Research

Ian Thacker studies STEM teaching, learning, and teacher education. He uses qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the role of attitudes, emotions, beliefs, biases, and epistemic cognition in conceptual change. He pursues three strands of research focused on: (a) mathematical skills that can be leveraged to support conceptual change about scientific topics, (b) the use of technology for STEM teaching and learning, and (c) teacher beliefs and biases that contribute to gender- and race-based achievement disparities in STEM. He is the recipient of the 2020 USC Ph.D. Achievement Award and his research and collaborations has been funded by NSF, Spencer, USDA, Gates, SSHRC, APA, and internal research awards.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Thacker, I., Cimpian, J.R. (2024). An Exploratory Experiment Investigating Teachers' Attributional Race and Gender Bias and the Moderating Effects of Personal Experience of Racial Discrimination. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Advance Online Publication.
  • Thacker, I. Shroeder, R., Shields-Menard, S., & Goforth, N.* (2024). Dirt Don't Hurt: How relevant soil data can support learning and motivation at a Hispanic Serving Institution. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. Advance Online Publication.
  • Thacker, I. (2024). Supporting Secondary Students' Climate Change Learning and Motivation Using Novel Data and Data Visualizations. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Advance Online Publication.
  • Thacker, I., French, H.,* & Feder, S. (2024). Estimating Climate Change Numbers: Mental Computation Strategies That Can Support Science Learning. International Journal of Science Education. Advance Online Publication.
  • Thacker, I. (2023). Climate change by the numbers: Leveraging mathematical skills for science learning online. Learning & Instruction, 86, 101782.
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Thacker, I. & Cimpian, J. R. (2023). Teachers' race and gender biases and the moderating effects of their beliefs and dispositions. International Journal of STEM Education 10(31), 1-25.
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Thacker, I. & Cimpian, J. R. (2022). Teacher bias in the virtual classroom. Computers & Education, 191, 104627.
  • Thacker, I., Seyranian, V., Madva, A., & Beardsley, P. (2022). STEM faculty's support of togetherness during mandated separation: Accommodations, caring, crisis management, and powerlessness. Education Sciences, 12(9), 632.
  • Thacker, I. & Sinatra, G. M. (2022). Supporting Climate Change Understanding With Novel Data, Estimation Instruction, and Epistemic Prompts Journal of Educational Psychology. 114(5), 910-927.
  • Thacker, I., Seyranian, V., Madva, A., Duong, N., & Beardsley, P. (2022). Social connectedness in physical isolation: Online teaching practices that support under-represented undergraduate students' belongingness and engagement in STEM. Education Sciences, 12(2), 61.
  • Jacobson, J. G., Thacker, I., & Sinatra, G. (2021). The importance of emotions in mediating the backfire effect of refutation text. Discourse Processes, 59(1-2), 13-35.
  • Kennedy, A., Thacker, I., & Sinatra G. M., Nye, B., Swartout, W., & Lyndsey, E. (2021). Promoting interest, positive emotions, and knowledge using augmented reality in a museum setting. International Journal of Science Education, 11(3) 242-258.
  • MacNaul, H. L., Garcia, R., Civdini-Motta, C., & Thacker, I. (2021). Effect of Assignment Choice on Student Academic Performance in an Online Class. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14, 1074-1078.
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., & Thacker, I. (2021). A comparison of perceived and observed learning from professional development: Relationships among self-reports, direct assessments, and teacher characteristics. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(2), 138-151.
  • Thacker, I. (2020). An embodied design for grounding the mathematics of slope in students'; perceptions of steepness. Research in Mathematics Education, 22(3), 304-328.
  • Thacker, I., Muis, K.R., Danielson, R.W., Sinatra G.M., Pekrun, R., Winne, P.H., & Chevrier, M. (2020). Using persuasive refutation texts to prompt attitudinal and conceptual change. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(6), 1085-1099.
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Thacker, I. & Quinn, D.(2020). K-8 Mathematics teachers' overall and gender-specific beliefs about mathematical aptitude. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 19(6), 1251-1269.
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Robinson-Cimpian, J. P., Lubienski, S. T., & Thacker, I. (2020). Mathematics teachers' bias against the mathematical ability of female, black and hispanic students. Educational Researcher, 49 (1), 30-43.
  • Kim, A.Y. & Thacker, I. (2020). A good sine?: Seeking math help using online discussion boards. E-Learning and Digital Media, 17(1), 78-93.
  • Thacker, I. & Sinatra, G.M. (2019). Visualizing the greenhouse effect: Restructuring mental models of climate change through a guided online simulation. Educational Sciences, 9(1), 14.
Published Book Chapters and Conference Proceedings
  • Thacker, I., Martinez, D.,* & Lester, K.,* (2024). An Estimation Game to Promote Secondary Students' Climate Change Understanding Using Data and Visualizations. Proceedings of the forty-sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 2075-2081). Cleveland, OH.
  • Thacker, I., Schroeder, R., & Shields-Menard, S. (2024). Dirt Don’t Hurt: How Relevant Soil Data Can Support Learning and Motivation at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Proceedings of the forty-sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1467-1472). Cleveland, OH.
  • Schroeder, R., Niu, J., Malshe, A., Hum, S., Flemming S., Thacker, I. (March, 2024) Enabling Widespread Engagement in DS and AI: The Generation AI Curriculum Initiative for Community Colleges. Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (Vol 2, p. 1938). Portland, OR.
  • Seyranian, V., Thacker, I., Madva, A., Abramzon, N., & Beardsley, P. (2023). A Utility Value Intervention to support undergraduate student interest, engagement, and achievement in calculus and calculus-based physics. Proceedings of the forty-fifth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol 2, pp. 464-473). Reno, NV.
  • Thacker, I., Copur-Gencturk, Y., & Cimpian, J. R. (2022). Teacher bias: A discussion with special emphasis on gender and STEM learning. In T. L. Good & M. McCaslin (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Education: Educational Psychology Edition.
  • Thacker, I. (2022). Climate change by the numbers: How numerical estimation can support science learning. In A. E., Lischka, E. B., Dyer, R. S., Jones, J., Lovett, J., Strayer, S., & Drown (Eds.). Proceedings of the forty-fourth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 2057-2065). Middle Tennessee State University. ISBN: 978-1-7348057-1-0
  • Thacker, I., Broadway, R.*, & Feder, S. (2021). Estimating climate change numbers: How tolerance for error can support science learning. In Olanoff, D., Johnson, K., & Spitzer, S. M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the forty-third annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. (pp. 1738-1743). Philadelphia, PA.
  • Thacker, I. (2020). Numerical estimation skills, epistemic cognition, and climate change: Mathematical skills and dispositions that can support science learning. To be published in the Proceedings of the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the North-American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1054-1062). Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. ISBN: 978-1-7348057-0-3
  • Thacker, I. & Rasiej, R. (2020). Mathematics teachers' epistemic dispositions and their relationship with teacher instruction and student learning: A systematic research synthesis. To be published in the Proceedings of the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the North-American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 2126-2132). Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. ISBN: 978-1-7348057-0-3
  • Copur-Gencturk, Y., Du, H., & Thacker, I. (2020). Differences in mathematical ability beliefs between teachers and mathematicians in higher education. To be published in the Proceedings of the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the North-American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 573-577). Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. ISBN: 978-1-7348057-0-3
  • Rodrigues, J. & Thacker, I. (2019) Refuting a Fraction Misconception: A Brief Intervention Promotes Teachers' Conceptual Change. To appear in the Proceedings of the Forty-First Annual Meeting of the North-American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 8, pp. 731-735). St Louis, MA: University of Missouri. ISBN: 978-0-578-57791-3
  • Abrahamson, D., Bryant, M. J., Gutierrez, J. F., Mookerjee, A. V., Souchkova, D., & Thacker, I.E. (2009). Figuring it out: Mathematical learning as guided semiotic disambiguation of useful yet initially entangled intuitions. In S. L. Swars, D. W. Stinson & S. Lemons-Smith (Eds.), Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Meeting of the North-American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 5, pp. 662-670). Atlanta, GA: Georgia State University. ISBN: 978-0-615-31397-9 [Author names are in alphabetical order]