Hello and Welcome to my online portfolio!

I am a teacher educator. Having studied and worked with Eleanor Duckworth, who in Geneva, studied and worked alongside Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, I recognize learning as being what learners do and teaching as putting one's expertise in the service of engaging learners in their own learning. When viewed from this perspective, teaching involves acknowledging and positioning students as observers, questioners, inquirers, innovators, and sense-makers. It requires that as teachers, we use our expert knowledge to structure subject matter such that it captures interest, sparks curiosity, and elicits exploratory activity. In this way, learning and teaching encourage the creativity and imagination of both learners and teachers. This holds true for both teachers in the K-12 grade levels--in which the subject matters to be known are those of science, mathematics, literature, art, music--and teacher educators who teach in teacher education programs in which the subject matter is teaching itself. This perspective of learning and teaching informs my work with teacher education students and teaching professionals.

With a background teaching science in the public school system, I have a special interest in working with educators to create a community of science learners in the classroom in which all students experience their creative capacities and see themselves as problem-solvers, inventors, innovators, and scientists. The increasing role of science in society and capacities developed in doing science, which align with the ways of thinking needed to flourish in and adapt to an ever-changing landscape, make this work a matter of social, educational, and economic equity and justice.

In this portfolio, I share work with teacher education students in licensure programs, teaching professionals and school districts, and STEM undergraduates and STEM faculty at the Center for Science Education.

I am grateful to Eleanor Duckworth, who continues to provide the inspiration for my work; members of Critical Explorers, a non-profit organization that supports Duckworth's critical exploration in schools; David Burgess, my colleague from Rivier University, with whom I developed a multi-year professional development program for NH school districts (StudentWorldTeacher.net) and the many dedicated teachers with whom we worked over the years, as the southern NH Science Teacher Inquiry Group. I thank Emmanuel College for the opportunity to launch and direct the Center for Science Education which, through funds provided by the Carolyn Lynch Foundation and commitment of STEM undergraduates and STEM faculty, supported outreach programming to inspire, attract, and retain urban youth to STEM.

Teacher Education Students

Teaching Professionals

The Center for Science Education