Scientist Education
Formalizing the teaching and learning of scientists
My overall project in my doctoral program is establishing a sufficient knowledge base for the teaching and learning of STEM practitioners, a perspective I call scientist education, to allow teachers and pre-disciplinary educational programs to play as major partners in the development of a strong scientific workforce. To achieve this end, I employ quantitative, qualitative and philosophical methods to investigate the key ideas within this frame.
Philosophy
With the ultimate goal of being able to articulate learning theory, I pursue fundamental philosophical work on what it means to be a scientist in the first place, how one might transition to assume that identity, and how teachers can support that. I wish to develop educational frameworks to better explain to teachers what scientists are, separate from our ordinary understanding of scientists as implied by the nature of science (NOS).
My philosophical approach is heavily inspired by Robert Brandom’s flavor of inferentialism, and his usage of Kantian and Hegelian ideas to explicate reasoning.
Publications
- Dolino, L.G. & Akerson, V. (in press). Explicating a satisfying definition of a scientist. Science & Education.
Teacher Education
Teacher Training
I am currently exploring the development and evaluation of multiple educational interventions for the development of STEM research skills and attitudes. I am exploring work for primarily in-service teachers, but I also am interested in pre-service STEM teachers and students.
As part of this work, I also conduct student/teacher trainings in the Philippines, and design learning materials to support this effort.
Projects
- Development and evaluation of a pilot online summer research proposal writing workshop for secondary STEM teachers (Wayne Gross Memorial Fellowship, $3500)
The STARTLES group
In collaboration with Filipino research teachers across the life, physical, and computational/robotic sciences, I am leading a collaborative self-study in order to better understand the experience of teaching STEM research.
The STARTLES group, which stands for the Systematic Theorizing on Authentic Research Teaching and Learning Experiences in STEM, aims to generate a body of theoretical work, including a pedagogy, to better support the teaching and learning of in-school STEM research experiences.
Publications
- Dolino, L.G., Jeresano, W., Fabros, B., Adarayan, F., Millare, A., Caballero, S., Noseñas, E., & Akerson, V. (in preparation). A pedagogical reasoning framework for teaching and mentoring STEM research.
