Charleen Brand

Charleen Brand is a post-doctoral researcher in the Learning and Instruction group of Prof. Dr. Martina Rau, which she joined in September 2025.

She is interested in the cognitive mechanisms and processes that facilitate learning in instructional designs. In her research, she uses experimental designs and process measures of learning. 

Charleen studied Educational Science and English Studies at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Educational Psychology and Technology Research Group. There, she also completed her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nikol Rummel and Prof. Dr. Katharina Loibl (University of Education Freiburg, Germany). In her doctoral work, she investigated the role of prior knowledge activation for learning in composite instructional designs with problem solving prior to an instruction (e.g., Productive Failure).