About

Janet Carlson is an Associate Professor (Research) Emerita at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She was the faculty director of the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching (CSET) from 2013 to 2025. Her career in education began as a life and earth science teacher in rural and small towns. As she transitioned from classroom teaching to developing curriculum, facilitating professional learning, and conducting research, she maintained a focus on equity in science education. Her early work concentrated on gender equity, exploring why few female-identifying students pursued upper-level science courses and majors in college, with particular interest in teachers’ beliefs and actions regarding who can learn science, what constitutes learning science, and what it means to be a “good” science teacher. Over time, her focus broadened to address all students who are disserved in science education and the K-12 system more generally. Her current work in CSET centers on identifying and disrupting entrenched systems of oppression in K-12 education, especially as they manifest in classroom instruction. She is guided by the credo that “white silence is violence.” She is also a Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Education, with research interests including professional development, science education, and teachers and teaching.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Mathematics education
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Computer Science
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Research–Practice Partnerships and Video-based Learning

  2024-03-14 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter concerns research–practice partnerships as an approach to support longer and more significant uptake of instructional changes targeted in professional development for teachers. It starts off by outlining recent research that summarizes state-of-the-art on research–practice partnerships, before it goes on to outline the authors’ approach to research–practice partnerships in their own project, “A Research-Practice Partnership to Develop Math Professional Development Leaders and Build District Capacity”. The chapter explains two interconnected models used in that project that support the use of video: one for teacher learning and another for leadership development. The authors share how a thoughtful design of research–practice partnerships can contribute to build the capacity within the district to sustain the video-based professional learning models over time. They also discuss the benefits of a research–practice partnership from both a district perspective and a research perspective, before outlining some of the challenges encountered along the way in their project. The chapter concludes by discussing how working in partnership enhanced the role of video in their project.

  PublisherDOI

• High school mathematics teachers' noticing of inequitable talk

  Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education · 2023-03-05 · 5 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Teachers’ engagement with student mathematical agency and authority in school-based professional learning

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2022 · 7 citations

  • Sociology
  • Pedagogy
  • Mathematics education
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Learning to Lead: an Approach to Mathematics Teacher Leader Development

  International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education · 2021 · 42 citations

  • Political Science
  • Mathematics education
  • Pedagogy
  PublisherDOI

• Science Teacher Noticing via Video Annotation: Links between Complexity and Knowledge-Based Reasoning

  Journal of Science Teacher Education · 2021 · 16 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics education
  • Psychology

  This study adds to the construct of science teacher noticing through an analysis that integrates concepts from pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) frameworks. It examines 929 instances of science teacher noticing made via video annotation tools (VATs) over the course of 38 early-career, secondary science teachers’ participation in a two-year professional learning experience. This study asked specifically about: 1) interacting elements of a classroom (students, practice, content) teachers noticed in videos of their own practice, 2) patterns in knowledge-based reasoning evidenced in noticing, and 3) the role of content knowledge in such knowledge-based reasoning. Using mixed methods analysis, we found that the majority of annotations exhibited a singular focus (i.e. students, teacher practice, or content) and tended to focus on students and/or practice, with less attention to content. However, we also identified a statistically significant relationship between complexity of noticing (i.e. attention to multiple foci) and the presence of knowledge-based reasoning. Further qualitative analysis of the subset of annotations that attended to content suggested that such attention to content could be an important link within teacher noticing to connect practice to student thinking. This study highlights the value of scaffolding attention to content and to multiple foci within science teacher noticing. It also demonstrates the potential for VATs to facilitate noticing.

  PublisherDOI

• Teacher pedagogical content knowledge, practice, and student achievement^†

  Figshare · 2021-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  In this exploratory study, we attempted to measure potential changes in teacher knowledge and practice as a result of an intervention, as well as trace such changes through a theoretical path of influence that could inform a model of teacher professional knowledge. We created an instrument to measure pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), studied the impact of a two-year professional development intervention, explored the relationships among teacher variables to attempt to validate a model of teacher professional knowledge, and examined the relationship of teacher professional knowledge and classroom practice on student achievement. Teacher professional knowledge and skill was measured in terms of academic content knowledge (ACK), general pedagogical knowledge (GenPK), PCK and teacher practice. Our PCK instrument identified two factors within PCK: PCK-content knowledge and PCK-pedagogical knowledge. Teacher gains existed for all variables. Only GenPK had a significant relationship to teacher practice. ACK was the only variable that explained a substantial portion of student achievement. Our findings provide empirical evidence that we interpret through the lens of the model of teacher professional knowledge and skill, including PCK [Gess-Newsome, J. (2015). A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK summit. In A. Berry, P. Friedrichsen, &amp; J. Loughran (Eds.), <i>Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education</i> (pp. 28–42). London: Routledge Press], highlighting the complexity of measuring teacher professional knowledge and skill.

  PublisherDOI

• Building a Theory of Teacher Learning, Together.

  ICLS · 2020-01-01

  article
  Publisher

• Teacher pedagogical content knowledge, practice, and student achievement^†

  Figshare · 2020-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  In this exploratory study, we attempted to measure potential changes in teacher knowledge and practice as a result of an intervention, as well as trace such changes through a theoretical path of influence that could inform a model of teacher professional knowledge. We created an instrument to measure pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), studied the impact of a two-year professional development intervention, explored the relationships among teacher variables to attempt to validate a model of teacher professional knowledge, and examined the relationship of teacher professional knowledge and classroom practice on student achievement. Teacher professional knowledge and skill was measured in terms of academic content knowledge (ACK), general pedagogical knowledge (GenPK), PCK and teacher practice. Our PCK instrument identified two factors within PCK: PCK-content knowledge and PCK-pedagogical knowledge. Teacher gains existed for all variables. Only GenPK had a significant relationship to teacher practice. ACK was the only variable that explained a substantial portion of student achievement. Our findings provide empirical evidence that we interpret through the lens of the model of teacher professional knowledge and skill, including PCK [Gess-Newsome, J. (2015). A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK summit. In A. Berry, P. Friedrichsen, &amp; J. Loughran (Eds.), <i>Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education</i> (pp. 28–42). London: Routledge Press], highlighting the complexity of measuring teacher professional knowledge and skill.

  PublisherDOI

• Teacher pedagogical content knowledge, practice, and student achievement^†

  Figshare · 2019-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  In this exploratory study, we attempted to measure potential changes in teacher knowledge and practice as a result of an intervention, as well as trace such changes through a theoretical path of influence that could inform a model of teacher professional knowledge. We created an instrument to measure pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), studied the impact of a two-year professional development intervention, explored the relationships among teacher variables to attempt to validate a model of teacher professional knowledge, and examined the relationship of teacher professional knowledge and classroom practice on student achievement. Teacher professional knowledge and skill was measured in terms of academic content knowledge (ACK), general pedagogical knowledge (GenPK), PCK and teacher practice. Our PCK instrument identified two factors within PCK: PCK-content knowledge and PCK-pedagogical knowledge. Teacher gains existed for all variables. Only GenPK had a significant relationship to teacher practice. ACK was the only variable that explained a substantial portion of student achievement. Our findings provide empirical evidence that we interpret through the lens of the model of teacher professional knowledge and skill, including PCK [Gess-Newsome, J. (2015). A model of teacher professional knowledge and skill including PCK: Results of the thinking from the PCK summit. In A. Berry, P. Friedrichsen, &amp; J. Loughran (Eds.), <i>Re-examining pedagogical content knowledge in science education</i> (pp. 28–42). London: Routledge Press], highlighting the complexity of measuring teacher professional knowledge and skill.

  PublisherDOI

• The Refined Consensus Model of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education

  2019-01-01 · 378 citations

  preprint1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Project BEST: Better Education for Science Teachers

  NSF · $2.3M · 2005–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher D. Wilson

  Boise State University

  16 shared

• J. Ashley Taylor

  14 shared

• Julie Gess‐Newsome

  9 shared

• April L. Gardner

  Biological Sciences Curriculum Study

  8 shared

• Molly A. M. Stuhlsatz

  Biological Sciences Curriculum Study

  7 shared

• Susan M. Kowalski

  Northwest Evaluation Association

  7 shared

• Stephen R. Getty

  5 shared

• Hilda Borko

  Stanford University

  5 shared