Mary Christenson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Contact Info:

• E-mail: christenson.4@osu.edu
• Office: 410G Galvin Hall (Lima Campus)
• Phone: 419-995-8872
• Fax: 419-995-8483

Mailing Address:

• 4240 Campus
• Lima, OH 45804-3576

Biographical Information:

Mary Christenson is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Lima Campus. Her research interests have been influence by her 18 years of primary grade teaching experience and over 10 years of working with one of The Ohio State University's professional development schools. There are two directions she has taken with these interests. She has focused her attention on early literacy as it develops into the multiple literacies connected to environmental education. She is also interested in action research as a vehicle for the professional development and personal growth of teachers. School university collaboration can and should be a part of this process. Her dissertation focused on 5 classroom teachers, working collaboratively with the researcher to plan, implement and evaluate ideas in their classrooms. The goal was to look at the impact on students and teachers of the teachers working together to use children's literature to teach multiple perspectives on controversial environmental issues in primary grades. As the results of this study plus other work she has done so far, she hopes to continue to explore early environmental literacy development in classrooms and collaborative action research as professional development.