Interdisciplinary Frameworks for Schools: Best Professional Practices for Serving the Needs of All Students

Virginia Wise Berninger , PhD, is professor of learning sciences and human development at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. She brings an interdisciplinary background to writing the interdisciplinary frameworks, which includes being a general education teacher (5 years in urban and suburban schools), special education teacher (3 years in a rural school), reading specialist (1 year in an urban school), clinical psychologist on interdisciplinary teams (predoctoral and postdoctoral training at Boston Children's Hospital and as a licensed psychologist in Washington), school consultant (33 years in Boston and Seattle), research psychologist (Harvard Medical School, Tufts-New England Medical Center, University of Washington), trainer of school psychologists (1989-2006), and trainer of educators in K-12 and academics (2007-present). Her research experience includes serving as a principal investigator on research funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development on normal and disabled reading, writing, and oral language development (1989-2008), as well as working at a multidisciplinary learning disabilities center, conducting research on genetics, brain systems, assessment, and instruction (1995-2006, 2001-present).