Research that gives back is at the heart of Patricia Hardré’s (PhD ‘02) academic agenda. Hardré, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma, said she designs her research projects so participants are not just subjects, but more like partners in developing outcomes.

“I involve my research participants in a two-way loop of information and conversation about the findings,” she said. “Findings published in a journal are not enough. I want my research to make a difference, not in some eventual future way, but now. So, I design research that includes clear and immediate benefits for participants because this way everybody gains.”
Hardré is currently involved in a study of motivation, which includes students, teachers, and administrators in 50 schools across Oklahoma. To provide maximum benefits to participating schools, she and her colleagues go beyond site visits and actual administration of the study. Specific information is returned to the schools.

“I give back a report that includes the year-long full-study results, the individual school’s data, and papers that include detailed findings and implications in usable language,” she said. “Schools are also invited to participate in the project’s outcome through an interactive online professional development opportunity supporting what is found to be the most effective motivating strategies.”

Frederick High School Principal James Redeker said motivating students to learn is one of the biggest problems facing schools today. “Pat’s research allows us to see the qualities to move that issue along.”

Hardré has continued to study professional development among graduate teaching assistants, work she first began through her dissertation at Iowa. TAs receive individualized feedback on lesson designs and videotape copies of their classroom teaching so they can use the tape and the relevant feedback to improve their teaching in the same semester, she said.

“I also help coach them through the developmental process long after their participation in the study is over,” Hardré said. “And they’re given access to online resources for their ongoing professional development.”

Dolores Mize, associate vice chancellor for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, said Hardre’s research with Oklahoma’s GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) not only helped from a state-level policy perspective, but also helped show how a broad program influences teaching and learning in the classroom.

“Dr. Hardré taught us about impact,” Mize said. “She brought scientific-based research to our program in an area that previously wasn’t able to discern such effects. Her collaboration helped move our mutual goals of improving college preparation for Oklahoma students forward.”

Since she began teaching at Oklahoma, Hardré has received the university’s Junior Faculty Enhancement Award for exceptional demonstration of early-career research and scholarship and the Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award.

She won several awards while studying at Iowa, including the Excellence in Gifted Education Award (for support of gifted K-12 students) from the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Devleopment.

Hardré, whose ancestry includes Cherokee on her father’s side and Blackfoot on her mother’s side, also is involved in several Native American activities on campus.

“I love the Native American culture, art, literature, music, and ritual,” she said. “I attend Native American students’ graduation ceremonies, the Spring Powwow, the Lakota sweat lodge, and meetings of the OU Native Faculty Association.”

–by Joe Nugen