Building The ‘Bridge’ Between Research and Practice

The way Doug Mosher tells the story, he didn't really come to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. HGSE came to him.

Mosher, Ph.D.’24, was working as a first-grade teacher at an underperforming elementary school in Nashville when a consultant came to introduce what he describes as “an awesome vocabulary intervention.”

The consultant, Claire White, Ed.M.’99, Ed.D.’05, was an Ed School alum whose goal was to help third- and fourth-grade students improve their language skills and reading vocabulary by discussing “controversial topics that are engaging,” says Mosher. White had worked with HGSE Professor Catherine Snow on the project and was now applying it in the field.

At first, his colleagues were reluctant to try something new, but Mosher was intrigued, and worked with White to modify the word generation lessons for his younger students. It was a “chance” brush with putting academic research into practice that changed the trajectory of his entire life.

“I feel so lucky to have been in that position,” says Mosher, a Ph.D. marshal for the HGSE class of 2024. “It just seemed fun, and I was at a point where I was looking for some new ideas to try in the classroom and this just seemed awesome.”

Mosher dove into the project for the next three years, helping White track student performance, collect data, and build lesson plans that he used in his own classroom. The program saw positive results, and soon the vocabulary intervention was implemented in other classrooms in the school. Mosher said he learned a lot, first and foremost that he really enjoyed doing academic research. And so when White told Mosher he could earn his doctorate doing this kind of work at HGSE – and maybe even get paid to do it – he was intrigued.

“I was just so excited about research. Having questions and designing things and then testing them out,” says Mosher. “I thought I was going to be a teacher forever. But I was starting to burn out. I was working really long hours. It’s a lot of pressure at an underperforming school to turn it around, and a lot of excitement. But at the same time, I was thinking I have to go back to school eventually.”

Teaching wasn’t exactly Mosher’s first love. A professional saxophonist, Mosher started substitute teaching when he moved to Nashville in the early 2000s. He learned to love the classroom, though, finding that same rush of energy and excitement he’d also experienced performing on stage.

Mosher applied to HGSE, particularly interested in the vocabulary research being done by Professor James Kim at the READS Lab, where he now conducts his own research. The three-part dissertation he defended this spring is a capstone of sorts, what Mosher describes as a shifting of his purpose in life.

“It’s been fun to see my true passion shift more toward research and working with schools and districts,” says Mosher. “Music will always be a part of my life, but I feel like this is my purpose now.”

That shift has changed how he views teachers, too. The learning environment at HGSE, he explains, is a big departure from the stereotypical music teacher myth that a “cold” and “suffering” teacher gets the most out of their students. Mosher called the faculty “a warm safety blanket” that created a welcoming learning environment over the last six years.

“It’s kind of what we try to do in intervention research,” says Mosher. “Create lessons that are engaging, build interest, build knowledge, make connections. That’s what all the faculty do.”

With Kim and the READS Lab, Mosher has worked on projects to improve reading comprehension in elementary school students using its Model of Reading Engagement (MORE) program. The project recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to scale that model for use in new school districts. Mosher, always looking for chances to connect back with the classroom, describes the work as building “the bridge over the gap” that often exists between research and practice.

“Doug's exceptional research program shows how small improvements in the quality of teachers’ talk can have a big impact on students’ ability to read challenging science and social texts with greater understanding and engagement,” says Kim.

The work has certainly been noticed by the members of his cohort as well. Mosher calls his nomination to be a Ph.D. marshal “out of the blue.” He recalls the initial anxiety of joining a group of talented educators with experience working in so many impressive fields before arriving at HGSE. To be recognized by them, he says, reflects the support he’s felt from the community.

“I’m just very honored and touched that they voted me as a marshal,” says Mosher. “The cohort I’m in is full of really awesome, interesting, passionate people who are really dedicated to their areas of study. I was very surprised, but touched and honored.”

Mosher noted the difficulties his cohort experienced over the last six years, including a pandemic that disrupted research and entire ways of life. While some classmates moved away for good, Mosher doesn’t see himself leaving anytime soon.

“It feels like home,” says Mosher, whose father grew up in New England and has seen more family move to the area in recent years as well. “It's a really exciting thing to live in a place where I’ve always wanted to be. I finally ended up here and I don’t really want to leave.”

Mosher’s former school in Nashville, by the way, is now thriving. And here in Cambridge, so is he.