William Leonard | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Senior Lecturer

Undergraduate Prgm. Dir.

Chief Undergraduate Advisor

Office: Marcus 8B

Mailing Address:
8B Marcus Hall
University of Massachusetts
100 Natural Resources Road
Amherst, MA 01003-9292

leonard@ecs.umass.edu

(413) 545-3513

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Education

B.S., Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1982; Ph.D., 1988

Research

Engineering education, rate of learning models, expert-novice differences, alternative assessments, Mastery learning, transfer

Publications

W.J. Leonard, J.C. Kelly, & W.J. Gerace. "Work in Progress: Implementation and Research of Mastery Learning at an HBCU." Proceedings of the 40th Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (2010, accepted).
W.J. Leonard & W.J. Gerace. "Work in Progress: Application of Mastery Learning in an Introductory Mathematical Physics Course." Proceedings of the 40th Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (2010, accepted).
W.J. Leonard, W.J. Gerace, & C.V. Hollot. "Work In Progress: Implications of the Mastery approach for rates of learning and assessment." In D. Budny [Ed.], Proceedings of the 38th Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (pp. S4A:3-4). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE (2008).
W.J. Leonard, C.V. Hollot, & W.J. Gerace. "Mastering Circuit Analysis: An innovative approach to a foundational sequence." In D. Budny [Ed.], Proceedings of the 38th Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (pp. F2H:3-8). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE (2008).
B. Leonard. "Minds•On Physics: Redefining physics instruction." In L. Woolf [Ed.], American Physical Society Forum on Education Summer 2007 Newsletter (pp. 24-25). College Park, MD:APS (2007).
I.D. Beatty, W.J. Gerace, W.J. Leonard, & R.J. Dufresne. "Designing effective classroom response system questions." American Journal of Physics 74 (1), 31-39 (2006).
I.D. Beatty, W.J. Leonard, W.J. Gerace, & R.J. Dufresne. "Teaching science (well) with an audience response system." In D.A. Banks [Ed.], Audience Response Systems in Higher Education: Applications and Cases (pp. 96-115). Hershey, PA: Idea Group (2006).
T.C. Thaden-Koch, J.P. Mestre, R.J. Dufresne, W.J. Gerace & W.J. Leonard. "When Transfer Fails: Effect of knowledge, expectations, and observations on transfer in physics." In J.P. Mestre [Ed.], Transfer of Learning: Research and Perspectives (pp. 155-215). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing (2005).
W.J. Leonard, W.J. Gerace & R.J. Dufresne. "Resolutión de Problemas Basada en el Análisis.Hacer del análisis y del razonamiento el foco de la enseñanza de la física [Analysis-Based Problem Solving: Making analysis and reasoning the focus of physics instruction]." Enseñanza de las Ciencias [Science Teaching] 20 (3): 387-400 (2002).
R.J. Dufresne, W.J. Leonard & W.J. Gerace. "Making sense of students’ answers to multiple-choice questions." The Physics Teacher 40 (3): 174-180 (2002).
W.J. Leonard, W.J. Gerace & R.J. Dufresne. "Questions First (Q1st): The challenges, benefits, drawbacks, and results of asking students questions prior to formal instruction." In S. Franklin, J. Marx & K. Cummings [Eds.], Proceedings of the 2001 Physics Education Research Conference (pp.41-44). Rochester, NY: PERC Publishing (2001).
W.J. Leonard. "Dragging a box: The representation of constraints and the constraint of representations." The Physics Teacher 39 (7): 412-414 (2001).
R.J. Dufresne, W.J. Gerace & W.J. Leonard. "Springbok: The physics of jumping." The Physics Teacher 39 (2): 109-115 (2001).

Honors

IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education Conference Benjamin J. Dasher Award (with C.V. Hollot & W.J. Gerace, 2009); MERLOT Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources (with I.D. Beatty and R.J. Dufresne, 2009). UMass College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award (2009). UMass Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate student category, 1995)

Society Memberships:

American Association of Physics Teachers. American Physical Society. American Society of Engineering Education. National Council of Mathematics Teachers National Science Teachers Association

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