Andrew D. Coppens is associate professor of education in learning sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz, with a designated emphasis in Latin American and Latina/o studies. His interdisciplinary, multi-method research focuses on how children's learning and development is supported by opportunities to share meaningful work with others. Much of his research examines cultural variation in whether children's learning involves their integration in or segregation from the work of adults and other experts. For example, Coppens's work has examined the development of children's collaborative initiative – an impressive form of self-regulated and prosocial learning – in Indigenous, Indigenous-heritage, and middle-class communities of Mexico and the U.S. This line of research on children's initiative has examined cultural practices regarding children's everyday family contributions, children's own views on helping out, and mothers' approaches and developmental ethnotheories regarding children's involvement in everyday work. This research has been published and presented internationally and across disciplines. Coppens teaches courses on the cultural organization of learning and child development in families, schools, and communities.
