William M. Bart

My years in the graduate program in measurement, evaluation, and statistical analysis at the University of Chicago allowed me to study with scholars such as Benjamin S. Bloom, R. Darrell Bock, and Benjamin Wright. There I developed my interest in the relationships among cognition, instruction, and testing. Presently I am pursuing that interest through research on cognitive diagnostic testing and on the development of talents and gifts among students. The issue of how research in cognition and testing can inform effective school practice also interests me. My students and I are investigating various topics in learning and cognition: (a) the assessment and development of critical thinking skills among youth, college students, and other adults; (b) the utility of origami and chess and other complex games on the development of basic reasoning skills and scholastic achievement levels among youth; and (c) the utilization of ideas from expertise research in the enhancement of cognitive skills and scholastic achievement levels among disadvantaged youth. I am also investigating with one graduate student two specific topics in research methodology: (a) statistically rigorous models for the analysis of item hierarchies, and (b) statistically rigorous models for cognitive diagnostic testing. I am a Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

I also coordinate the certificate program in talent development and gifted education.

Courses I teach
(all EPSY courses)

GC 1905—Chess and Critical Thinking
HCol 3101—Honors Colloquium: Critical Thinking
EPSY 3111W—Introduction to Critical Thinking
EPSY 3119/EDHD 5001—Learning, Cognition, and Assessment
EPSY 5101—Intelligence and Creativity
EPSY 5191—Education of the Gifted and Talented
EPSY 8111—Seminar: Human Expertise and Its Development
EPSY 8290—Special Topics: Seminar in Psychological Foundations

Publications

1. Yuzawa, M., Bart, W., & Yuzawa, M. (2000). Development of the ability to judge relative areas: Role of the procedure of placing one object on another. Cognitive Development, 15, 135-152.

2. Yuzawa, M., & Bart, W. (2002). Young children’s learning of size comparison strategies: Effect of origami exercises. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163, 459-478.

3. Elbedour, S., Bart, W., & Hektner, J. (2003). Intelligence and family marital structure: The case of adolescents from monogamous and polygamous families among Bedouin Arabs in Israel. The Journal of Social Psychology, 143(1), 95-110.

4. Atherton, M., Zhuang, J., Bart, W., Hu, X. & He, S. (2003). Functional MRI study of high-level cognition. I. The game of chess. Cognitive Brain Research, 16, 26-31.