Biography

David Burrows served as provost and dean of the faculty at Lawrence University from July 2005 to July 2017.  His responsibilities included the recruitment, development and evaluation of faculty, the curriculum in the Bachelor of Arts program, and academic budgeting. He worked directly with the library, the athletics department, the registrar’s office and student academic services. He is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of Inclusive Pedagogy.

Prior to arriving at Lawrence, Burrows served as dean of the college and vice president for academic affairs at Beloit College from 1997 to 2005.  Burrows spent eight years on the faculty at the State University of New York at Brockport and seventeen years at Skidmore College, including three years as associate dean of the faculty, and several years at each school as chair of the psychology department.  A cognitive psychologist, he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Toronto.

As a faculty member, Burrows has done research on models of memory, focusing on the retrieval of information that has been previously memorized. He has also done research on the relationship between learning information and the development of intellectual skill.  He teaches courses in introductory psychology, cognitive psychology, experimental methods and the psychology of language. After becoming an academic administrator he developed interests in how research on cognitive processes can help effective planning and implementation of general education programs. His current research is on the ways that students can improve their learning by developing skill at monitoring their own learning processes. One of the implications of this research is that students can increase their learning effectiveness by knowing how long to study units of material before it is productive to go on the learn other pieces of material

At Lawrence, Burrows was involved in the development of the Senior Experience program, the Strategic Plan of 2005-2010, and the development of a long-term plan for faculty staffing. He has been very active in the Posse program.