Research Award Goes to Kloser of Center for STEM Education
Dr. Matthew Kloser, director of the University of Notre Dame Center for STEM Education, has received the 2015 Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) Award for his research article titled, “Identifying a Core Set of Science Teaching Practices: A Delphi Expert Panel Approach.”
The award is presented by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), a worldwide organization for improving science teaching and learning through research.
The NARST judges chose Kloser’s piece as the most significant research article published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching during the past year.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive this recognition for my work on science teaching,” Dr. Kloser said. “I am grateful to everyone who supported and participated in this research, allowing me to contribute a small piece to the broader landscape of ambitious and impactful science education. We at the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education will continue our research efforts in this exciting and vital arena of instructional practice in science classrooms.”
Kloser’s research convened a group of national experts in science education that included scientists, science education researchers and educators and award-winning high school science teachers. After multiple rounds of qualitative analysis, this panel identified and moved toward consensus on a core set of instructional practices that potentially have the greatest opportunity to positively affect all students in the science classroom.
As part of the interdisciplinary Institute for Educational Initiatives and in collaboration with the Alliance for Catholic Education’s (ACE) Teaching Fellows faculty, the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education will continue to study and apply this research to improve science teaching in public and faith-based schools around the country.
Kloser earned a Ph.D. in science education from Stanford University in 2011 and began this work as a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching. A former science teacher in inner-city K-12 schools through Notre Dame’s ACE program, he collaborates on a number of projects focused on core instructional practices, science assessment, cognition, and whole-school STEM improvement.
The Notre Dame Center for STEM Education recently received a generous grant to launch a unique fellowship program designed to dramatically enhance STEM educators’ skills with a special focus on core instructional practices and school-wide impact initiatives. The Center is now accepting applications for the multi-year Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellowship.