IIT Professor Norman Lederman Named AAAS Fellow for Distinguished Leadership in Science Education
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Mathematics and Science Education Department Professor and Chair Norman Lederman was recently awarded the distinction of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers in recognition of meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications
Lederman was elected an AAAS Fellow for his “distinguished leadership in science education and outstanding research contributions to the understanding of teachers' knowledge and classroom use of the nature of science.”
Lederman joined IIT in 2001 to establish the Mathematics and Science Education Department (MSED). Since then, MSED has become a force locally, nationally, and internationally for discipline-based mathematics and science education, with an emphasis on how scientific inquiry can improve science teaching and learning. Internationally known for his research and scholarship on the development of students’ and teachers’ conceptions of nature of science and scientific inquiry, Lederman has studied pre-service and in-service teachers’ knowledge structures of subject matter and pedagogy, pedagogical content knowledge, and teachers’ concerns and beliefs. The author or editor of 10 books, including an elementary science teaching methods textbook, Lederman is the editor of the recently published Handbook for Research on Science Education. He has written 15 book chapters and published more than 200 articles in professional refereed journals. In addition, Lederman has made more than 500 presentations at professional conferences and meetings around the world.
The 531 new AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on December 18, 2009. New Fellows will also be recognized on February 20, 2010, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer.
Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list. The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (stke.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.
