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Award I Level II, the Outstanding Science Teacher Educator of the Year Award, recognizes the individual achievements and contributions of persons spanning more than ten years in their career service.
This year's awardee for Award I Level II is Dr. Julie Luft, Professor of
Science Education at Arizona State University. She graduated from the
University of Iowa in 1994, after teaching middle and high school science for 5
years. Dr. Luft has also held appointments at the University of Arizona and the
University of Texas at Austin.
As an educator and a researcher, it is important to Dr.
Luft that her work impact science classrooms. As a result, a significant amount
of her time is spent with teachers, district science coordinators, and
organizations on the development and implementation of courses and programs for
science teachers. This has resulted in her development and implementation of, to
list a few, a Master’s program to certify science teachers, an induction program
for science teachers, and graduate courses that develop the next generation of
science teacher educators.
Her current focus is preservice teacher education and she
is leading an interdisciplinary team that is creating a personalized approach
that prepares secondary science teachers. Along with a passion for science
teacher education, she is committed to studying and examining the effects of
novel teacher education programs. Her research in the area of science teacher
education began with an examination of teachers observing and learning from each
other, and expanded to studies of teachers working in diverse settings and
teachers learning to create inquiry based lessons. More recently, her work has
been focused on the development of beginning secondary science teachers. She and
her research team are currently following approximately 100 beginning secondary
science teachers for 5 years. This study is funded by the National Science
Foundation.
Dr. Luft has written numerous research articles, book
chapters, and editorials, and she has co-edited books that are on-line and free
to all science educators. She has served as a board member and President of
ASTE; an Associate Editor for the Electronic Journal of Science Education,
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and School Science and Mathematics; and
she is currently the Research Director of the National Science Teachers
Association, on the Board of NSTA, and the NSTA representative to the NARST
Board.
In honor of this
recognition, Dr. Luft receives an inscribed plaque and $1,000 from Carolina
Biological Supply. |
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