Associate Research Professor
Ed.D., Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California
E-Mail: kennetay@usc.edu
Phone: (310) 379-0844
Office: WPH 1103A
Dr. Kenneth Yates is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Southern California, Center for Cognitive Technology at the Rossier School of Education and a Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. At the Center, Dr. Yates develops training and evaluation programs and conducts research in, and applications of, cognitive task analysis methods to improve human performance, instructional design, and educational technology. At the Keck School of Medicine, he conducts research in applying cognitive task analysis methods to capture and document the expertise of the surgical faculty toward developing the teaching methods, materials, and assessments that represent both the technical skills and cognitive processes required for complex surgical procedures.
Dr. Yates has over 30 years of national and international experience in media and technology and has held executive positions at various electronic media companies. He has been a media and technology consultant on a number of USAID-sponsored international training and development projects. Recently, he developed training and evaluation programs for the US Army, conducted cognitive task analysis and designed training for counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and designed training for a US Army course in bilateral negotiations for the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.
His research focuses on the use of cognitive task analysis methods to capture and document the underlying knowledge and skills experts use to solve complex problems and the design of instruction to effectively teach this expertise to others. He is also interested in how information communication technologies can be used to deliver instruction more efficiently and to a wider audience. Dr. Yates also teaches graduate level courses in learning, motivation, and instructional design.