Holincheck, Nancy

Phone: (703) 993-8136
Fax: (703) 993-9380
Email: nholinch (@gmu.edu)

George Mason University
Fairfax Campus
Thompson Hall 2607
4400 University Dr.
MS 1E8
Fairfax, VA 22030

Dr. Nancy Holincheck is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education and the Co-Academic Program Coordinator of the Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (ASTL) program. Dr. Holincheck teaches doctoral courses in the Teaching and Teacher Education and Science Education programs in Mason's College of Education and Human Development, and master's level courses in science and STEM education, teacher research, and teacher reflection in the ASTL program and in the Teaching Culturally, Linguistically Diverse and Exceptional Learners (TCLDEL) program. Dr. Holincheck is an Associate Director of Mason's Center for Social Equity through Science Education: C(SE)²and Associate Director of Education of Mason's Quantum Science and Engineering Center (QSEC) and an associate member of Mason's Global Online Teacher Education Center.

Dr. Holincheck's broad research interests encompass STEM teaching and learning, teacher reflection & teacher inquiry, identity of STEM learners and teachers, gender in STEM and science, physics education, problem solving, science teaching and learning, and problem-based learning. Dr. Holincheck is a co-PI on the NSF funded Cultivating Physics Identity and Belonging for Women in Physics: Mentorship and Leadership Development through the Pion Program and co-PI on the Department of Education Quantum Workforce Development grant projects. She previously served as Co-PI and Evaluator on the NSF funded Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Science with sInvestigator, internal evaluator and Co-PI on an IARPA Crowdsourcing Evidence, Argumentation, Thinking and Evaluation (CREATE) Project, Cogent Argumentation System with Crowd Elicitation (Co-Arg), and as Evaluator on the U.S. Department of Education's Jacob K. Javits grant funded Project ExCEL.

Dr. Holincheck's current research projects focus on STEM teaching and learning and the under-representation of groups in STEM. She is currently researching integrated STEM teacher identity, undergraduate students' perspectives on quantum science and computing, how gender plays a role in the experiences of women in STEM, and teacher reflection in teacher education courses. She has ongoing projects that examine how participation in middle and high school robotics influences the development of STEM identity, the role of mentors in the recruitment and retention of students from under-represented groups in STEM, explorations of gender in physics and science, promoting the success of under-represented minorities in college STEM, and implications of media representations of science and scientists.

A former high school physics teacher, Dr. Holincheck holds an MS in Applied and Engineering Physics from George Mason University and a B.S. in Physics from The College of William and Mary. A National Board Certified Teacher since 2001, Holincheck began her teaching career in Fairfax County, Virginia and taught at Hayfield Secondary and Chantilly High School. Before coming to Mason, Dr. Holincheck served as term education policy faculty at American University in Washington, D.C..

Teacher learning, teacher reflection, science teaching and learning, STEM teaching and learning, education for quantum workforce development, under-represented groups in science and STEM, gender in STEM, Integrated STEM Teacher Identity, STEM learner identity, computational thinking, physics education, problem solving, problem-based learning (PBL), project-based learning (PjBL), teacher education, teacher research, research utilization by teachers, teachers’ professional persistence

Select publications & presentations:

Galanti, T. M., & Holincheck, N. (2022). Beyond content and curriculum in elementary classrooms: conceptualizing the cultivation of integrated STEM teacher identity. International Journal of STEM Education, 9, Article 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-022-00358-8

Holincheck, N., & Galanti, T. (2022). Are you a STEM teacher?: Exploring K-12 teachers’ conceptions of STEM education. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research, 23(2).

Holincheck, N., Galanti, T. M., & Trefil, J. (2022). Assessing the development of digital scientific literacy with a computational evidence-based reasoning tool. Journal of Educational Computing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331221081484

Dodman, S. L., Holincheck, N., & Fox, R. K. (2022). How a cultural lens can help teachers disrupt inequity. The Learning Professional, 43(1), 58-62.

Baker, C., Galanti, T., Kraft, T., Holincheck, N., Hjalmarson, M., & Nelson, J. (2022). Researchers as Coaches: Developing Mathematics Teaching Capacity Using MEAs for STEM Integration. Investigations in Mathematics Learning, 14(1), 28-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/19477503.2021.2023966

Dodman, S. L., Holincheck, N., & Brusseau, R. (2021). Using text via dialectical journals to nurture liminal spaces in teacher education. Journal of Transformative Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/15413446211058139

Hjalmarson, M.A., Holincheck, N., Baker, C.K., & Galanti, T.M. (2020). Learning Models and Modeling Across the STEM Disciplines. In C. Johnson, M.J. Mohr-Schroeder, T. Moore, & L. English (Eds.) The Handbook of Research on STEM Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429021381-21

Sprague, D., Marttinen, R., Eagle, M., Holincheck, N., Mehdi, T., Kwende, M. & Riggio, A. (2020). Physical STEM+C: Supporting the integration of K-12 STEM+concepts in non-traditional subject areas. In D. Schmidt-Crawford (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 112-114).

Fox, R.K., Dodman, S., & Holincheck, N. (2019). Moving beyond reflection in a hall of mirrors: Developing critical reflective capacity in teachers and teacher educators. Reflective Practice, 20(3), 367-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2019.1617124

Holincheck, N., Galanti, T., Trefil, J., Tecuci, G., Boicu, M., & Marcu, D. (2019). Developing computational thinking in scientific inquiry: Use of sInvestigator in problem solving at the 2019 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario.

Fox, R., & Holincheck, N. (2018) The essential role of research for IB teachers and IB teacher educators countries at the 2018 IBEC conference at the University of Bath.

Galanti, T. M., Holincheck, N., Tecuci, G., Trefil, J., Boicu, M., & Marcu, D. (2018). Building information literacy: Using sInvestigator to evaluate the credibility of Internet sources at the 2018 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, New York, NY.

Horak, A., Holincheck, N., Shaklee, B., Xu, X., Rybicki-Newman, M. (2018). Equity and engagement: Problem-Based Learning to identify students with potential at the 2018 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, New York, NY.

Holincheck, N., Galanti, T., Tecuci, G., Boicu, M., Trefil, J., & Marcu, D. (2018). Developing Critical Thinking Skills with sInvestigator at the 2018 Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) International Conference, Baltimore, MD.

Holincheck, N., Horak, A., & Nagy, S. (2017). Increasing Opportunity: Using PBL as a Universal Screening to Identify Potential Giftedness in Middle School, at the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.

Horak, A., Webb, K., & Holincheck, N. (2017). Empowering English Language Learners’ Academic Potential through Problem-based Learning: Leading Teachers with a Capacity-based Lens, at the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.

Fox, R., Dodman, S.L., Holincheck, N., & Webb, K. (2017). Perspectives on Culture: Teachers’ Development of Critical Reflective Capacity through the Cultural Inquiry Process, at the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio.

Boicu, M., Tecuci, G., Marcu, D., Trefil, J., & Holincheck, N. (2016, September). Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning of Science with Cognitive Assistants. In 2016 AAAI Fall Symposium Series.

Holincheck, N. (2016). A Whole New World of Identification: Using PBL as a Universal Screening to Close the Opportunity Gap, at National Association for Gifted Children, Orlando, FL.

Holincheck, N., Sell, C., Matson, K. & Williams, M. (2016). Why Are They Staying? Teacher Stayers’ Perceptions of Noncognitive Traits and Their Role in Teacher Retention, at the American Education Research Association, Washington, D.C.

Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning
Center for Social Equity Through Science Education
Global Online Teacher Education Center
Research Methodology
Secondary Education 6-12
International Baccalaureate
College of Education and Human Development
School of Education
Division of Advanced Professional Teacher Development and International Education
Teaching Culturally, Linguistically Diverse & Exceptional Learners