Robert Stuart Siegler

About

Robert Stuart Siegler is the Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His scholarly interests focus on how children learn mathematics and how theoretical understanding of mathematical development can be applied to improve that learning. His research has demonstrated that playing certain numerical board games can lead to broad, rapid, and enduring gains in preschoolers' and elementary school children's numerical understanding, especially for children from low-income backgrounds. Siegler has authored over 250 articles, monographs, and book chapters, and has written 13 books and edited 6 others. His contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous honors, including the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Contribution Award in 2005, election to the National Academy of Education in 2010, and the G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology in 2022. He has served on the U.S. National Mathematics Advisory Panel and has led the development of educational practice guides, including one on fractions learning for the U.S. Department of Education. Siegler's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the development of numerical knowledge and strategies in children, and he has played a significant role in advancing research and practice in cognitive development and mathematics education.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Mathematics education
• Data Mining
• Artificial Intelligence
• Arithmetic
• Epistemology
• Political Science
• Mathematics
• Machine Learning

Selected publications

• The relation between conceptual and procedural knowledge in learning mathematics: A review

  Psychology Press eBooks · 2021 · 173 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  This chapter examines the relations between children’s understanding of mathematical concepts and their ability to execute procedures that embody those concepts. Delineating how these two types of knowledge interact is fundamental to understanding how development occurs. After all, concepts and procedures are much of what children learn in the course of development, and without question, they develop in tandem rather than independently.

  PublisherDOI

• Putting fractions together.

  Journal of Educational Psychology · 2020 · 54 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Learning fractions is a critical step in children’s mathematical development. However, many children struggle with learning fractions, especially fraction arithmetic. In this article, we propose a general framework for integrating understanding of individual fractions and fraction arithmetic, and we use the framework to generate interventions intended to improve understanding of both individual fractions and fraction addition. The framework, Putting Fractions Together (PFT), emphasizes that both…

  DOI

• Entwicklungspsychologie im Kindes- und Jugendalter

  Springer eBooks · 2021 · 48 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Manifesto for new directions in developmental science

  New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development · 2020 · 40 citations

  Although developmental science has always been evolving, these times of fast-paced and profound social and scientific changes easily lead to disorienting fragmentation rather than coherent scientific advances. What directions should developmental science pursue to meaningfully address real-world problems that impact human development throughout the lifespan? What conceptual or policy shifts are needed to steer the field in these directions? The present manifesto is proposed by a group of scholar…

  DOI

• Learning from errors versus explicit instruction in preparation for a test that counts

  British Journal of Educational Psychology · 2024-01-11 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Although the generation of errors has been thought, traditionally, to impair learning, recent studies indicate that, under particular feedback conditions, the commission of errors may have a beneficial effect. AIMS: This study investigates the teaching strategies that facilitate learning from errors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This 2-year study, involving two cohorts of ~88 students each, contrasted a learning-from-errors (LFE) with an explicit instruction (EI) teaching strategy in a mul…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HD019011

  NIH · $3.2M · 2006

Frequent coauthors

• Jenny R. Saffran

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  61 shared

• Nancy Eisenberg

  Arizona State University

  60 shared

• Elizabeth T. Gershoff

  31 shared

• Judy S. DeLoache

  30 shared

• David W. Braithwaite

  Florida State University

  28 shared

• Tian Jing

  26 shared

• Lisa K. Fazio

  Vanderbilt University

  21 shared

• Lynn S. Fuchs

  American Institutes for Research

  19 shared

Awards & honors

• American Psychological Association's Distinguished Contribut…
• Election to the National Academy of Education (2010)
• Development of a Practice Guide on fractions learning for th…
• Director of the Siegler Center for Innovative Learning at Be…
• Election to the Society of Experimental Psychologists (2015)

Similar researchers at Columbia University

• George A. Bonannoh-91
• Mykelle Colemanh-89
• Douglas Menninh-74