“Pedagogy is complex . . . and needs to be thought about from various points of view,” and other reflections on CIRCLE’s new e-book appeared in a recent story in Ampersand, Washington University’s Arts & Sciences newsletter. The book, Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in the STEM Disciplines, recently published by the University Libraries with funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, is the outcome of a 2012 CIRCLE conference that provided the first opportunity for cognitive and learning scientists to come together with discipline-based education researchers and STEM faculty to discuss innovative approaches to teaching in the STEM disciplines.
The Ampersand article includes reflections on teaching by co-authors including Susan Fitzpatrick, biochemist and president-elect of the McDonnell Foundation, who notes that the book is a bridge between the “parallel universes” of these different disciplines concerned with teaching and learning. CIRCLE conference organizer Gina Frey, chemistry professor and Teaching Center executive director, observes that “Pedagogy is complex . . . and needs to be thought about from various points of view”–and notes that the book’s electronic format allows the reader to think from various perspectives by quickly moving among linked chapters and ideas.
As Fitzpatrick remarks, the book is “a beginning” for future discussions among experts in learning. And it is also a beginning for the University Libraries, as Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in the STEM Disciplines was their first published e-book!