Research

Teaching and Learning Human-Centered Design

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Siebel Center for Design, I am currently leading the assessment and research team that conducts research to inform the design and implementation of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development in order to facilitate the teaching and learning of Human-Centered Design in formal and informal learning environments.

Featured Publications:

  • Shehab, S., Tissenbaum, M. … & Sawyer, K. (2021, June) Towards bringing Human-Centered Design to K-12 and Post-Secondary education. In Proceedings of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting. Bochum, Germany.
  • James, C., Shehab, S., & Rost, G. (2021, June). Can empathy be taught? What research literature reveals about teaching and assessing empathy in education. In Proceedings of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting. Bochum, Germany.
  • Shehab, S., Lawrence, L., Tissenbaum, M., Rui, T., & Hixon, T. (2021, April). Integrating Human-Centered Design in higher education classrooms: Evaluating the first iteration. Paper Presented at the American Education Research Association Virtual Conference.
  • Lawrence, L., Shehab, S., Tissenbaum, M., Rui, T., & Hixon, T. (2021, April). Human-Centered Design Taxonomy: Case study application with novice, multidisciplinary designers. Poster Presented at the American Education Research Association Virtual Conference.
  • Pagano, A., Shehab, S., & Liebenberg, L. (2020, June). WIP: Introducing  students to Human-Centered Design in a design for manufacturability course. In the Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference. Montreal, Canada (Online).

Collaborative Problem Solving in STEM Classes

As a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I was a member of the CoLearnLab lead by Dr. Emma Mercier. I worked with her and other talented members in the team on two NSF-funded projects to develop Collaborative Support Tools for Engineering Problem Solving (CSTEPS1 and CSTEPS2) and understand students’ collaborative problem solving processes as they solved authentic, engineering tasks in small groups.

My dissertation project under CSTEPS 1 focused on the role of the teaching assistants (TAs) in facilitating students’ interactions in computer-supported collaborative problem-solving undergraduate engineering classes. Specifically, I examined the teaching strategies that TAs used to support small groups of undergraduate engineering students as they solved authentic, engineering design tasks, and the impact of these strategies on the quality of students’ verbal interactions and collaborative group progress on the task.

Featured Publications:

  • Shehab, S. (2020, June). The impact of teachers’ interventions on collaborative problem solving interactions in undergraduate engineering classrooms. In the Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference. Montreal, Canada (Online).
  •  Shehab, S. & Mercier, M. (2020, June). Exploring the relationship between the types of interactions and progress on a task during collaborative problem solving. In the Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Nashville, TN (Online).
  • Shehab, S. & Mercier, E. (2019, June). Exploring teaching and course assistants’ interventions with groups during collaborative problem solving. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Lyons, France.
  • Shehab, S. & Mercier, E. (2019, June). Visualizing representations of interaction states during CSCL. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Lyons, France.
  • Shehab, S., Mercier, E., Kersh, M., Juarez, G., & Zhao, H. (2017). Designing tasks for engineering problem solving. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. Philadelphia, PA: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  • Tucker, T., Shehab.S, & Mercier, E (2020, June). Using the Gini Coefficient to characterize the distribution of group problem-solving processes in collaborative tasks. In the Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Nashville, TN (Online).
  • Tucker, T. Shehab, S. & Mercier, E. (2020, June). The impact of scaffolding prompts on the collaborative problem solving of ill-structured tasks by undergraduate engineering student groups. In the Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference. Montreal, Canada (Online).
  • Shehab, S., & Mercier, E. (2019). Implementing collaborative learning in classrooms: Science teachers’ perspectives. International Journal of Innovation in Education, 5(4), 265-280

Computational Thinking in Elementary and Middle School Classes

During my second and third year as a graduate student, I had the privilege to work with Dr. Maya Israel and her incredible team to create a tool (Collaborative Computing Observation Instrument) that helped us analyze the data collected from actual elementary and middle school classrooms to learn how students asked their peers and the teacher for help during these computational thinking activities.

Featured Publications

  • Israel, M., Chung, M., Wherfel, Q., Shehab, S., Lash, T., & Resse, G. (in press). A descriptive analysis of engagement and collaboration of student with autism during elementary computer science instruction: A mixed methods study. Computer Science Education.
  • Israel, M., Shehab, S., Wherfel, Q. M., Melvin, O., & Lash, T. (2017). Describing elementary students’ interactions in K-5 puzzle-based computer science environments using the collaborative computing observation instrument (C-COI). In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research. ACM.
  • Israel, M., Wherfel, Q. M., Shehab, S., Ramos, E. A., Metzger, A., & Reese, G. C. (2016). Assessing collaborative computing: development of the Collaborative-Computing Observation Instrument (C-COI). Computer Science Education, 26(2-3), 208-233.
  • Israel, M., Wherfel, Q. M., Pearson, J., Shehab, S., & Tapia, T. (2015). Empowering K–12 students with disabilities to learn computational thinking and computer programming. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48(1), 45-53.

Chemical Representations in Chemistry Textbooks

My Master’s thesis focused on the requirements that chemical representations should meet in textbooks in order to enhance students’ conceptual understanding and foster their engagement in the macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic reasoning about chemical phenomena.

Featured Publication:

  • Shehab, S. S., & BouJaoude, S. (2017). Analysis of the chemical representations in secondary Lebanese chemistry textbooks. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(5), 797-816.

Educational Assessment in Lebanon

As I worked towards my Master’s Degree, I worked with Dr. Barend Vlaardingerbroek to study issues of educational assessment in Lebanon, specifically, the problem of open cheating and invigilator compliance in the Lebanese Brevet and Baccalaureat examinations.

Featured Publications:

  • Vlaardingerbroek, B., & Shehab, S. S. (2012). Educational assessment in Lebanon. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 19(3), 379-386.
  • Vlaardingerbroek, B., Shehab, S. S., & Alameh, S. K. (2011). The problem of open cheating and invigilator compliance in the Lebanese Brevet and Baccalaureat examinations. International Journal of Educational Development, 31(3), 297-302.