Matt Kloser Named Editor of Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Matt Kloser, the director of the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education, together with Edna Tan (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and Dana Vedder-Weiss (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), have been named the incoming Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST). Their term will begin in 2025 and run through 2029.
The Journal of Research in Science Teaching, or JRST, is the premier peer-reviewed research journal in the field of science education. It is the official journal of National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), a global organization for improving science teaching and learning through research. The ultimate goal of NARST is to help all learners achieve science literacy.
Kloser is the founding director of the Center for STEM Education and a faculty member and Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame.
“The National Association for Research in Science Teaching has served as a professional community that has helped me grow in my understanding of critical issues related to science cognition and instruction,” said Kloser. “Serving as an editor-in-chief will allow me to give back to this community that has so shaped my own research while exponentially increasing the number of impactful scholars from whom I will get to learn. Being selected as an editor-in-chief will provide new means for shaping the discourse in the field, creating more efficient systems for feedback and publication, and new forums for how science is learned, where it is learned, and by whom it is learned.”
Kloser’s research focuses on issues of teaching, learning, and assessment in science classrooms with a special focus on biology education. His research includes experimental studies that identify affordances and constraints of learning biology from different text types, mixed methods studies focused on assessment implications for student outcomes, and the relationship between core instructional practices and student outcomes.”
Building on the exemplary work done by their predecessors, Troy Sadler and Felicia Moore Mensah, the Kloser, Tan & Vedder-Weiss team will work to realize the team’s vision for enhancing the work and future of the journal, expanding extensive networks with organizations outside of NARST, and fostering a collective commitment to diversity and equity.
“We are grateful to Matt for his leadership in bringing this high impact journal to the Institute for Educational Initiatives,” says Chrissy Trinter, acting director for the Institute for Educational Initiatives. JRST's focus on the value of empirically based teaching and learning practices aligns with our Institute's commitment to the advancement of student and teacher formation. Matt's appointment as editor-in-chief of JRST is evidence of what we at the Institute already know about the exceptional quality of his work and we are excited to share his gifts with the journal's global audience.
Kloser said, “NARST is increasingly a global organization for science education research. Our editorial team's vision seeks to draw on cutting edge research from not only the United States, but across the world as a means to better understand and serve learners across all science contexts. Our editorship also comes at an inflection point as journals shift to digital-only formats, questions exist about the role of AI in authorship, and new mechanisms must be pursued for producing more open access scholarship at affordable rates. Our editorial team is excited to think deeply and creatively about these issues as a means for moving the field forward.”
The Journal for Research in Science Teaching is the third journal recently housed at the University of Notre Dame, joined by the Journal of Catholic Education, edited by Monica Kowalski, and The ALAN Review, edited by Michael Macaluso.
