What ”Exactly” Describes Planning in a Math Game-Based Assessment? Introducing Fraction Ball: Exactly

  Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The digital assessment community aims to align assessment design and measurement selection with theory, but many digital assessments fail to establish these theoretical links. In this paper, we introduce Fraction Ball: Exactly (FBE), a digital game-based assessment for planning in a mathematics problem-solving context. Using gameplay learning analytics, we create distinct measurement models for adult and child players. We demonstrate convergent validity of FBE both with the Shallice Tower of London and with mathematical knowledge. We share our approaches to theoretically ground our assessment design, measure selection, and measurement model validation. By theoretically grounding each process, we outline ways in which digital assessment developers can integrate educational theory with assessment design and validation and theorize for themselves.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sustaining Latine Families’ Cultural Values Through Technology Mediation Practices

  Journal of Latinos and Education · 2025-01-07 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Supporting Occupational Identity Development through AI-Assisted Self-Reflection and Mentor Interactions

  Proceedings. · 2024-06-10

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  To support learners in developing career-related identities, we must attend to both their imagined selves in the field and their evolving knowledge of prospective careers.In this study, we designed an educational tool that leverages large language models (LLMs) called Careergram, a career identity reflection tool that prompts students to reflect on their evolving occupational identities and seek out support from their mentors.We piloted the tool in an undergraduate educational data science research fellowship program.Using a lens of identity development, we analyze how this tool was taken up and used by three learners, who represented different profiles of occupational identity development.Through rich descriptions of each participant, we identify different ways that learners utilize Careergram to facilitate conversations with their mentors, and shed light on learning processes that can support learners' development of career-related identities. Occupational identity development and the hidden curriculum of careersWe conceptualize occupational identity development as a deeply cultural process that occurs along domainspecific learning pathways.When learners decide which careers to pursue, they experiment with and eventually

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Utility of Designing Data Science Education Programs from a Framework of Identity

  2024-04-08

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The world of big data is transforming all industries, and this situation presents unique opportunities for academic disciplines to incorporate data science as part of their programmatic activities. While there has been an increase in data science programs across the country, training that emphasizes technical skills without considering student diversity may inadvertently perpetuate systems of inequality. In the following chapter, we propose to also understand data science learners through a lens of occupational identity to help students see themselves as data scientists and understand the multifaceted nature of deciding to pursue the field. We outline some key aspects of occupational identity development including: self-positioning, competency beliefs, social capital, and understanding the navigational pathways of data science careers. Finally, we discuss some early insights from an undergraduate fellowship focused on training diverse students in learning analytics and educational data science. Based on qualitative interviews, we highlight how an identity lens can help data science education researchers understand diverse learner experiences more deeply, and also help educational program designers to consider how to create opportunities for students to develop their sense of self, build their social capital, and make complex decisions about their pathways in data science.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Improving the Implementation of Rigorous Instructional Materials in Middle Grades Mathematics: Developing a System of Practical Measures and Routines

  NSF · $335k · 2016–2019

• Collaborative Research: Improving the Implementation of Rigorous Instructional Materials in Middle Grades Mathematics: Developing a System of Practical Measures and Routines

  NSF · $447k · 2018–2021

• EXP: Developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math ( STEM) Identities through Participation in Science-Infused Media and Virtual Peer Networks

  NSF · $550k · 2011–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Jason Yip

  30 shared

• Elizabeth Bonsignore

  University of Maryland, College Park

  28 shared

• Tamara Clegg

  University of Maryland, College Park

  23 shared

• Daniel Pauw

  15 shared

• Michael Gubbels

  11 shared

• Andres S. Bustamante

  University of California, Irvine

  11 shared

• Mega Subramaniam

  University of Maryland, College Park

  11 shared

• Allison Druin

  Pratt Institute

  11 shared

Education

• PhD Urban Education Policy, Rossier School of Education

  University of Southern California

  2010

• MA Computing and Education, Teachers College

  Columbia University

  2006

• AB Computers and Education

  Brown University

  2003