Disciplinary Experts in Science Education Research Program details
 
 
The Rationale Behind Our Program Research in science education tends to take place among different communities of scholars. A greater percentage of scholars with backgrounds in developmental or educational psychology conduct studies at earlier grades, while a greater percentage of scholars with backgrounds in science disciplines study high school and college students. Research that looks across age levels suggests the value of close contact between these efforts. Few scholars, however, are prepared to study science learning from the seeds of scientific inquiry in young children to emerging disciplinary expertise in college and graduate students. This program will produce such scholars, able to attend to the full spectrum of learning and development from early beginnings of scientific reasoning in childhood through disciplinary expertise as adults. Building from an established collaboration between the departments of Physics and Curriculum & Instruction, this program also involves the Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics. Five graduate students will be supported for five years. They will achieve masters-level understanding of their science disciplines, take courses centered in the learning sciences, and participate in research and teaching experiences. Coursework Courses in your science discipline, as needed to achieve a masters degree level of understanding Developmental psychology, with an emphasis on historical and current models of cognitive development Models of cognition and learning, covering recent cognitive models and theoretical frameworks drawn from the cognitive and learning sciences Science education research, including major threads of past and current research and discipline-specific treatments of cognitive models of knowledge and reasoning in science Mathematics and literacy education research, because these are relevant for science educators, and to promote cross-fertilization with those areas Diverse learners, including issues relevant to schools in general as well as issues relevant specifically to the substance of science The design of learning environments, including computer-based, and emphasizing connections to models of cognition and learning Quantitative and qualitative research methods, including both clinical and classroom based approaches, as well as rigorous treatment of statistical methods. Research During your first two years, while primarily engaged in coursework, you will also participate part-time in an ongoing project of your choice, to explore some of the theoretical and methodological issues discussed in your courses and to inspire possible dissertation projects. Later, you will formulate your own full-time dissertation research study, which can be (but doesn't have to be) under the umbrella of one of our current projects. We are well-funded and well-staffed to provide the advising, support, supplies and travel funds needed to help your research succeed. Teaching Innovation is needed not just in research but also in teaching. At most colleges and universities, science education researchers regularly offer science teaching- methods courses, science content courses for future (or current) teachers, or both. Some research suggests, however, that integrating high-quality science instruction with explicit discussion of education theory and teaching methods might have a greater effect on teachers' beliefs and practices. More research is needed in which science education researchers develop and teach integrated content/methods courses for teachers and study the effects on those teachers. In this program, schedules permitting, you will teach a teaching-methods and/or science content class aimed at teachers, and you will conduct small-scale research in that setting as part of your coursework. Specifically, you will apprentice as a teaching assistant in an appropriate course for one semester, and then lead the course for one semester. Teaching innovative content and methods courses gives you the opportunity to pay close attention to students' conceptions, reasoning, and approaches to learning in an authentic classroom environment. The faculty and graduate students in our research group have consistently found that these kinds of classroom experiences improve research skills, inspire research questions, keep research relevant to instruction, and highlight realistic instructional implications of research.