Andy Cavagnetto, Ph.D.

A former secondary science teacher, Dr. Cavagnetto completed his PhD at the University of Iowa in 2006 before taking an assistant professor at Binghamton University in New York from 2006-2012. He then transitioned to his current position at Washington State University where he serves as an associate professor; jointly appointed in the Department of Teaching and Learning and the School of Biological Sciences. Dr Cavagnetto is interested in construction and critique of argument as students pose questions, gather data, and negotiate evidence-based claims in science learning contexts. He studies how instructors create these environments and how students engage in them. Over the past few years this had led him to focus on environmental factors influencing whole class cooperation, how such environments influence engagement in argumentation, and subsequent impact on student outcomes. Currently, he serves as a Co-Principal investigator on a federally funded project examining argumentation from primary data in a large-lecture undergraduate biology course.

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(509) 335-6391
andy.cavagnetto@wsu.edu