Team Members

Jingjing Sun is the Director of the Collaboration & Reasoning Lab and an assistant professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Teaching & Learning. Her research examines the processes of learning and development during collaborative group settings, with a current focus on youth’s socioemotional development and school engagement. She is proud to lead an interdisciplinary team of dedicated graduate and undergraduate students. When she is not on campus or collecting data in schools, you can find her reading, hiking, skiing/snowboarding, enjoying community events, or hanging upside down in a hammock.

Emma is pursuing a doctoral degree in Teaching and Learning. She has been a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UM since 2015, while teaching Indonesian as a foreign language. Her academic/ research interest is related to the field of foreign language teaching, such as Content-Based Instruction and Collaborative Reasoning, in English as a Second Language context. Working at the CR Lab with Dr. Sun allows her to experience research first hand and to develop her own research interest. After graduation, she plans to continue teaching and be involved in research related to language learning. In her free time, she loves going on road trips, trying local cuisines, and photography.

Greg is a full-time doctoral student in both Teaching and Learning and International Educational Leadership. He has been an educator for 25 years and taught in four states and three foreign countries. He loves working with diverse student populations in new environments where he can continue to grow and challenge himself as a learner and an educator. His work has included teaching, teacher leadership, and school leadership, most recently serving as the director at Sussex School--a progressive, independent school in Missoula. Greg was drawn to the Collaborative Reasoning Lab as an opportunity to learn more about how children think individually and collectively, as well as how educational researchers work to support educators in the field. When he is not at school, he enjoys time with his family, modern board games, and running on the beautiful trails in Missoula.

Rebekah came to the university of Montana after teaching French out east for five years. She is a doctoral student in the department of Anthropology with a focus on Second Language Socialization and Foreign Language Teaching. Rebekah has her MA in French and Anthropology from Middlebury College, program in Paris and her BA in French and Anthropology from Bowling Green State University. Rebekah has attended numerous conferences as a language teacher, and presented at NECTFL and CAIS. She will be presenting her preliminary dissertation work at the Hawaii University International Conference for the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education in January. Rebekah is excited to be part of the Collaborative Reasoning lab.

Kelsey is a graduate of Gonzaga University, with a B.A. in Psychology and minors in Sociology and Gender Studies. She has enjoyed working with children in a variety of recreational and educational settings, ranging from summer camp to one-on-one behavioral interventions with children with autism. Kelsey is excited to be a part of Project SELA, drawing on her experience working with kids and her love for her hometown community of Arlee to help build a strong, culturally supported Social Emotional Learning curriculum specific to students in Arlee. In her free time she enjoys photography, kayaking and hanging out with her dog, Gus.

Alyssa is currently a second year graduate student at UM in the communication studies department. Alyssa is curious in human interaction and many of her research topics have revolved around self-efficacy and co-teaching in preschool teaching settings, which came from her three years of experience working at a local preschool, Spirit at Play, that has a strong focus on community and environment. Currently, Alyssa continues her love for teaching at a collegiate level instructing public speaking courses, with a strong focus on student development. By being a part of the Collaboration & Reasoning Lab, she plans to continue to learn how to translate research into teaching practices to best support students.

Sisilia is a graduate student in the department of Teaching and Learning. She has been an Indonesian for Speakers of Other Languages (ISOL) instructor for 5 years and taught in Indonesia and Thailand. Currently she is a teaching assistant at Mansfield Defense Critical Language and Culture Program (DCLCP). Her research interests cover sociolinguistics field, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching. She has presented in applied linguistic field about translation techniques, sociolinguistic study of the use of English variants, and assessment washback in foreign language education context. Her involvement in the CR Lab has motivated her to learn more about dialogic learning and draw a connection between research and her own teaching. Besides studying and teaching, she loves spending her time hiking, watching Japanese anime and playing video games, such as super smash bro ultimate and super Mario.