Sebahat Gök

As of Fall 2026, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University's Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling. I earned my Ph.D. in 2024 from Indiana University, with dual majors in Cognitive Science and Instructional Systems Technology. 

My research lies at the intersection of cognitive science, learning sciences, and science education. Broadly, I study the cognitive mechanisms underlying learning and reasoning in scientific domains. Most recently, I have also been conceptualizing a scalable research-practice partnership ecosystem to support the classroom integration of scientific reasoning practices such as computational modeling in middle and high schools. 

Under these broad frameworks, here are some specific topics I investigate: 

• how people learn computationally demanding concepts through visual and dynamic representations

• whether crosscutting concepts, as articulated in science education frameworks (the NGSS and NRC reports),  actually function as common explanatory frameworks among practicing scientists in physics, chemistry, and biology. 

• the design aspects of computational models (computer simulations) and the instructional activities that accompany them that foster a robust and mechanistic understanding of scientific concepts

• the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that underlie whether a learner tunes in to or out of feedback

• how to scale learning sciences interventions while remaining responsive to teachers' individual agency and variation across contexts

Across these lines of work, my overarching goal is to understand how people develop scientific ways of thinking and to translate that knowledge into pedagogical innovations that improve science education at scale.

My research has appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Journal of Educational Psychology, Education & Science, and the Journal of Applied Instructional Design, as well as in the proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society and the International Society of the Learning Sciences.