Research program

Governments around the world are calling for the formation of more scientists and innovators. How can teachers do that?

I came to this question through practice. Before beginning my doctorate, I taught chemistry, experimental design, and STEM research in the Philippines, where I mentored 45 students across 15 scientific research projects. That work taught me that authentic inquiry requires more than having students know content and exhibit practices. Teachers must make scientific expectations visible, help learners exercise judgment, work within real constraints, and make decisions during high uncertainty.

Making STEM research teachable

Science is complex, uncertain, and public. Science education often describes future scientists through what they know and whether they see themselves as belonging in science. Those dimensions matter, but when we evaluate practicing scientists, we also ask about their research. We ask about their science.

I study how STEM research becomes teachable, not just assignable. I use scientist education to name the explicit teaching and learning project of forming scientists: helping learners move from knowledge learners to knowledge generators, and preparing educators to guide that transition responsibly.

Since Thomas Kuhn, research training has frequently been framed as a pipeline, apprenticeship, or mentoring problem. I wish to formalize this as educational work: the people who train scientists are not uncontroversial authority figures who only make science happen. We must understand this explicitly as a science educational project.

My dissertation, Formalizing the Teaching of Scientists within STEM Teacher Education, brings my program together through three connected questions:

1. What does it mean to become a scientist?
2. How do the teachers of potential scientists reason while guiding authentic STEM research?
3. What preparation and professional support do research teachers need?

Not every student has to become a scientist. But if governments across the world expect science education toward a stronger scientific workforce, leading to pre-tertiary schools and teachers as key partners for scientist formation, we need to understand how to teach authentic science well.

Policy, service, and Southeast Asia

Since 2021, I have worked to strengthen pre-tertiary scientist education in the Philippines. I founded the volunteer initiative Tanim Talino to offer contextual support to high school students pursuing authentic STEM research. The initiative has supported more than 2,000 students and brought together approximately 2,000 teachers and STEM professionals in an online community of practice.

I have also designed and led professional development for STEM research teachers. Through Project PEARLS and related fellowship-supported work, my collaborators and I have developed workshops that help teachers reason across the scientific and educational demands of student research. These experiences continue to shape my work. Teachers are not substitutes for scientists, and are definitely not less than scientists (which is a common unfortunate deficit perspective), but are our partners with their own knowledge and responsibilities.

My public work centers young people and teachers as contributors to educational decisions. From 2023 to 2025, I co-chaired the AI, Digital Learning & Digital Transformation group within the UNESCO-sponsored SDG4 Youth & Student Network, and I continue as a network member. I have contributed to discussions on AI literacy, assessment, and youth participation at the UN Headquarters and online, including invited engagements with Southeast Asian educators.

The Philippines, and Southeast Asia more broadly, form my current empirical and service base. I aim to bridge my SEA-facing work with broader global efforts to support more teachers and scientists.

Every scientist is a person with a story. Across my theoretical, empirical, and public work, I try to begin with what learners and teachers could contribute rather than with what they supposedly lack.

If you are working on similar questions, or are curious about what this kind of work can look like in context, I would be happy to connect.