SCIENCE EDUCATION
My research focus is in science education, including chemical and biochemical education. I am particularly interested in teacher change, both at the K–12 level and the university/community college level. For instance, I have worked with both practicing elementary and middle school teachers in graduate programs at Florida State University, helping them conduct action research in their own classrooms in an effort to address a problematic issue and to improve teaching and learning. Some of these studies are published as Science in the Elementary School Classroom, which is now available in downloadable form at http://www.serve.org/Eisenhower/publications/publications.html.
I have also encouraged both practicing and prospective middle and high school teachers to become involved in scientific research in order to understand scientific discovery and inquiry. Interestingly, most K–12 science teachers have not had scientific experience, making it harder for them to teach science through inquiry. Some of this research is published as Meaningful Science (see publications) and now is available at http://www.serve.org/Eisenhower/publications/publications.html. SERVE has just contracted with us to edit a monograph on the effects of scientific research on prospective secondary science teachers.
At the university/community college level, I am the co-principal investigator of the Florida Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation grant, funded by the National Science Foundation. We recently hosted a faculty-teacher forum for Florida higher education faculty in science, mathematics, and technology. Our research examines the factors that influence teacher change in higher education: What factors influence (facilitate or constrain) faculty to improve the environment for learning? How does faculty’s choice of assessment drive students' learning?
To understand these issues more deeply, I have engaged in action research in my own university biochemistry classroom. Currently I am earning a second doctorate in science education from Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. I am writing my doctoral thesis now.
I utilize a metaphor of triple point (i.e., a specific condition of temperature and pressure at which three phases of a pure substance can coexist and interconvert as solid, liquid, and gas) as a condition at which I can coexist and interconvert in my roles in teaching, research, and service. This is described in the book Transforming Undergraduate Science Teaching: Social Constructivist Perspectives (Peter Lang Publishers, forthcoming), which I co-edited with my two current co-major professors, Peter Taylor and Ken Tobin.
