Faculty Directory
Katherine McNeill
Program Director, Curriculum and Instruction, M.Ed.
Professor
Bryk Faculty Fellow
Katherine McNeill
Ph.D.
Contact
Campion Hall Room 122
Telephone: 617-552-4229
Email: katherine.mcneill@bc.edu
ORCID
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan
- M.S., University of Michigan
- B.A., Brown University
Courses
Teaching About the Natural World
Dissertation Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction
Design of Learning Environments in the Learning Sciences
Curriculum Design and Enactment
Research Interests
Science education; curriculum design and enactment; professional learning design and enactment; design of learning environments for students, teachers, and instructional leaders
Expertise
- Design of Learning Experiences and Technologies
- STEM Teaching and Learning
- Curriculum & Instruction
Department
Profile
Dr. Katherine L. McNeill (she/her) is the Bryk Faculty Fellow and Professor of science education at 艾可直播 College. Her research focuses on the design and scale of curriculum, professional learning and other resources to support students, teachers and instructional leaders in equitable scientific sensemaking. Currently, she is researching the customization and scale up of a highly rated open source science curriculum (OpenSciEd) with schools in Massachusetts. Curriculum serves as an important resource to inform instruction, but teachers need to read, interpret and enact curriculum in responsive ways that adapt the materials for their students and context. She is working with teachers to better understand and support the changes they make to curriculum within their larger organizational context.
Her work has been funded by organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of NY. In 2011 she received the Early Career Research Award and in 2025 the Fellows Award both from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). In addition, in 2015 she became a Fellow for the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE). Dr. McNeill has published the findings from her work in over 85+ publications including books, book chapters and journal articles for both educational researchers and practitioners. She has also conducted many workshops at the annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and for school districts including the Detroit Public Schools, the Denver Public Schools and the 艾可直播 Public Schools.
Select Publications
McNeill, K.L., Fine, C., Lowell, B. R. & Affolter, R. (2026). Teachers鈥� customizations of storyline science curriculum: Adapting for their students and classroom contexts. Science Education,听110(3), 739-755.
Cherbow, K., McNeill, K. L., Lowell, B. R., & Grymonpre, K. (2026). Revisiting the teacher-curriculum relationship: Planning and enacting storyline science curriculum to be coherent from the student perspective. Science Education, 110(20), 617-638.
McNeill, K. L., Lee, S., Zhang, Y., Moore, A. T., Buell, J., Moreno Vera, M., Reiser, B. J. & Balke, B. (2026). Centering students鈥� resources: Curricular customization for responsive and expansive science teaching. In Terrell, K. L & Pimentel, D. S. (Eds.), Science education and culturally sustaining pedagogies: Research, practices and critical reflections. (pp. 69-102) Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
McNeill, K. L., Affolter, R., Lowell, B. R., Cherbow, K, Gonzalez, C. & Lee, S. (2025). Supporting teachers through curriculum-based professional learning: Shifting teachers鈥� instructional vision of science to empower student voice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 34(5), 787-839.
Fine, C., Lee, S. & McNeill, K. L. (2025). Teachers鈥� beliefs about language in science matter: Customizing science curricula to center emergent multilingual learners鈥� sensemaking. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 20(3-4), 249-274.
Lee, S. DiFrancesco, B., Fine, C. G., & McNeill, K. L. (2024). Expanding language use: Supporting emergent multilingual learners鈥� sensemaking in science. Science Scope, 47(5), 36-44.
Lowell, B. R., Fogelman, S. E., & McNeill, K. L. (2024). Organizational sensemaking during curriculum implementation: The dilemma of agency, role of collaboration, and importance of discipline-specific leadership. Science Education, 108(5), 1448-1473.
McNeill, K. L. & Affolter, R. (2024). Teacher expertise makes high-quality curriculum work. The Learning Professional, 45(5), 32-36.
Lowell, B. R. & McNeill, K. L. (2023). Changes in beliefs and confidence over time: A longitudinal study of science teachers engaging in storyline curriculum-based professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 60(7), 1457-1487.
Cherbow, K. & McNeill, K. L. (2022). Planning for epistemic agency in storyline discussions: A revelatory case of student-informed curricular sensemaking. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 31(3), 408-457.
Honors & Awards
National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Fellows Award (2025)
International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE) Fellows Award (2015)
National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Early Career Award (2011)
Grants & Fellowships
Principal Investigator. Professional learning resources for customizing curricula to support elementary students in using full communicative repertoires for scientific sensemaking. $2,019,730. National Science Foundation 鈥� DRL-2509287, September 2025 鈥� August, 2029.
Principal Investigator. Supporting teacher customizations of curriculum materials for equitable student sensemaking in secondary science. $2,950,864. National Science Foundation 鈥� DRL-2101384, July 2021 鈥� June 2027.聽
Principal Investigator. Elementary school OpenSciEd field test coordinator and scale-up. $382,301. National Center for Civic Innovation, Inc. May 2023 鈥� June 2026.