Contemporary Learning Environments, Complex Pedagogies, Intellectual Engagement
Dr. Friesen has most recently completed several funded studies for Alberta Education: Highly Adaptive Learning Systems: Research in Seven Redesigned High Schools in Alberta. She is currently a co-investigator on a SSHRC Research Grant - Changing Cultures of Mathematics Teaching. Many of the studies she undertakes are longitudinal, employing design-based research methodologies in which ideas from the learning sciences figured prominently. Building upon previous studies, these longitudinal studies examine leading contemporary learning environments, designing new learning systems, deep learning, technology-rich participatory learning environments, complex pedagogies and intellectual engagement in learning. Since 1989, her primary research interest consists of investigating the ways in which intellectual engagement emerges within contemporary learning environments. This focus emerged from a close attunement and attentiveness to the lived experience of teachers and students; an attunement that understands intellectual growth as more than an interior, private, individual matter of unfolding development; that situates teaching and learning within the contexts of an educative community; and that asks hard questions about both the traditional and progressive legacies that are translated into practice within classrooms.