It’s invigorating to have the opportunity to work with a community of talented, passionate, and relentlessly optimistic educators to improve STEM education in the U.S. Building up the next generation of leading teachers sustains my faith and hope in our future.”
Joyce’s Story
Dr. Joyce Lin began her career teaching biology (and occasionally, integrated physics and chemistry) at a large urban school in Dallas, TX. While there, she organized the school’s first science fair. Additionally, she helped to improve the quality of science education in North Central Texas as a STARS Program participant. Recognizing that she needed to learn more about how urban schools shape students’ identities, motivation for learning, and agency and facility with scientific knowledge, she left to pursue doctoral studies in teaching and learning with a focus on urban education.
During her graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Joyce worked on numerous National Science Foundation funded projects that sought to impact how students learn science through the use of innovative technology and applications, such as augmented reality and agent-based simulations. As a member of the Learning Sciences community, Joyce studied how adolescents learn science (from a conceptual and cognitive perspective), explored how the design of learning environments impacted learning, and worked with teachers to introduce new curriculum on nanotechnology, computational thinking, and complex systems to their students. Her dissertation focused on how multiple visualizations supported kids’ conceptual understanding of Bernoulli’s Principle in a science museum. Joyce also taught pre-service secondary science teachers where she encouraged them to open up their practices by bringing in dilemmas and problems of practice from the classroom to inquire into together.
Joyce has been with Knowles Teacher Initiative since 2014 where she has developed an Academy course on the Five Practices and cognitive demand and designed and facilitated high quality professional development around inquiry and equitable teaching practices. As Associate Director of Phase 2, she leads her team to think deeply about how to support Fellows to inquire into their professional communities, to develop the teacher leadership skills necessary to improve education beyond their classrooms, and to share their stories of the knowledge they acquired with a wider community.
Joyce holds a B.S. in biology and an M.A. in teaching from Trinity University, as well as an Ed.D. in teaching, learning and teacher education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Joyce resides in Dallas, Texas, with her husband Alex and two daughters. In her spare time, Joyce enjoys teaching her oldest daughter Chinese, learning to ice skate, and growing deeper in her faith.
Email: joyce.lin@knowlesteachers.org
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