Settling in, starting science ed PhD

Tim Slater

Editor's  note: To hear Tim Slater talk about the new PhD program in science education, click here.

   One theme has dominated Tim Slater's early months on the College of Education faculty: launching a PhD program that will prepare the next generation of science educators.
   Slater, Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair in Science Education, has focused on three major goals since joining the faculty in August:
•    Securing financial support for graduate student fellowships;
•    Rallying UW faculty around a common purpose defining what graduates of the new program should be able to accomplish upon completion; and
•    Learning the processes and structures that guide UW's decision-making processes.
   The first goal is critical to attracting the quality of students desired to this program, Slater says. The presence and strength of the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center (SMTC) makes the second goal less challenging than one might expect.
      "It's been surprisingly easy," Slater says. "The SMTC has a long tradition here, of working across the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering and Agriculture."
   While collaborating to deliver graduate-level programming is the SMTC's cornerstone, Slater's arrival has facilitated new conversations about expansion.
      "It's not just because I'm here that these conversations are taking place, but having a ‘new guy on the block' gives them an excuse to get together," he says. "Some things have happened just because there was a new face on board."
   Weekly research meetings involving SMTC affiliate faculty are the primary vehicles for these early efforts.
      "The idea, really, is to try to identify places where we overlap and collaborate," Slater explains. "It's not really a show-and-tell, from the sense of ‘here's what I'm doing that's cool,' but ‘Here are the kinds of things I'm interested in. Would you like to help me?'"
   Expanding collaboration opportunities is expected to benefit incoming doctoral students. New students become part of a four-person team when they enter the program. They will join an existing UW research project, where their opportunities to learn from and with their team members in mutually beneficial ways.
      "I want to be sure that every graduate student is mentored by a full professor and a junior professor and a senior graduate student," Slater explains. "You learn something different from all of those people. The full professor has the world view, the junior professor has the ‘I've got to publish this paper' view, and the senior grad student says, ‘Here's how you get through the coursework you've got to get through."
   Slater brought this "intergenerational" approach to mentoring CAPER (Cognition in Astronomy, Physics and Earth Sciences Research) -- from the University of Arizona.   
    Leadership in the field and the capacity to move it forward drive expected outcomes for graduates of the new doctoral program, Slater says. They will become "stewards of the discipline," prepared to advance knowledge and the practice of science education beyond their mentors' contributions.
   In fact, their doctoral research is expected to focus on creating a new way of teaching a scientific concept. They must be able to articulate the cognitive science behind it, the scientific content, the history of how the concept has been taught to this point, and how their new approach is more effective at facilitating student learning.
 Endowed Chair Responsibilities
   Assuming the legislatively-funded endowed chair introduced a few twists to Slater's professional life. One of the minor surprises is the increased visibility that often places him in social settings with donors, administrators and policy makers.
   "You really get involved in the public relations aspects of the college and the university," he says. Funding to support research increases; and along with it, a shift in thinking about spending it.
   "You start to think much more strategically, instead of tactically," Slater says. "How many assistantships do I have to have in place to graduate 10 students in five years?"
   Critical to his successful transition to Wyoming and the successful launch of the science education PhD program has been having the encouragement of College of Education Dean Kay Persichitte.
      "Kay has been incredibly supportive," Slater says. "We couldn't do what we have done here in one semester if the dean hadn't have been 100 percent behind us."
 

Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009