4:23 p.m., Feb. 23, 2011----Kate Scantlebury, a University of Delaware chemist whose specialty is science education, has been elected to head the Research Division of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the largest science education organization in the world.

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A professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and director of the Secondary Education programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, Scantlebury will begin her three-year term on the association's board of directors in June.

She said she plans to further the NSTA's goal of providing its members -- who are science teachers at the elementary, secondary and college levels -- with access to science education research that can help them improve their classroom instruction and their students' learning. One project on which she already is working calls for the association to “revive and revise” a series of publications called “What Research Says to the Science Teacher.”

“We hope to begin publishing those in the next year,” Scantlebury says. “It will be a series of short books on various topics of interest to our members, based on polling we've done. This is one approach to improving the connections and communications between NSTA members and science education researchers.”

Possible research topics that would support classroom teachers include suggestions for instruction that engages all students in learning science, the use of technology, and effective professional development and mentoring experiences for teachers. Scantlebury's own research interests focus on equity issues, such as the connections between students' gender and race and their achievements and attitudes toward science.

Another of Scantlebury's goals as research division director on the NSTA board is to “encourage teachers to think about their teaching and to explore and share” effective practices, she said.

The NSTA, founded in 1944, has about 60,000 members and works to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning.

Scantlebury, who also is coordinator of secondary science education at UD, said the University's programs in secondary teacher education -- in which students major in a specific content area such as chemistry education or English education -- are “a long-established model that many other universities seek to replicate.” Some 10 percent of all undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences are pursuing degrees in secondary education.

Article by Ann Manser