Current Courses
PSY 599.006 Doctoral Research In Psychology
PSY 499.006 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
IDS 398.002 Professional Practice: For Interdisciplinary Studies Major or Minor
PSY 138.001 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.002 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.003 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.004 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.005 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.011 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 138.012 Reasoning In Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 290.006 Special Projects: Research Apprenticeship
PSY 291.006 Special Projects:Undergraduate Teaching
Teaching Interests & Areas
I teach a variety of courses with developmental research methods, Black psychology, and educational psychology being my usual courses. In all of my classes, I focus on cultural contexts and on how psychology can be applied professionally and personally.
Research Interests & Areas
I am interested in how communities support children's learning of various skills including how to read, play and draw pictures. More specifically, I have studied children's development in the context of museums, schools and homes. Also, I am interested in parents' beliefs about how children develop. This work is informed by various sociocultural theories of human functioning.
Grants & Contracts
Worldviews, Connections to Nature and Beliefs about Knowledge Acquisition among University Students of African Descent. African American Studies Minor. Illinois State University. (2020)
Interdisciplinary Initiative. ISU College of Arts and Sciences. Illinois State University. (2019)
Journal Article
Braswell, G. An introduction to the Video Activity Coder: Free software for coding videorecorded behaviors. Behavior Research Methods (2021)
Braswell, G. Changes in ancient Egyptian mathematical artifacts from a cultural-historical activity theory perspective. Culture and Psychology (2021)
Braswell, G. Toward a Process-centered Account of Literate Activity in the Classroom. Journal of Childhood Studies (2021)
Braswell, G. Preschool Children’s Participation in Representational and Non-representational Activities. Journal of Early Childhood Research 15 (2017): 195-211.
Braswell, G. Creation of an Observational Tool to Assess Children's Engagement at Museum Exhibits. Visitor Studies 19.2 (2016): 211-224.
Braswell, G., Rosengren, K., & Berenbaum, H. Gravity, God and ghosts? Parents’ beliefs in science, religion and the paranormal and the encouragement of beliefs in their children. International Journal of Behavioral Development 36 (2012): 99-106.
Braswell, G. Variations in children’s and adults’ engagement with museum artifacts. Visitor Studies 15 (2012): 123-135.
Braswell, G. Observations of representational practices by Indian-descent children in a US preschool classroom: Connections among people, spaces and artifacts.. Early Childhood Education Journal 43: 135-142.
Braswell, G. Young Children and Adults’ Sensitivity to Contexts for Social Conventions in Make-believe Play. Journal of Genetic Psychology 179: 371-384.
Hamayel, L., Braswell, G., & Hund, PhD, A. Diversity in Parenting: Socialization Goals of Palestinian Mothers from Different Socio-economic Backgrounds. Journal ofFamily Studies
Presentations
Family Engagement in a Children's Museum Exhibit: Variability in the Context of Exhibit Tools. Society for Research in Child Development. (2025)
Braswell, G. S. (November 13, 2020). Worldviews, connections to nature and beliefs about knowledge acquisition among university students of African descent. Presented at African American Studies Fall Lectures series (Illinois State University, Normal, IL).
Why should we be empathetic? Why should we be friends?. Extending Empathy Project. Department of Psychology, ISU. (2019)
Braswell, G. S. (June, 2016). Going with the flow: The impact of a water-based exhibit on visito behavior at a hands-on museum. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Chicago, IL.
Han, S., Braswell, G, DeSouza, E. R., & Rivadeneyra, G. (2016, October). Critical Reflection on Teaching and Addressing Diversity in the Classroom: Philosophy, Pedagogy, and More. 2016 Culturally Responsive Campus Community Conference: Uniting to Challenge Systems of Oppression. Illinois State University, Normal, Il.
Location, location, location: Situating Children's Development in Context. Children's Studies Brownbag. (2014)
Children’s engagement in representational and non-representational activities in a Head Start classroom.. Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Jean Piaget Society. (2013)
