Mary A. Pei, 2023 Dissertation Mini-Grant winner

The most recent recipient of the Johns Hopkins School of Education’s Innovation in Research Fellowship for her three-study, mixed-methods dissertation on gifted identification tests, Mary A. Pei is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Advanced Studies in Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She holds a Master of Science in educational studies and a graduate certificate in urban education, also from Johns Hopkins University, and earned her B.A. in linguistics and Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Pei’s research incorporates linguistics, semiotics, creativity, and measurement design in examining the identification, measurement, and development of talent and creativity in the United States and East Asia. In addition to her studies in Asian-American experiences in education, she has served as the graduate evaluation assistant on projects in the U.S. and East Asia, performing both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.

The goal of Pei’s qualitative study is meaning-making from teachers’ perceptions of linguistic-cognitive bias in the CogAT Nonverbal Battery and the Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test. Teachers possess intimate, practical knowledge about students and educational experiences, and their professional expertise can illuminate further areas of investigation as we work toward equity in gifted education. In that spirit, Pei intends to interview 10 to 30 gifted and talented teachers about their perceptions of linguistic-cognitive bias in these two nonverbal tests to build knowledge about both stakeholder perceptions of the nonverbal tests and stakeholder perceptions of linguistic-cognitive bias. Using a semi-structured interview approach, she will focus on specific themes while leaving freedom for related, unexpected elements.

The Foundation’s Dissertation Mini-Grant was created to assist doctoral students for dissertation research related to intelligence or gifted education.