Dr. Karen Brennan

Biography

Karen Brennan is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she directs the Creative Computing Lab. She is a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and serves as the Faculty Co-Chair of the Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology (LDIT) program. Her research focuses on designing learning experiences in K–12 computer science education, with particular emphasis on constructionist learning experience design, which nurtures student agency in personalizing, creating, sharing, and reflecting on their learning. Her studies are organized around several thematic areas: investigating how K–12 teachers design learning experiences in computing education, creating support structures to help teachers understand constructionist approaches, and studying the development of computational fluency in young learners. Before joining Harvard, Brennan earned her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab, where she was part of the team that developed the Scratch programming environment.

Research Interests