Over the course of the last 40 years, I have been fortunate to have a varied, and engaging career. I began as a special education teacher in Rockville, Md in 1983, and since that time I have held a range of positions including psychology associate, high school English teacher, special education consultant, and university professor of educational psychology and special education. I served in a variety of administrative capacities, including as the Interim Dean of the School of Education at Roger Williams University, and as the Coordinator of Graduate Education at Johnson State College.
Throughout my career, I have also been actively involved in research, writing, and public speaking. I am the co-author of Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom (2005), and the co-editor of three additional books: Educational Psychology in Context (2006); The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Foundations (2019); and Educational Foundations: An Anthology of Critical Readings (2021). I am also the author of 11 book chapters or forewords, twenty periodicals in academic publications, and the co-author of a six-part video series titled Creating the Constructivist Classroom. I have presented my work at conferences throughout the United States, as well as internationally at academic conclaves in Finland, Turkey, Germany, Japan, Malta, Italy, and France.
In addition to my work as department chair, I currently teach Observation and Analysis, Foundations of American Education, Classroom Organization and Management, and Introduction to the Exceptional Learner.
Redefining Rigor: How Evidence-Based Teaching Can Transform Learning and Performance
For decades, military training environments have been associated with highly directive, instructionist models of teaching and learning—approaches grounded in repetition, compliance, and information transmission. Yet emerging evidence from the fields of cognitive science, learning theory, and a relatively new report from the National Academy of Sciences (2024), indicates that durable learning, adaptive expertise, and even performance under pressure are best cultivated through constructivist teaching principles. This keynote uses one of the most demanding instructional contexts in the United States—the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island—as a case study to explore the powerful effect of inquiry-based instruction. At the center of this work is a powerful premise: that constructivist practices are not only effective in traditional educational settings but can fundamentally reshape teaching and learning cultures even within rigid, high-pressure institutions The keynote challenges persistent misconceptions about what “good teaching” looks like in schools, the military and other hierarchical environments. Rather than weakening rigor or discipline, constructivist approaches can deepen learning, improve retention, strengthen transfer of knowledge, and foster adaptive performance in real-world situations.