Mentioned on listserv.

A recent post on several listservs[1] mentioned 32 education blogs. Listed was this blog, which hasn't been updated in a while. In the past year I've begun a position as an assistant professor in physics & science education at CSU, Chico. Over the next weeks I hope to update with topics related to recent readings and current research interests.

Current research interests:
- designing open-ended curriculum
- understanding the genesis and development of scientific representations
- analogies as representations (generated analogies as models)
- scientific argument

Underlying all of these topics is the distinction between logic and understanding-- both the cognitive/brain side of things (why it is that proofs are not convincing? what kinds of narratives are convincing?) and the socially-mediated side of things (what counts as a proof? to what communities? how does that reflect what it means to 'understand' in science?).

Particulary intriguing (& related to the research interests) right now is Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment, Giere's work on representation, and studies from conversation analysis & discourse analysis on how to extract meaning from utterances.

[1] Hake, R.R. 2008. "Thirty-two Education Blogs," AERA-L post of 7 Nov 2008 16:38:18-080; online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives; abstract only to AERA-A, AERA-B, AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-GS, AERA-H, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, AP-Physics, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, DrEd, EdResMeth, EvalTalk, IFETS, Math-Learn, Math-Teach, Net-Gold, Physhare, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, PsychTeacher (rejected), RUME, STLHE-L, TeachEdPsych, TIPS, & WBTOLL-L.