Policy Brief: Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children’s Learning

Dr. Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies was one of the founding documents in the formation of the "New Literacy Studies," an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts. In addition, his publication entitled An Introduction to Discourse Analysis brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades. His most recent books deal with video games, language and learning. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy argues that good video games are designed to enhance learning through effective learning principles supported by research in the Learning Sciences. Situated Language and Learning places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and shows how they can help us in thinking about the reform of schools. James has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education and he is a member of the National Academy of Education. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University in 1975.