Doctoral
Students
As a Research-1 University, one of the main thrusts of faculty work is
to mentor doctoral students through the rigors of coursework, research,
and dissemination of their own ideas. I have been extremely fortunate
to work with talented, energetic, and intelligent students. I consider
them colleagues rather than students. The details of our doctoral program
can be found on the college’s website, but I would like to briefly
describe six of the very special individuals with whom I have worked most
recently.
Current students in order of entry into our program:
Jessica Thompson is a former middle school and high school
science teacher with three years of experience in rural North Carolina
schools and five years in Washington state. Her research interest is in
students who are at-risk for failing science. Her master’s thesis
deals with at-risk high school girls’ sense of identity and how
that relates to their engagement in science learning. It has been accepted
for publication as: Failing girls: Personal relevance & engagement
in science learning among underachieving girls in the Journal of Women
and Minorities in Science and Engineering. For her dissertation, Jessica
is looking at how identity and personal relevance influence engagement
with high school girls at risk of failing science.
Pamela Nagasawa is a former college instructor in Chemistry
and Physics, and she has worked in various capacities in professional
development with science teachers. She has also has extensive experience
as a researcher in human toxicology and quality control chemistry. Pam’s
interest has been in the area of “writing to learn” in science.
A recent study of hers elaborated on how various genres of writing in
a science classroom reveal different aspects of the epistemological understandings
of students about science. Pam has continued to do studies in upper elementary
classrooms on the effects of curriculum designed to get young students
to engage in sophisticated discourse about investigation and argumentation
through various genres of writing. Pam is preparing for her dissertation
which will extend this line of research.
Joseph Shannon is a former instructor of chemistry at
the West Point Academy. He is studying the development of pedagogical
content knowledge by chemistry instructors and how this knowledge is shaped
by attention to student thinking. He is currently doing a research study
in which he is assessing how PCK is deployed or fails to be used in authentic
chemistry instructional settings. After finishing his degree, he will
assume the position of head instructor of chemistry at the West Point
Academy.
Ellen McGough has been a practicing physical therapist
for the past 15 years. She currently teaches at the University of Washington
School of Physical Therapy. For her master’s work, Ellen studied
the cognitive aspects of clinical decision-making by comparing novice
physical therapy students with experts on the faculty. She is beginning
her doctoral studies and has decided to extend her investigations of the
cognitive basis for clinical decision-making in physical therapy settings.
Two recent graduates of our doctoral program:
Tamara Nelson completed her dissertation on the knowledge-based
interactions between graduate students in the sciences and middle school
science teachers with whom they were paired to develop curriculum and
collaboratively teach. A piece of this work has recently been accepted
for publication in the Journal of Teacher Education. Tamara is now a faculty
member at Washington State University in Vancouver WA.
Trang Ngyun studied the construct of “border crossing”
for English-language learners in a science classrooms. She worked in a
special “newcomers” center in Seattle where recent immigrants
are helped to acclimate themselves to the American school culture. She
examined the various types of participation that new students engaged
in and theorized about how the disciplinary practices of sciences (as
presented by the teacher) and the cultural qualities of the classroom
influenced the types of voluntary and non-voluntary participation by recent
Asian immigrants. Trang is now working for the Klamath Falls Schools in
Oregon.
