Kevin Pugh

• Ph.D. (2002) – Educational Psychology: Learning & Cognition, Michigan State University, MI
• B.S. (1994) – Psychology, Brigham Young University, UT

After his Ph.D., Kevin Pugh held an appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo. He joined the University of Northern Colorado in 2006.

Dr. Pugh is known for his work on transformative experience theory and has published his research in top tier journals including Educational Psychologist, Educational Researcher, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and others. He has obtained grants from the National Science Foundation and other funding agencies. He currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Experimental Education.

Dr. Pugh primarily teaches courses on learning theory, cognition, and motivation, both online and face-to-face. His teaching practice emphasizes transformative, authentic, and problem-based learning. As an example, read about the Calvin Project in which pre-service teachers learn about motivation by trying to solve Calvin’s motivation problems (yes, Calvin is the one from the Calvin & Hobbes comic).

Dr. Pugh is a pioneer in the development of transformative experience theory. This theory seeks to understand why learning is more transformative for some students and how to foster transformative learning for all students. The theory is based on Dewey’s theory of aesthetic experience and defines transformative experience as those experiences in which students come to see and experience the world in meaningful new ways as a result of learning new ideas in school. Find more information on transformative experience theory and a list of relevant articles on the Learning and Experience Blog.

Dr. Pugh’s broader research interests and expertise include a study of motivation, learning transfer, science education, problem-based learning, and Dewey’s philosophy of education.

• Royse, E. A., Holt, E., Pugh, K. J., & Kriescher, D. (in press). Anatomy and physiology beyond “This is interesting:” Assessing transformative experiences through epistemic network analysis. Journal of Science Education and Technology.
• Manzanares, A. D., & Pugh, K. J. (2025). Interest and transformative experience as predictors of geoscience academic and career choice. Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 233. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15020233
• Goldman, J., Cavazos, J., Heddy, B. C., & Pugh, K. J. (2024). Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 10(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000263Manzanares
• Manzanares, A. D., Anderson, S. W., & Pugh, K. J. (2023). College students’ prior knowledge and alternative conceptions regarding minerals. Journal of Geoscience Education, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2205990
• Pugh, K. J., Bergstrom, C. M., Phillips, M. M., Sexton, J. M., Olson, C., & Riggs, E. M. (2023). Perceived connection to instructor and instructor passion as predictors of transformative experiences in science. Education Sciences, 13(5), 526. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050526
• Pugh, K. J., Kriescher, D. P. J., Tocco, A. J., Olson, C., Bergstrom, C. M., Younis, M., & BenSalem, M. (2023). The Seeing Science project: Using design-based research to develop a transformative experience intervention. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 32, 338-354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-023-10031-6
• Cropp, S., Pugh, K. J., Bergstrom, C. M., & Kriescher, D. (2022). Seeing science: Using mobile technology to make learning transformative. Journal of Computers in Math and Science Teaching, 41(2), 85-108. 
• Fairchild, E., Newman, H., Sexton, J., Pugh, K., & Riggs, E. (2022). “Not to be stereotypical but…”. Exclusive and inclusive gendered discourses about geology field experiences. The Journal of Gender Studies, 31(4), 492-504.  doi:10.1080/09589236.2021.1924644 
• Carver, A. P., Garner, J. K., Kaplan, A., & Pugh, K. J. (2021). Visitors’ attendance motivation and meaning making at a public science event. International journal of Science Education, Part B, 11(1), 75-89.https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2021.1874620  
• Goldman, J., Cavazos, J., Heddy, B. C., & Pugh, K. J. (2021). Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, Advance online publication, 1-15. doi:10.1037/stl0000263