useasdirected

What the...? Generated by a joomlabot? Anyway, tut, I chatted about your comment with a knowledgeable friend, and she echoed the same sentiment about HGSE shifting focus, or at least not being the science education inner sanctum for which I am looking. I have gotten some good advice on this thread, have looked about MA schools-programs, and matching PhD advisors (irrespective of institution). I have a laundry list . Anyhow, best wishes on your program there under Mazur and the corresponding GSE mentor. -E

Ah, right, I forgot about Prof. Eric Mazur! Yes, he is quite active in physics education research. And, as for the other, thanks for the Boston University science education link! I am committing to finding a professor with the strongest possible overlap, and not necessarily that the program has a science education program (which is important at the MA level), as FCx pointed out. Anyway, thanks. -E

Ah, yes, I understand what you mean. Thanks for the response.

Hi! Thank you for your timely response. I think you definitely nailed it when you wrote, ``look at the research the professors are doing and see if it aligns.'' I want to study for a Ph.D. and be a researcher, but, I also want to be qualified enough to be an AP science teacher (in case I have a change of heart and move into teaching), too, which is why I inquired on this forum about strong science education programs, which do both, teach the MA/PhD students both science and pedagogy, so the candidate can be strong in both. (For example, top of the best mathematics education programs rigorously teach both, so, I am looking for such places). Haha, no, I did not take it the wrong way, I, too agree that as for a master's degree, it is unlikely worth attending a top school and amassing an avalanche of debt. I have found two or three professors with whom I want to work, but, the schools in which they are embedded are quite nebulous to me because I have so little experience with the nomenclature ``school of education''. Anyhow, your response did help. I suppose that in addition to finding the right advisor, I want to take the ``right'' courses. I want to avoid the extreme of `all pedagogy', as most education schools are, even if they have a science education track. -EA

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read this post. I have sifted through looking for its existence elsewhere, about six pages, and have not come across this. Do we know about the best science education programs in America? US News does not categorize this area. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics at a top-twelve school (but, believe me, I am not `top-twelve' material; I formed the all-important bottom-half of our department's bell-curve to `help' the talented students), and want to enter an education program that offers a well developed specialization in science education. Do we know of such places? Is it Berkeley or Michigan or someplace else? It is hard to navigate US News rankings because `science education' is an unlisted domain perhaps because that kind of specialization science departments individually administer on their own. I made a list of potential programs but then it became threadbare through more research. So, I am turning here to this well-vetted forum. For example, Stanford is ranked No. 4 in America in EDUCATION (GRE 631/719 and a bevy of Nat'l Acad. of Educ. scholars) while U.C. Berkeley is ranked No. 12 (GRE 612/631 and many fewer NAE scholars), and both have curriculum and instruction programs. However, Stanford does not appear to have a science education Ph.D. thread, barely three professors engage in science, and it appears there is no science education institute attached to that university (but allows its Stanford SUSE students to take classes at Berkeley GSE...?). Berkeley, however, boasts a throng of science specialists, maintains a science program called SESAME, and an institute fronts it, Lawrence Hall of Science, which is a major center of informal science education practice and research. Harvard GSE has a grand reputation, but has just two professors working in the area (both appear to be psychologists, not physicists), no science education Ed.D. program, but collaborates on education issues with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. There also does not appear to be any kind of science education culture at HGSE beyond the Ed.M curriculum and instruction candidates. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) has a distinct science education degree, three professors in it, and graduate classes in science education. Washington (Seattle), Maryland (College Park), and Colorado (Boulder) universities have active, rigorous, and well-known physics education research groups, but they administer science education through their physics departments. I do not want to go that route. Once was enough {wipes forehead}. I have been obsessed with physics since the age of 15, have had a job in it, and it is my mental gatekeeper, but, I do not have the mettle to go through a physics Ph.D. program and the heinous curriculum it entails (e.g., Berkeley's science education curriculum demands 9-12 physics credits of its candidates, but a physics department requires the full 30 credits all in the said major; and I am looking for a humane mix of science and pedagogy). So, if anyone know about very good science education programs or how to read in between the US News graduate education school rankings to extrapolate which universities are most promising in a science specialty, I would sincerely appreciate a response, any response. I am curious to know which ones form the best. -E.A.