Students
Ahana Nagarkatti (she/her/hers)
Class and Major: Class of 2025 – Spanish
I joined the Educational Equity Lab because I wanted to continue studying psychology, to get hands-on experience with research methods and data analysis, and to understand how people’s educational experiences can affect how they perceive the world.
A psychological finding that has stuck with me is that implicit bias results (in part) from classical conditioning (Livingston & Drwecki, 2007): it is an association that has formed in someone’s mind as a result of repeated pairings of a social group and a negative evaluation, which leads to the negative evaluation being automatically activated by the presence of a member of that group, which then causes people to judge and treat members of that group differently. I think this finding is really interesting because it means that there are ways to combat something that pervades society and is the root of many societal issues.
Nicole Pimentel (she/her/hers)
Class and Major: Class of 2024 – Psychology and Latin American Latinx Caribbean double major and Education minor
I joined the Educational Equity Lab because I took Professor Browman’s Motivation in the Classroom seminar course, which included classroom observations and focus groups with students at a local high school. It was really interesting to hear students talk about their math motivation and the positive impact that their teachers and their style of teaching could have. This made me want to learn more and get involved in transforming their experience.
A psychological finding that has stuck with me is that students of color are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college if they have a single same-race teacher in grades K-3 (Gershenson et al., 2022). This shows much of a difference racial representation can make, especially in urban schools, for reducing educational equities (e.g., receiving lower resources, being more likely to get suspended, being less likely to go to college; Nolan, 2011; Watson, 2011).
Julia Biamonte (she/her/hers)
Class and Major: Class of 2026 – Psychology major and American Sign Language & Deaf Studies minor
I joined the Educational Equity Lab because I am fascinated by the lab’s focus on equity in education, and the chance to gain lab-based experience in research methods on these topics.
A psychological finding that has stuck with me is that when teachers were led to believe that select students had high intellectual potential, those students showed more remarkable intellectual development over time, even when the feedback teachers received about the students was made up (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). This self-fulfilling prophecy, known as the Pygmalion Effect, underscores the psychological impact of teachers’ beliefs and expectations on student outcomes, and highlights the need for educators to be mindful of their assumptions and biases for promoting a more equitable educational opportunities for all students.
Lab Mascot
Cole
Class: 2019 (i.e., he’s 4)
Major: General cuteness/mayhem
Joined the Educational Equity Lab because the Lab Director had treats.
A psychological finding that has stuck with me is that pets have positive effects on psychological well-being, including the ability to stave off negativity caused by social rejection (McConnell et al., 2011, 2017, 2019).
Lab Alumni
Collaborators
David Miele, Ph.D., Department of Applied, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College
Mesmin Destin, Ph.D., Department of Psychology and School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
Gregory Walton, Ph.D, Department of Psychology, Stanford University
Carol Dweck, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Stanford University
Sidney May, Ph.D., The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
Meghan Coughlan, Ph.D., Department of Applied, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College
Marina Vasilyeva, Ph.D., Department of Applied, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College
Daniel Molden, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Kevin Binning, Ph.D., Department of Psychology and Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh