Dr. Yooyeun Hwang is an educational psychologist who conducts empirical research investigating learning strategies and single-case research designs. Her Hope courses include Educational Psychology, a class with a field placement component in which students explore children’s social and cognitive development, and the interdisciplinary multicultural education course Encounter with Cultures, which introduces participants to critical thinking about race, gender, ethnicity and culture.

Dr. Hwang’s current research focus is memory strategy and single-case study. She frequently involves education majors in her empirical research or advises them as they undertake projects of their own. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association.

Since joining Hope’s Department of Education in 1996, Dr. Hwang has been involved in a number of off-campus programs. She taught a May Term course at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, participated in Hope’s faculty exchange program at the Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, and spent a semester-long sabbatical teaching undergraduates and graduate students at Catholic University of Korea.

Areas of expertise

• Educational psychology
• Cognitive science applied to education
• Learning strategies
• Project-based learning

Education 

• Ph.D., educational psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996
• M.A., educational psychology, University of California-Santa Barbara, 1990
• B.S., home economics, Sacred Heart College for Women (South Korea), 1983

Selected honors, grants and awards

• “Project-Based Learning for Secondary-Mathematics Students,” Jobe & Julie Morrison Family Faculty Development Fund grant, 2014
• “The Effects of Project-Based Learning (PBL) Approach on the Achievement and Efficacy of High School Mathematics Students,” Hope College Frost Center grant, 2011
• Excellent Lecturer Award, Catholic University of Korea, 2011
• “Empirical Study on the Development of Reflective Judgment Skills and Multicultural Education,” Hope College Summer Development Grant, 2008

Selected publications 

• “Demonstration of Single-Case Two-Sample Randomization-Test Procedures: Underperforming Children’s Implementation of an Effective Memory Strategy,” with Joel R. Levin, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 2022
• “Application of a single-case intervention procedure to assess the replicability of a two-component instructional strategy,” with J. R. Levin, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2019
• “Pictorial Mnemonic Strategy Interventions for Children with Special Needs: Illustration of a Multiply Randomized Single Case Crossover Design,” with J. Levin and E. Johnson, Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 2018
• “Exploring the Effects of Project Based Learning (PBL) in Secondary Mathematics Education,” with V. Holmes, Journal of Educational Research, 2016

Outside the college

Dr. Hwang is a member of St. Francis de Sales Church in Holland.